G.P. Chopper Sculptures

Greg Parigian and I were friends in junior high. Until about 6 years ago, I hadn't seen or talked to him since 1969. If you scroll down in the right column, you'll find a picture of us on our chopped stingrays that was once used for this blog's header. Greg sent a couple of emails with photos the other day. The text below is combination of them explaining the chopper sculptures he made in the 70's.

"Back in the early 70's I made some Harley chopper sculptures. I was selling and trading them for Harley parts to Hells Angels and Satan's Slaves. I would sketch their bike and then make a sculpture of it.

I think I made about 50 of them, but only saved one. I would sign them by putting a "P" on the rear wheel. The sculptures where all about 18" long and 12" tall. They had no bolts or nuts in them, they were all just metal I bought in the metal yard. They were welded together with gas torch and do not remember if I ever brazed any of them.

I was living in Canoga Park at the time and one of my neighbors was a guy they called big Louie. He was then the president of the Satan's Slaves. He rode a really cool bike, a chopped Knucklehead with a extended springer. I made one of his bike that was really nice. Some of them were clear coated. I also made them for other club members. Some of these guys were really scary. But they always paid me or gave me what I wanted in trade. I almost collected enough parts to build a flathead 80". - Greg

Two degrees of separation. Here's a photo of Satan's Slave Louie. I think I grabbed it from the Satan's Crate blog and believe it's from a Easyriders in the 80's. -CK

Anybody out there seen or have or seen one of Greg's sculptures? If you have something like it, look for a "P" or "GP" on the rear wheel.

Happy Mama's Day

Mamas, treat 'em right, or else!

Bombay Buzzard

I forgot to post this photo (for the story below), I stole from Irish Rich awhile ago. It clearly shows Buzzard with the Bombay Taxi Horn. I cleaned it up and tweaked it. Sorry Rich.

The Buzzard Mann Connection

Laid Back Jammin. Roth's pal Buzzard was featured in one of his "The Country's Grooviest Bike People" Posters. Note the antique bulb horn on the left side pullbacks. Was he the first to build six-bends? This bike is Bitchin! and there's a good reason this shot looks like a David Mann painting.


Buzzard in a early Choppers Magazine Wheelie Prones ad. It's a somewhat confusing ad for risers and slugs. Extending and trimming wide glide trees and legs seemed to be his specialty. He had also placed a few ads in the Beg Borrow and Steal classified section promoting these services. Buzzard later wrote an article on the subject for the Nov. '68 issue.


David Mann circa 1969. I remember seeing one of those ads stating that Buzzard was selling his bike since he was off to the "Joint", but can't find it. I also read somewhere that David Mann was the guy that bought it. For the longest time I didn't put the two together. Dave lost the front brake.


Dave and the bike in 1970. Now painted black featuring an SU carb, drag pipes, longer forks, and Finned Dish Pans.


Here you can clearly see a large brass horn mounted on the bars.


Art imitates life. Dave even used the bike as inspiration for this later Easyriders center spread art. The six-bend pullbacks, unique high pipes, and fork boots give it away. Note the entry info taped to pillar.


Later, when it was featured in Choppers Magazine Aug. '73 it sported a 20" over D&D springer and frame. This article never mentions that the bike was once owned by Buzzard. It does mention him as his friend and the builder of the Ankh sissy bar and pullbacks. I believe this sissy bar was on the bike when Buzzard owned it, but the additional side supports are not in the top photo. The article states the brass horn as being from a Bombay Taxi and questions how Dave acquired it. It also states that since the shoot, Dave had gone back to the original H-D frame and wide glide. What really puzzles me, I don't recall Easyriders ever doing a feature on Dave's bike?

Update

This familiar shot was recently posted on The Shame of it All blog. It shows a different horn on the bars. The top Buzzard photos look to be the larger Bombay Taxi horn.

4 $ALE

Vintage Ironhead Sportster Forks (Sold)

Off a 1972 XLCH (last year for the drum brake and the steel lower legs), identical to a '71 and similar to the earlier ones all the way back to '52. These are probably some of the coolest skinny forks you can run on a Harley. They have very thin lower legs. 7/8" stem. (Harley used this style on '71 & '72 Super Glides but, with a 1" stem). Includes the small rubber boots (not shown). For extra $, I can provide the axle and riser mount if you what them too. Email me for more info: ckallasart@gmail.com

If they don't sell, they' ll go up on Ebay.

All the coolest hep cats dig these forks!

As seen on Sonny's bike! Good excuse to run this cover.


Same bike from HA 69. Yeah, I posted this one before.

(Update), I'm pleased to say that Jerimiah from Love Cycles snatched the forks. He's one guy that will put them to good use. I'm looking froward to seeing them on his Knuckle.

Sonny Barger...

rode some very cool machines.
Here's my top picks:


Sonny B. aboard a perfect Knucklehead Bob Job in 1956. Note the high mounted mid foot pegs.



Knuckle in a wishbone, Late '50's. Dick Hirschberg's Pan that was shown in a 1960 Hot Rod magazine looked very similar.


I believe this is the same Knucklehead redone and now with dual carbs


After blowing the motor, it was rebuilt, this time using a pan


A very cool half Bob half Chop straight leg Pan (date unknown).


In the mid 60's he seem to mostly ride Sportsters. Here on a '66. I've seen other pics on a '65.


Ralph aboard a '67 E-Glide that's under going transformation and again, I'm loving it!


In Hells Angels '69 a shovel with a Sportster front fork. This is probably the first bike I'd ever seen with the front pipe going out the left. Didn't see anybody do this again until years later. This bike would totally fit in today. The guys in Japan are building bikes like this now.


Does it get any better than this? It's the yellow Pan again, credited as 1960. It's high on my list of top 10 favorite bikes of all time. The only change I'd make are the pipes, which you can't see from this side. According to a Hunter S. Thompson documentary, Hunter took this bitchen photo.

An Old Man Ponders

Sportsters are for Sissies

Girlie Bikes? Apparently these guys didn't get the memo.

Hollister Photo Exposed

The following was inspired by some recent discussions on the Wing Nuts site.

By now I would think that anybody who's into motorcycles knows this famous photo was staged.

July 7, 1947, staged photo of Eddie Davenport in Hollister, CA. Somewhere I once saw the other unused photos from the photo shoot.

What's always interested me about the photo was the bike. The chromed headlight with Flanders bars and risers was the first thing I noticed. Then I noticed the missing tank shifter. No biggie, lots of dudes updated their bikes. Then I realized that the year was 1947 and Harley's didn't have foot shifts until 1952! A closer look revealed that the owner of the bike had installed a B&H foot shift set up.


Clues that something interesting was a foot (pun intended).

B&H had only started making these kits in 1946, making this bike one of the few around that had the hot set up. What were the chances that of all the bikes at Hollister, they would grab one that had this somewhat rare and cool modification?


The B&H kit. I was originally shocked and disappointed to see that B&H had invented the clutch booster (mouse trap), that H-D later used. The list of innovations that Harley has adopted/ripped from the after market is a long one.

In case you never heard the story of the staged photo here's what happened according to August 'Gus' Deserpa, the guy standing behind the bike with hands in pockets.

"I was projectionist by trade. I worked at the Granada Theater, which was on the corner of Seventh and San Benito. I would have got off work around 11 p.m.. My wife came to pick me up, and we decided to walk up Main Street to see what was going on.

I saw two guys scraping all these bottles together, that had been lying in the street. Then they positioned a motorcycle in the middle of the pile. After a while this drunk guy comes staggering out of the bar, and they got him to sit on the motorcycle, and started to take his picture.

I thought 'That isn't right', and I got around against the wall, where I'd be in the picture, thinking that they wouldn't take it if someone else was in there. But they did anyway. A few days later the papers came out and I was right there in the background.

They weren't doing anything bad, just riding up and down whooping and hollering; not really doing any harm at all."

More Sutherland Brothers Photos

Once again some photos from my buddy Gary Sutherland. I'll let him do the talking.

Here we go...
We took these color shots in the Haight district in SF in the late 60s, can't recall exactly.

This chick seems to have had the first cell phone.

Lar just returned from Nam so it was probably early 69. Back then bikes were crude... even as late as 69. This was before Altamont. Notice the poorly rendered death head on the first color photo.


Gypsy Jokers and HA

Wild trike was motivated by a big block Olds.

The last color shot was taken at the Atlanta Pop Festival, July of 69... always wondered if this guy got lost... seems out of place for the redneck environs of Georgia. This was before the release of Easy Rider and we know how that film ended.

What's she smoking? Bare feet and hot pipes, a bad mix.

Btw, I found a notation on one of the knuck photos saying the total cash outlay was $1,997 total.

From Roth's Choppers Magazine 1967

Big Mother on the Creepy Crawler. Also used as a poster from "Some of the Country's Grooviest Bike People" series. When I saw it in Roth's ads, it was amongst my earliest exposure to choppers.

Pig was also in a poster but not this shot. He built a trike that was featured in a later issue.

Sutherland Bros. HA Photos 1966

Hell's Angels Run Bakersfield, CA. from Gary S.

These were shot by Gary's brother Larry, a year later at the same location as the LIFE magazine photos that have been circulating the blogs.

Oh my God there's 9 of them! Can't a brother get a break? One dude wants to split while the other's calmly taken his time. Looks to be a different bar in this shot.

Iron Horsemen were back again with the Angels. The kid from the last shot has had enough. I hope it's just the age of the photo, as the 4 Aces looks a hell of a lot more run down in 66.

More of the same. After 66', I believe the Angels gave up on Bako.

More photos on the way from Gary so, stay tuned!