Now fifty-four, He’s not using bubble gum to plug holes these days, and he’s upgraded from mini-bikes to Harleys and custom choppers. The bike you see here is his own, but it was built in his driveway, not his shop. This one was created before Bandit Bikes officially opened.
“The build took place in my driveway,” Bandit recalled. “Originally, there was a builder in town—I commissioned him to build a bike for me, but he stiffed me. He had the frame painted, and I got the motor, transmission and wheels from him. After over a year of waiting, I just finally went and got my bike. I’d already paid him in advance, but I went and picked up the bike and finished building it myself.” Bandit was driving a truck at the time. He traveled all week, came home on weekends, rolled the bike out into his driveway and started modifying. “It took me two years to do it like that,” he said of his Saturday/ Sunday build.
“I wanted an old school chopper with the flow of new technology,” he said. He accomplished his goal, as you can see by the seventies style bike pictured here. The wide tires and rims and the old school paint job are mixed with modern conveniences, including a digital speedometer mounted on the rear cylinder of the engine, which keeps the handlebars clean.
He’s put over 28,000 miles on the Bandit Bike so far. “The last big trip was about a month ago,” he said. “We went from Tulsa to Albuquerque, Tucson and Tombstone, Arizona and back.” Miss Kimmie, the proprietress of the famous Crystal Palace Saloon in Tombstone, liked Bandit’s bike so much that she asked him to stay over for a photo shoot inside the bar, hiring models and a photographer for the occasion.
In this case, his models are his two favorite girls, Scooter and Pinto. Scooter’s a paralegal who rides a badass Dyna of her own. “I put a solo seat on it, rebuilt the front end, put a Stage II Screamin’ Eagle kit on it. I’m also adding pink custom LED lighting,” Bandit said.
Pinto’s a third grader who rides horses as well as Harleys. “She’s been riding since she was in diapers,” Bandit said proudly, “but she won’t get on a bike with anyone but her daddy.”
Though Bandit’s been customizing for decades, Bandit Bikes, LLC has been officially in business for four years, and they’re staying plenty busy with repairs, rebuilds and custom bike design. Bandit’s current projects include a Hell Ride tribute bike called “The Gent.” True to his mission statement, someone dreamed it, and Bandit’s building it.
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