Hi, my name is Dave, most folks that know me well, know me as Scooter Trash, (there's only one), and if you stick with my story long enough you'll know why. In the way of some simple background, I had a "normal" upbringing, except that somewhere along the way I developed a healthy (or, UNhealthy in some peoples minds, you know Who I'm taking about) interest in Motorcycles. That was some thirty three years ago. Through the subsequent years I went through most of the same changes, and developmental challenges that most of us do. This is to include buying, modifying, riding, and often times crashing motorcycles of all description, eventually reaching the conclusion that "I can build a better bike than these assholes". After much failed experimentation, many false starts, and a tremendous amount of frustration, we came up with our first "Chopper" which may or may not have nearly killed us because of poorengineering, or faulty parts, (also known as BRAKES).

We'll get there - A sneak preview of what this is all about. That first wonderful kick...

At any rate, I guess what I am attempting to say in a humorous way is that I took a-lot of shots at building my own bike, and, through that experience, learned many lessons, some very expensive, in motorcycle maintenance, engineering, and repair. You should speak to my mom about her dining room table doubling for a workbench on which to put heads, and, rocker boxes together because "it's cold out in the garage!" But that's a different story.

    Skip ahead twenty, or twenty five years, marriage has crashed worse than that '70 ironhead I put under a guardrail, living alone in a two bedroom house with no garage, I woke up one morning, and thought "I think I'd like to have a sixties style chopper." So, without really noticing it I began to pay attention to just about every chopper, and custom bike I saw, noticing Motor and transmission combinations, frames, actually all of it was being processed in an effort to decide what I wanted. I was, and still am, riding a Softail, and knew I wanted something radically different than what I had, otherwise, whatdafuck's the point.

It takes a ling time to get from word to deed...but it looks like it's all worth it to me. -Warren

Then one day while takin a dump, perusing my new Easyriders magazine, (they were still pretty much a biker's rag at that time) I came across an ad for a poster that read "Own an American Classic", the poster was of Captain America, the world famous chopper from Easy Rider…(that's a cult film from a.d.1969 about two friends searching for America, and Life in general, for all yuppies, rubbies, youngsters, and all billet/factory chrome laden garbage barge ridin uninformed wannabes, gee I shouldas, and wish I couldas that went HUH ? at the mention of the title of the film.) That poster ad jumped up and slapped me in the face just as sure as if it was my ex-old lady. I decided at that moment that that was exactly what I wanted to build. It was low, sleek, radical, and completely overstated. In other words, to quote my good friend Will Whaler, "PERFECT!" Although it wouldn't be an original work, I knew right then that was what I HAD to put together, and I started that day.

    I sat down and began to write down what I wanted in the way of specifics on this bike, and came up with some pretty interesting and ambitious items. For openers, I decided that I was going to put up something I could ride on a pretty regular basis, so safety was immediately an issue. I've ridden plenty of bikes with empty spools on the front, but it ain't nineteen seventy one any more, and front brakes are sixty to seventy percent of your stopping power, so the first "accessory" I decided on was a disc front brake. Least I could do.

The lovely Wendy takes a pose on The Captain at the Rat's Hole Chopper Show in Sturgis 98.

I next decided that turn signals, and marker/running lights could be easily disguised, and would be a nice item to have, also for safety, and that a disc rear brake would also be in order, as long as I did it in front, why not in the rear as well, most folks will never notice. That was about the extent of my actual planning, as far as putting stuff on paper. Next, I ordered the damn poster, I figured I was going to need some sort of model, or example to work from, and headed to the video store to see if I could put my hands on a copy of the film. It had been a good number of years since I had seen it, and after all, what better example could you have than the movie bike itself. (Boy was I in for an education). More after dinner.

Continue to Chapter 2