While he was a student at Cal Poly Pamona, Mike’s ride was a 400/4 Honda. “What was so cool was, I could ride right up to the building my class was in and didn’t have to hassle with the overcrowded parking lots,” he said. “Eventually I laid it down on the I-10 and then I got rid of it. I just wheeled it into the parking lot at college and put a For Sale sign on it. I thought then my riding days were done, because laying it down on the I-10 was an experience I’ll probably never forget.”

But his riding days weren’t really over, not by a long shot. After some serious surgery in 2002, Mike decided his next bike would be a Harley. “I used to frequent Glendale Harley-Davidson, in Glendale, California, because that’s where I purchased my first Harley, an FXDL Low Rider. It was fun to finally hear the sound that only a Harley could make,” he said. “And then one day I was going in to put more dollars down the drain on my FXDL, and I saw this Softail Deuce sitting on the floor. It was on consignment, and the color had already been done, but everything else was pretty much stock.”

Mike fell in love with the bike, paintjob and all, but he went on the Internet to search out his other options. “I went on the Orange County Choppers’ website, I went on Jesse James’ website, and I found the very venders that they use are all right here in Southern California. All I needed to do was have a checkbook and go see these people. I’m not Shaquille O’Neill or Magic Johnson with big- time bucks who want a stretched ride that’s totally out of this world. I just took a stock bike and in my mind I built a one-of-a-kind. ” Mike said everything blossomed from there. “My passion is riding, and I wanted a one-of-a-kind ride. I participated in the Love Ride and all these charity events, and I saw how people would change the look of their ride by putting on these different things.”

Mike wanted that too, so he contacted a good friend from Glendale Harley who turned him on to Performance Machine. “PM is also just down the freeway from me, and I spent big bucks with them,” he said. “There are so many PM parts on my bike. I just went on their website and looked at the different parts. The wheels were perfect because the wheels on the bike when I bought it were spokes and they were an absolute headache to keep clean. So I went on the website and thought those Tantrum wheels would look really good, plus they’re a heck of a lot easier to maintain than spokes. You can pretty much just wipe them down. I have a Legends Air Ride Suspension with a Heartland kit on the rear.”

For the engine, he went to Bennett’s Performance in Long Beach. Is Mike happy with his engine? “My motor is just incredible,” he said. “It has a 95 cubic-inch big-bore kit and the components are JE Pistons and Branch Flometric heads, which are diamond cut. I’ve got a Screamin’ Eagle Competition ignition with an rpm limiter of 6200 rpm. The intake manifold is ported with a polished 48mm Mikuni carb. I’ve got Bassini pipes, and I just love the sound of those pipes. They’re awesome. The engine was performance tuned to make 109hp with 103 pounds-foot of torque. It’s a monster. It’s so cool to get up on the freeway and when I’m just cruising at 65 and there’s some jerk being a jerk in their car and I can just crank on the gas and get the hell out of their way because I’ve got plenty of power. I have a Barnett’s primary with a Scorpion clutch for the primary drive.”

Mike left the paintjob alone, but as for bodywork on Fire Hog, the front fender was lowered and molded and all the rivets and seams at attachment points were removed for a cleaner look. The already stylish Deuce tank was basically left alone although the tank cap was shaved off and a flush-mount cap was installed.

As the fourth generation owner of his family’s dry cleaning business, Pantororium Dry Cleaning in Sierra Madre, California [www.pantorium.com], Mike has had the good fortune to meet a lot of leather specialists. His favorite, whose name he won’t part with, supplied him with the leather for his seat, which happens to be one of his favorite aspects of the bike. “The seat is by Danny Gray [www.dannygray.com],” he said. “The skin is Canadian deer dyed chocolate,” Mike said, “but on the reverse side it’s beet-red suede. When I took the skins to Sherry Clark at Danny Gray’s, she said, ‘You know, we’ve got all these exotic skins…where did you get this?’ And I told her, ‘from my leather supplier.’ ”

Three years ago, Mike entered Fire Hog in eight shows in Southern California, and took first place in all eight shows, he said. “I don’t think I get invited to shows anymore because I was winning too much.” Mike rode Fire Hog almost daily until last October when he broke his hip. Since he’s been recuperating, he’s missed commuting to work on his bike. “It’s just a three-and-half-mile trip, but just that feeling of riding…it does something to my mind, it gives me stress relief. My hip is finally on the mend, the physical therapy is kind of tough, but I still go out there to the garage and try and get up there on the bike. It’s all about putting my body weight on my left leg. I’ve got too much money invested in it to take a chance in laying it down. I’d rather be under the bike if it was going to go down.”