Our Caribbean reporter was recently blessed with the opportunity to ride to Sturgis from the east coast with Billy Lane, the creator behind Choppers Inc. Billy and Jose partnered with Roger Bourget for a Discovery Channel adventure to build a couple of bikes and tear up the streets between the east coast and the Badlands. The wild aspect of this show was the combination and comparison of Bourget’s state of the art industrial machine shop and Billy’s blacksmith Chopper building warehouse where wild components are fabbed with a torch, a hammer and by hand. Billy recently lost the tips of a couple of his fingers in an open belt drive. He’s a man, and a wild chopper fabricator, who does it his way, with his mits, then rides the shit outta the machine he creates. The true test of a man and his abilities.
Jose, put this brief interview together with the newest Discovery Channel star:1
Bikernet: What do you like doing at the shop the most?
BL:I like to build custom bikes, that’s my favorite thing to do. Unfortunately, it’s the one thing I have the least time to do.
Bikernet: What do you like to do that is not related to bikes ?
BL:Besides bikes, I like to surf and work out, I could give up bikes and surf for the rest of my life…and I really love bikes…
Bikernet: What’s in the future for you and Choppers Inc ?
BL:Discovery called us and they want another TV show, I’m going to start riding the Wall of Death with Rhett Rotten in October, another Hubless bike. We’ve been talking to Camel about building for them next year. That would be great .
Bikernet: We all have grown so much in the past years, did you expected this?
BL:I’ve always expected my business to grow, but the last year has been insane. I’m hesitant to even think about next year.
Bikernet: I feel kinda bummed sometimes, now that everyone and their mother builds choppers, How do you feel ?
BL:Everyone isn’t doing choppers, it’s just that the public has been duped into thinking that anything with long forks is a chopper. There’s a lot of garbage out there. I laugh at shops that last week were called X-Cycles and now are called X-Choppers. Fuck you people for that !
Bikernet:What’s your favorite bike, of the ones you’ve built?
BL:Of all my bikes I like my Blue Shovelhead the best, kicker only, basic, no nonsense. My Hubless bike is by far, the best bike I’ve ever built. I haven’t turned a wrench on it since I finished it, but I like the Shovel best… ( the Hubless was rode from North Carolina to Sturgis and the Blue from Melbourne to Sturgis, both made it !)
Bikernet: How do you feel about your Discovery ride experience ?
BL:The Discovery ride was unreal. We had such a great time, twenty plus speed junkies does it for me. That was one of those once-in-a lifetime things that I’ll never forget. I just watched it on TV last night and laughed my ass off.
Bikernet: People are generally so afraid of rigids, can you convince them not to be ? What do you think makes a good riding rigid ?
BL:Rigids are so much better than Softails. I don’t consider any bike with Softail suspension a chopper, but that’s just my opinion. I tell people who want Softails to go someplace else. That usually convinces them to stick around. A bike needs proper seat height and positioning, proper foot control and handlebar placement, and a reasonable amount of trail to work well.
Bikernet: Now that you’ve been in so many magazines, which is the one that you would really love to be in, besides Penthouse ?
BL:Well… Howard and I have a running joke about me being in Hot Bike. We are planning on two shoots in Biketoberfest . A Hot Bike cover would be nice.
Bikernet: Any message to the people of Puerto Rico ?
BL:I’m going to come to PR to surf, so don’t snake me !!!
Bikernet: If you were not doing this (bike building) what would you be doing ?
BL:If I weren’t doing bikes…. I’d be a musician, a pro surfer, or a pimp.
Bikernet: Who’s your favorite builder, besides yourself, today and why ?
BL: My favorite builder is probably Chica, he’s got class. Period.–
