Growing up in Connecticut where he worked on his first chopper in the early ‘60s, a ’47 Knucklehead belonging to his brother, that laid the spiritual design foundation for his future builds with a radical rake of 53-degrres with a 20”-over springer. Later he enrolled at Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music where he studied piano with hopes of becoming a rock star, but a spring break trip to Fort Lauderdale ended that angle of life with a permanent move to Florida. There he became an expert horse handicapper, a saloon owner, an entrepreneur, and an extremely successful ocean powerboat racer. After all that, it was kind of a surprise that he went back into making custom motorcycles as a full time business which he still does today at his Fort Lauderdale shop called Thunder Cycle Design. Speaking of handicapping, Eddie’s got the winning trifecta of being smart, clever, and talented going for him in basically everything he gets involved in and that’s why he’s one of the old guard that’s not only still standing, but adapting and thriving with every waking moment.

     Our Trotta feature bike called Goldflake 26 still carries the DNA of all of Eddie’s builds dating back to his brother’s Kunckle. Long, low, and swoopy with a flow that dictates how the wind reacts to it rather than the other way around, I think I finally have an idea of where this look comes from. Looking at the lead photo for this article, you can see the angled stance from the tall Chip Foose 26” front wheel smoothly flowing back and down just like the bow of a speeding Cigarette racer planning over the water with the transom sitting low. Yup, one uninterrupted design from bow to stern and I’m talking about the bike, not the boat. If this thing could float, under power (it’s got a 127” engine) it would cut the waves without even trying.

    There are lots of Eddie Trotta touches on Goldflake 26 that make a Trotta bike easy to pick out in a crowd of custom bikes, but there’s one thing that always separates a Thunder Cycle custom from others. Somehow Eddie always comes up with a paintjob that makes it his own. In this case it’s a really lovely metallic gold flake paint that exists in harmony with subtle black flame graphics. It’s just one of those paintjobs that keeps drawing you in more and more the closer you get. It never fights with the lines of the bike, but adds appropriate static interest.

    Eddie’s reinvented himself many times, but his bikes have simply constantly evolved in smooth style that only gets better with each one. If you like ‘em long, low, and quietly outrageous with a dose of real world rideability and everyday (or so) reliability, check out Eddie Trotta’s gallery of work at http://www.thundercycle.com/.