Funny how when you break it down about what a builder/rider builds for them to ride, it’s not some overdone cliché of every ridiculous trend every customer thinks they want in their build. As one builder well known for 360mm rear tire bikes with giant cube paint-shaker engines when they were hip beyond hip told me when I asked him what bike of his he liked riding, he told me about his slightly hopped-up, slightly clapped out FXR that still wore the paint of various bikes he had accumulated parts from over a long period of time. His only question to me that said it all was, “Have you ever spent a day riding a 360mm rear tire bike on a back road and enjoyed it?” Been there, done that. It’s not pretty. Nuff said.

 

  John’s bike he named Low Down aka Cherry Pie is not some clapped-out looking runner, but a 1981 Harley-Davidson Low Rider that’s a very traditional take on a vintage chop with exquisite modern day execution. This bike is far from what rolled off a Harley showroom floor as one of the last of AMF’s lineup of bikes and more of a modern bobber with classic underpinnings. Oh you can still see if you squint a bit what made a Low Rider a Low Rider, but everything’s just been touched, re-shaped, fabricated, and modified to take it out of the vintage class and into the custom world of today as simply a class act

 

  And no, John’s not running a stock, nicely rebuilt AMF 1340 Shovelhead and calling it a classic day, but a 93-inch Shovel featuring bumped-up compression (10:1), Evo oiling upgrade, and a punchier .600 lift cam along with regular old intake and exhaust upgrades for both performance and looks. With the absolute minimum of unnecessary doo-dads on board, it’s a goer as well that loves to pull through the gears while not breaking a sweat. Gangsters like their getaway machines to have some muscle and this baby is nicely ripped. The cloth-covered spark plug wires coming out of the Dynatek Twin Fire II coil coyly mounted between the pulleys of the open belt drive give the vintage vibe without overdoing it, at least to my personally appreciative eyes. Those pulleys even have a story to tell with words engraved on their faces like the rear pulley’s “Whiskey, Women, Weed Has Made Me Low Down” declaration.

 

  Keeping the frame dimensions basically stock is what drew me to this bike, Yeah, it’s got a fabbed leaf spring front suspension unlike any Motor Company stocker, but it not only doesn’t lookout of place, it adds just the right amount of custom spice to the recipe. The chromed vintage-style fully enclosed rear shocks do double duty in this application. They look so much nicer than a regular old coil-over and just keeping some semblance of ride quality with rear suspension surely makes it a more fun rider when you just want to ride until you’ve got it out of you instead of having it beaten out of you like on a rigid. Oh you’re right, it’s not plush like a stock bagger or whatever, but it is a hell of a lot better than just tubing plus it looks way cool to me.

 

   Laced wheels with reasonably-sized tires look classy and approachable. No new learning exercise required to master this bike on the streets as long as you are a one-brake kinda guy. While it looks cool to a lot of you, I don’t find good brakes front and rear in any way offensive like I don’t need my carb hidden. But, it’s John’s bike and you never tell a gangster what to do unless you gave up giving a damn a long time ago. A true gangster needs sorta scary handlebars, at least to common folk, and the apes John fabbed for this bike are sure to make the average soccer mom or Home Depot customer stay a car length or two extra away from what their reptile brain tells them is potentially trouble.

 

   Where John really pulled this off and showed his innate sense of design is in the red and white paintjob that’s busy, but it isn’t. Somehow it just enhances every single aspect of the bike with what I look as a nod to ‘50s Schwinn cruiser paint schemes. Nothing looks overdone even though it’s fairly intricate and that’s nearly impossible to pull of, but it’s here right in front of you. Maybe you don’t, but I absolutely love it and am not afraid to say it. Little things like the chromed fender stay/sissy bar are living in their own world and could hang on a wall just by themselves. Surprisingly they blend, and I mean really blend, in perfectly to the overall design without crying out for individual attention and spoiling the flow. Same goes for the tooled leather seat. It just looks nice and it looks exactly right.

 

   John lives, breaths and eats hot rods and choppers 24/7 and his personal rider showcases what’s going on inside his head at any given time. As he says on his website (http://www.gangsterchoppers.com/index.php), “I consider myself lucky to be in the custom bike industry but at the same time, it’s not luck that got me here. I am very good at what I do and my daily performance for 25 years is proof. I continue to learn, train and develop new ideas.” Sounds like the rare gangster with a future to me.