Our staff often takes asphalt boiling poetic license with features, especially Bandit. It's as if he knows builders so well, they don't mind if he turns their story into a meth lab shop of horrors. But I discovered a note slipped under the seat of my FXR recently. “Don't let Bandit write the story,” it said in blood. “It'll ruin our chances of building a shop in this economy.” It was signed with a skull and crossed connecting rods.
I knew there was some history between Bob Tronolone and Bandit reaching back to the early '70s. I don't want to go there. This 29 Palms, Yucca Valley crew is kicking off a performance shop during tough times. Bob Tronolone has built bikes since some riders were kids. His partner, Larry Petri was recently laid off from Palm Springs H-D where he was boss of the service department.
Larry has been a biker all his life, and for several years ran High Desert Performance, rebuilding engines and building Bonneville record-breaking bikes. The two developed Chop N Grind Racing, the arch rival to Bikernet's 5-Ball Racing team.
Another side of this story is now unfolding in the high desert regions of Los Angeles. For years LA didn't have a motorcycle style like Frisco or Riverside had Denvers. But suddenly, we've recognized a hard-riding distinct custom style in Los Angeles and Bob and Larry have it nailed at their Chop N Grind facility. “It's called Chop N Grind Magic,” Bob told me.
It's all black, flat black over gloss black, tight, narrow, high performance FXRs, FXRTs and Dynas. It's the LA club guys' credo to build performance lane splitters capable of escaping cops, traffic snarls and ex ol' ladies and finding piece in Palm Springs, Vegas or Phoenix.
These bikes are all about performance, rubber-mounted reliability and long distance comfort, with a tough-looking, don't- fuck-with-me exterior. The Chop N Grind Racing shop members won't take credit, for the movement, but Bikernet investigators monitoring the style concluded, in a recent cub reporter study, that they have the formula down to a gnat's ass. This feature will show you a handful of dead-on examples and show you one low-buck, recent Chop N Grind transformation.
“Not much to say,”said Bob T. sitting in a corner of the shop, barking orders. “The parts were hanging around our garages and in the attic. The fuel tanks were a set of modified fat bobs altered to fit any FXR. Larry had an old Thunderheader in the corner collecting dust.”>
Larry gave Bob the seat, and then took it back for Kyle, the owner of this garaged, stock FXR. It had less than 20K on the odometer.
“The tach we got from our local Kragen parts house in town,” said Bob. “Larry, the master mechanic handled the fine- tuning and electronics. The FXR convertible bags were in sad shape. We dyed them black and my wife, Lee, stitched them up. The bags are totally restored with desert TLC.”
Kyle had the LA style risers from Illusion Cycles and always wanted to build a bike around them, and the Chop N Grind Crew added the magic. The next major adjustment included removing the ugly forward controls and scoring a set of mid-controls. The Chop and Grind Crew just put two-and-two together, and bingo, the FXR came alive on the lowest budget possible. Another FXR saved.
If you look close at these bikes, there's not a lot of custom or billet components involved. It's mostly stock or modified stock parts mixed with performance pipes and hot rod components. Several of these Chop N Grind racers sport H-D 39 mm quarter fairings. The Chop N Grind guys modify the brackets to fit any front end.
The next Chop N Grind gang project is a $500, 1999 Buell S1 Lighting for Robert. It will be turned into a blacked out street fighter. “We need parts for the Buell,” said Bob. “Anyone who has parts laying around contact us.”
E-Mail Bob T.
Since Bob hails from a construction background, his next project is to add 200 square feet to the Chop N Grid 1000 square foot facility on the edge of the Joshua Tree National Forrest. They are adding machine shop equipment and expanding the service area.
We will bring you continuing reports on the Chop N Grind facility, the crew and their bikes. If Bandit doesn't fuck it up, maybe we'll find the secret to their magic.
–Wrench
E-Mail Bob T.
