Highway Hooligan is hooking up with Chopper Dave! Chopper Dave is going to be kind enough to cast some shit for us, so I'm stoked to say the least. Here is a little about Chopper Dave:

I hate talking about myself, but here goes.

I have been working on and around motorcycles since 1989. I took a job running the parts department of a shop in the San Fernando Valley , CA - Vic's Custom Cycles. I spent a year working and learning the parts department. It was then that my obsession with vintage Harley-Davidson started. Luckily, Vic had more old parts than anyone around and I got the crash course there. Lookin’ back on it now, it was the best place for me to really learn.

In 1990 I moved to Arizona where I went to MMI, taking the '51 panhead that was my daily rider. For me it was basically a decent starting point to working on Harley-Davidsons. I had a big step up because I had been runnin’ the parts department of a shop. It left lots to be desired as you learn more real world motorcycle mechanics working on bikes in a shop than MMI can really teach you. This was also before the big explosion in the Harley-Davidson aftermarket that took place in the 90's. After graduating from MMI and after taking all the Harley classes I could, I went back to work at Vic's as a mechanic. I really couldn't see me fitting in with a dealership, not my deal.

Working on bikes at Vic's was a crash course in old Harleys. We worked on everything; knucks, pans, shovels, evos, sportys, and flatheads. It was the old stuff that I really loved and I was working with a mechanic named Dana Levine, meticulous mechanic who taught me more than just about anybody. This was a cool time as we were doing everything, restorations (one thing I really miss doing), choppers and fast custom street bikes.

A few years later I left Vic's to go to work at a new style shop. Mainly, I just worked on evos doing dress up work. While I was there, I was in an accident that changed my life. While I was on a bike, an old man turned left in front of me and crushed my ankle. The next four years was really spent healing and having failed surgeries to repair my ankle. During those years, I also opened a shop in North Hollywood called S.M.E., where I finished a chop on a ‘52 Chevy I owned, built a hand full of bikes, British and American, and also chopped the top on a '56 Mercury. It’s during this time that I bought a panhead that I have now since rebuilt completely five times over the past eight years.

I got a call from Vic again asking me to come back to work for him and I did. It was different but even better. I got to run the repair side of the shop and did all the motors and trannys for a two year period there. It was a good time; I did a couple resto's and built some neat stuff. I also raced my panhead on the flat track in Ventura during those years. It ruled. It’s during this period that my obsession with old motorcycle hotrod parts started and I first worked with sand cast aluminum parts.

After being there about 2 years I got a call from Jesse James offering me a chance to ride to Sturgis with him, Giuseppe Roncen and Indian Larry. Hell yes, I'll go! That trip changed my life yet again. I have memories from that trip that will be with me forever. RIP Indian Larry.

A few months later I started working at West Coast Choppers. I spent four years working there building the ultimate high end bikes. But I also built two versions of my panhead through those years. The last version being The Super Freak, as well as a rigid frame evo powered flat track bike. It was also during these builds that I started making my own parts for those bikes from cast aluminum. Pegs, oil tanks and air cleaners. The time there I learned more than I ever would have thought, doing lots of machine work and fab work.

September ’05, I left West Coast Choppers and have my own shop again, where I specialize in sand cast aluminum parts! I will continue to build bikes but the parts are where it’s at for me.

I am not out here to be known as a "Master Builder" or to become famous. I’m here to make the best quality parts that I can. I know that sand cast aluminum is old technology but I don't care, it’s what I love and for me that's where it's at.

Chopper Dave is one cool mother fucker. That dude inspires me when I talk to him...

I visited his site, those cast velocity stacks are the heat.

Damn! I wanna be Dave when I grow up

X2

chopper dave seems like a cool ass dude cant wait to see whats in store