The 13 Rebels Motorcycle Club is an historic, American Motorcycle Association sanctioned group founded in 1937 by Tex Bryant. The club was the inspiration for the movie The Wild One, which featured a cap-wearing Marlon Brando facing off against a goggle-wearing Lee Marvin in a big, 1950’s-style outlaw biker brawl. Brando plays Johnny, the leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, and Marvin is the grand poobah of rival gang The Beetles (in real life, The Boozefighters). The movie was supposedly based on actual events, but it was all a hoax, set up by Life magazine. The clubs were real though, and are still existence today. Members don’t wear that snappy headgear of yesteryear, and unlike in the movie, the 13 Rebels and the Boozefighters get along just fine, competing in races and socializing from time to time.

Lew “Cartoon” Cook helped found a couple of Rebels chapters in Northwest Arkansas. He’s a truck driver by trade, a Harley rider by nature and a 13 Rebels member for life. Originally from California, he’s now a resident of Rogers, Arkansas, though his work takes him all over the country. He stops in to visit friends every now and then, and it was on one of these trips that he stopped in to see an old buddy in the Seattle area. The guy was eager to show Cartoon his new Fat Boy, and Cartoon instantly bonded with the bike. As it turns out, the friend was already looking for a different model, having determined that the bike wasn’t for him. Before the visit was over, Cartoon owned the Fatty, which he loaded into his truck and took home.

He fed it and loved it and rode it, but after a several years, he began looking for a new ride. He loved the way his Fat Boy handled, but he just wanted something different. The problem was that he just couldn’t find anything that he liked as much as what he was riding. At this point, though, the Fatty was still almost completely stock, and Cartoon was a little tired of the red and black paint job. He looked at street bikes and Ultra Classics, but couldn’t find anything as comfortable as what he had. He was about to settle on a new custom Fat Boy, and asked his wife, LeeAnne (aka “Moonshine”) for her opinion.

“She walked into the shop, looked at the bike and asked me, ‘What on this bike would you change if you bought it?’ “Cartoon recalled. “I started naming off everything, and she said, ‘So, why don’t we just do that to your bike?’ I said, ‘Great idea.’ The next day, I started ordering parts.”

With the help of friends Grizzly, Crowbar and Jackpot (13 Rebels all), the customization began. “I supervised,” Cartoon laughed. The new incarnation of the bike took three months, and the renovation included the tins, front end, wheels, brakes, lights, spotlights, chrome calipers and chrome bullet lights.

What Cartoon loves most though, is the new look of the bike. Chromemasters in Nashville, Tennessee chromed the forks, wheels and hand controls. Cartoon added the cool-looking long fringed grips to the apes. What he’s most pleased with is the beautiful, Escalade Pearl White paint job, added by Mike Leonard (Kansas Mike) of Mike’s Auto Body and Classic Automotive in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. “I love the color pearl white, and I talked about painting it pearl white since the day I bought the bike,” Cartoon said.

The split tanks are adorned with a 13 Rebels Leap Cat racing logo from 1937. Back in the day, before cows started donating their hides in bulk to biker jackets, 13 Rebels members wore badass sweaters when they raced, with the trademarked cat emblem affixed to the front.

Cartoon said that the Fat Boy is still the best bike he’s ever ridden. He and Moonshine (who owns a ’05 Dyna Low Rider) head to the AMA Nationals in Kentucky every two years, and on alternating years they travel elsewhere. “Last year, we stopped at Poopy’s in Illinois, the bike museum in Anamosa, Iowa, and down to Des Moines to visit friends. It was about 1300 miles.” So far, the bike’s seen 30,000 miles, and with the upcoming trips Cartoon and Moonshine have planned, that speedo will be registering a lot more.

Cartoon stays busy with the 13 Rebels, and is involved in races, rides and charity events, like the upcoming Iron and Ink show in Avoca, Arkansas. The guys in the club are his friends and brothers, and he has the utmost respect for them. It’s obvious the feeling is mutual. When Cartoon gave up his lifelong smoking habit a few months ago (after a stroke), Rebels member Grizzly was so concerned for his well-being that he threatened bodily harm to anyone who gave the man so much as a shred of tobacco. I’ve met Grizzly, who’s a very nice guy with a quietly imposing presence. I promise, if he has anything to do with it, Cartoon’s going to be riding that Fat Boy for many smoke-free years to come.