Chuck Key turned tragedy into triumph when he rebuilt his 2002 Titan. Chuck, owner of Southern Performance Choppers in Bentonville, Arkansas, was involved in an accident in June, 2010. “I was just going too fast,” he said. “The roads here [in the Ozark Mountains] are real winding. I just lost control and hit a ditch. It was a two month recovery process, but I’m fine now.” Unfortunately, Chuck’s bike didn’t fare so well. It was completely totaled.

“I had bought the bike in Denver. It had a blue frame and blue sheet metal,” Chuck recalled. “When I was bringing it back, I saw a friend of mine’s truck parked outside a little bar in Missouri. I stopped in. Paul, the friend, came out to take a look at it and said, ‘That bike would look amazing if it was gunmetal gray and silver.’”

Chuck laughed. “I told him, ‘That’s a really great idea, Paul, but I just got this bike, and I can’t imagine changing a thing on it.’”

Sometimes, it takes a wreck to build a bullet. After the accident, Chuck remembered what Paul had said, and enlisted the help of an employee, Jeremy White, to help turn his wreckage into a rebuild. At only 20 years old, White is a key player in Chuck Key’s shop.

“Jeremy works for me full time. I also have a transmission shop, but the bike shop is his real love. We go to swap meets and other motorcycle related stuff. We also work on drag bikes. We’ve got a drag racing Harley-Davidson that Jeremy built in two weeks. For being only 20, he’s an amazingly talented individual,” Chuck said. “I’ve known Jeremy since he was nine years old. His grandpa is a friend of mine, and he used to work on Harleys. So Jeremy’s always been around them. He’s worked on motorcycles since he was 12 or 13 years old. One day, I was talking to his grandfather and said, ‘This kid needs to be in a shop.’ Eventually, I hired him.” This was Jeremy’s fifth rebuild, and his boss was pleased with the results.

“It’s a completely different bike,” Chuck said. “It has a ton of power and will do a complete vertical wheel stand and carry it. It’s one of the smoothest bikes I’ve ever had. It handles like a sport bike.” The only problem he encountered during the rebuild was a short in the taillight socket. Once that was repaired, he said, the bike runs flawlessly. He’s put about 2000 miles on it so far, and said, “I just cruise it — pretty hard, though.”

His favorite part of the bike is that gunmetal-gray-and-silver color scheme that his friend Paul suggested. “It really flows nicely,” Chuck said.

Chuck bought his first Harley 22 years ago, when he was 18. He currently has 14 bikes and projects going on. He’s enthusiastic about all of them, about Harleys in general and the Silver Bullet in particular. “I was just shooting for a very clean, fast and comfortable ride,” he said. “It’s all there, and more. The whole bike is more than I hoped for.”