We stayed with Jeff and his lovely wife, Suzanne for several days. He has been building custom bikes since the 60s. He told us many fascinating stories of his past - the parties, the people and, most interesting, his career. I wished I had a tape recorder - I could have written a history of bike building in California. At one time, he owned 3 shops and was the innovator of many custom bike parts in the earliest days of choppers –many of these have been attributed to others. He used to supply parts to Arlen Ness who is now probably the most famous custom bike builder, appearing in “Biker Build off” and other TV shows.
Jeff chose to focus on just custom painting the bikes, ironically mainly for Ness. The quality of his work is rarely seen anywhere else – he often sends us photos – immaculate workmanship. We were privileged to visit his paint shop – less than half a dozen people have seen it! We than went on to Ness’s showroom where Jeff took us on a complete behind the scenes tour. We saw the workshops, parts warehouse (huge) and fabrication areas. There is also a museum featuring bikes from the 60s to date – Jeff was able to point out all his own work!
