Sam explained the how’s and why’s of the build to begin with. “The bike was built by Jimmy Todorovitch of Profile Cycles in Beaumont, California over a two-and-a-half year period. Jimmy works during the day at Quaid Harley-Davidson in Loma Linda, California, as the service manager and at night he works out of his garage turning out custom bikes. This is the third bike Jimmy has built for me over the last six years,” he said. “In 2010 the first bike Jimmy built for me won a big show in Sturgis and got us invited back in 2012 to compete in the AMD custom bike show. So Jimmy, Alberto [Sam’s painter], and I got together and decided what to build. My idea was to build something with an Old School feel, but using all-new technology. I wanted to have air ride and have it sit on the frame when parked. Jimmy came up with the design of the bike from the frame to the forks to the swing arm. He built everything from scratch ─ no drawings, just trial and error. Some things I would say yes or no to, but for the most part it was all Jimmy.”  

 

    Only first-class mechanicals were used in this build and one look at Jack Cofano’s photos will tell you that story loud and clear without having to read words. Oh you know, little things like a super top notch 113” Patrick Racing engine with Nigel Patrick’s proprietary round cylinders hooked up to BAKER 6-speed tranny with a trans brake.  “I believe that was the first one with a trans brake BAKER has done. It also uses an Auto Clutch which works similar to a centrifugal clutch on a mini bike, so no clutch lever or pedal,” said Sam. “The two most asked questions are ‘Where is the clutch?’ and ‘Where are the brakes?’ The bike has no front brake and the back brake is on the transmission’s output shaft so it looks like it has no brakes.” It has Sam’s required custom mono-shock air ride system and all the plumbing is hidden as is the wiring. The wheels are by Rampage Wheels, a 23” front and 18” rear. Jimmy didn’t stop there as he was a very busy lad fabricating or heavily modifying just about everything you see and the final result is a gratifying and satisfying design from tip to toe.

 

  Now here’s where the story take s a turn as Sam explained, “About the time the bike was getting ready for paint, we had a tragedy in my family. My oldest daughter lost our first granddaughter in pregnancy. She lives in the Midwest and we are here in California. My wife was there when it all happened and called me to say we had lost our angel. That was a month before we were supposed to be done. I was not thinking about building bikes after that. Then an inspiration came a few days later when I was having lunch with my painter, Alberto Ahumada at Onextreme Paint in San Jacinto, California, and told him what happened. He asked if I wanted to dedicate the bike to her and that’s when the name Lost Angel came to me. The whole paint job changed after that. It became more subtle and not so in your face. We decided to keep a two-tone theme and use Old School pinstriping. My daughter said the baby made her feel like she had butterflies in her stomach, so hidden in the pin stripping on the tank is a butterfly. There is also an angel in the hand-tooled seat built by Paul Cox. He did not want to do it until he heard what the bike was going to be. The paint job, including molding the entire frame, was done by Onextreme. It took an extra six months to finish the bike but well worth it.”

 

   But that’s not the ending yet as Lost Angel still has another story to tell, a story of total success in the custom motorcycle world. “We wanted to show what could be done by some guys with no names and no big shops. We have won every major show on the West Coast including America’s Most Beautiful Motorcycle at the 2013 Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, California,” said Sam. “We also won the same title for 2012 and 2011 with three different bikes and that’s something that has never been done before. We won best of show at Laughlin, the L.A Calendar show in Long Beach, Easyriders show in Sturgis and Las Vegas BikeFest. Everything we set out to do with this bike we have accomplished. We are all friends and we will do some more cool stuff in the future.” 

 

   Summing up this whole extraordinary experience, Sam said, “It started as one thing and turned into something else. I like everything about it and especially what it means to me and my family. I feel it is a tribute to my late granddaughter and she will be remembered for the rest of our lives. The silver lining is we have a healthy grandson now who will know his sister.”

 

   The old adage of a picture is worth a thousand words might be true in some cases, but if you’ve gotten this far, you know there’s a lot more to this story than visual pieces and parts. So far no one’s been able to take a picture of a soul and that’s exactly what would be missing from Sam Baldi’s story behind the story of a bike that honors a little lost angel’s soul and the family she touched for eternity.