Damn, the bikes coming out of this industry are amazing, and Gard Hollinger is one of those builders who dazzle me every time I see one of his bar blasters. No wonder Saxon chose Gard as their custom bike and accessory designer and he was the co-star on the Build-or-Bust television series. But let’s back up and cover his past. He’s too busy to talk about today, ‘cause Hugh King was hanging out at his shop shooting a Biker Build-off. He’s up against Jason Hart, and they are building two hot rod customs. The plan includes bitchin bikes raced at the drags to test performance.
Gard grew up in Southern California tinkering with dirt bikes and hot rods until his mom uprooted his young ass and hauled him to a small island off the coast of Washington. He thought for sure his life was fucked. It was.
Wait, maybe I need to stay focused on this board track tribute built for Carrie Rep’s Seminole Roadhouse event series that took over for the Camel Roadhouse a few years back. She picked four builders every year and hauled them to Daytona for Bike Week, Austin, Texas ROT Rally, Laconia, Biketoberfest, Sturgis (until this year) and Ft. Lauderdale for the grand finale at the Seminole Hardrock Casino (Hollywood, Florida).
The cool thing about this series includes partying with your pals at all these major events and with Carrie who is a knockout Florida blonde. Plus she attracts hot-looking chicks at every venue. Number two on the cool scale, for all the spectators, is the Roadhouse sign-up at any venue for a chance to win one of these wild-ass machines. At the end of the year, in Fort Lauderdale, a winner will be chosen and he or she gets to pick whichever bike they want. Then the builder receives a check for $75,000. Not bad all the way around. You, too, can enter by heading over to the Seminole Hardrock Web side from the Bikernet Home Page.
This year Gard hung out in good company with Paul Cox, Aaron Greene of Paramount, and Eric Gorges of Voodoo Choppers. Last March 3rd was the deadline to haul this wild custom to Daytona Beach from Torrance, California. Three days prior to the deadline his paint wasn’t complete and he had no Baker tranny. He built the bike around the brand new Baker Torque-Box transmission. Scheduled to receive serial number 1, he paced the concrete deck of his shop, while Jason Brown, his right hand man, drove north out of LA to San Jose to pick up all their steel parts, being piston coated with a unique finish, at R&S. He worked with them through the night, loaded the truck and drove back the next day.
They made it, had the opportunity to ride on the Daytona Speedway, ride in a Texas ROT parade that overlooked the Capitol of Texas, and will soon head to Biketoberfest. He didn’t relish in all the master-builder attention without destroying up his truck and blowing tires on the LA ChopRod trailer, navigating his way from one end of the country to the other.
Let’s jump back into the past once more and cover some of Gard’s history that lead up to this bike. In true outlaw fashion Gard stole his first bike from the teenager who introduced him to the sport at 8 years of age. “Wanna ride this thing,” Rick Paulfreman said. He bought his first bike from Paul and tried to stiff him on the deal. You know, those kids.
His mom grabbed him by the ear and dragged him to Friday Harbor off the coast of Washington, after turning her van over in the Oregon snow. He thought for sure he was going to hell and mailed Paul the $20 plus interest. He was enrolled in a 250-student strong school that sequestered kids from kindergarten through High School. Gard cut his hair, went to school and worked as a boat mechanic, hoping someday to escape.
He enrolled at Yakima College in the Center of the state of Washington and escaped with an associate degree in automotive tech. At 21 he owned his own business manufacturing protective parts for off-road bikes. Some years later, Russ Tom, who just past away a couple of days ago (October 2006), introduced Gard to the V-twin market. He bought a basket case ’79 FLH, dresser with a fairing and whip antennas. It was still painted factory cream and antique white. He cleaned it up and sold it.
Gard bought another one from Russ and stripped it to the ground and took it to the next stage, polished the engine, ground all the welds and made it glisten like never before. Russ built amazing bikes for a dealership, Downtown Seattle H-D. He helped create rides and events in the Seattle region and established the “Dave’s”, a club of custom bike owners. Annually the gang got together and hauled a truckload of bikes to the Love Ride to escape the northwestern frost in November. “We started with 20 guys,” Gard said, “and in a few years we were shipping 150 bikes to Los Angeles for the Love Ride weekend.”
So he came to Los Angeles for his third time, partied constantly, rode to the Rock Store, the Sage Brush Cantina, to the Malibu Inn and stumbled into a girl, moved to LA and eight months later got married. “I’d never been married and didn’t think about it much, but when I saw that girl,” Gard said, “I said to my partner that she would someday be my wife.” He was 34 at the time.
Okay, so he sold his house and business in Washington, moved to LA got married and his wife said, “This is your opportunity to do whatever you want.” No wonder he married her. He roamed the streets of LA looking for shit to do. He approached Bartels and then fabricated parts for Bad Bikes. Shortly he found a partner in Gary, an ex LAPD officer, and started building bikes and fabricating for other builders.
So he’s been tinkering with motorcycles since 8 and you’re looking at one of his latest creations. “I took an motorcycling era as a base,” Gard said, “then added a racing influence with the frame style, the performance front end, the oil in the frame, the Baker Torque trans, $800 of 12-point fasteners and worked with Rick Pruse at PM to pull the wheels and brakes together.” These were Performance Machine blanks that received the parkerized looking R&S piston-coat then were machined.
Gard also used some of his own products, the gas and oil caps, the ISR hand controls and his handmade frame brought out the mechanical aspects to enhance the modernized Board Track character.
There you have it. His bikes are tough, lack traditional metal flake flash and chrome, and have a mechanical appeal. We will bring you reports from the build-off project and perhaps a ground up build for Keanu Reeves in the near future. Hang on.
OwnerLA County Choprods
Shop Phone (310) 353-2467
Shop Website www.lachoprods.com
Make/Model 2006 Choprod / “Gard Rock”
Fabrication Gard Hollinger
Assembly LACC / Special Thanks to Keith Ball & Bikernet (we gave them some final hour assistance)
Build Time 3 weeks
ENGINE
Year/Size 2006 93 CI
Type S&S Generator Shovel
Builder S&S
Flywheels S&S
Rods S&S
Pistons S&S
Cylinders S&S
Heads S&S
Valves S&S
Rockers S&S
Rocker Boxes S&S
Pushrods S&S
Pushrod Tubes S&S
Cam(s) S&S
Lifters S&S
Carburetor S&S
Air Cleaner S&S
Ignition S&S
Exhaust LACR
Finish Raw
TRANSMISSION
Year/Type 2006 Baker TB5
Case Billet
Top/Side Billet
Clutch Performance Machine
Primary Drive Performance Machine
Final Drive Chain
Gears 5-Speed
FRAME
Year/Type 2006 LACC One Off
Rake 32 Degrees
Stretch 0
Molding N/A
Swingarm N/A
SUSPENSION
FRONT
Year/Type 2006 Trax Dynamics Inverted
Modifications N/A
Triple Trees Billet
REAR
Year/TypeAvon Tyre
WHEELS, TIRES, AND BRAKES
FRONT
Size/Type 19 X 2.15 Performance Machine “Judge”
Tire 19 X 2.50 Avon Speedmaster
Caliper(s) Performance Machine 2 Piston
Rotor(s) Performance Machine
REAR
Size/Type 16 X 3.5 Performance Machine “Judge”
Tire 16 XD 5.00 Avon SM Mk II
Caliper(s) Performance Machine 2 Piston
Rotor(s) Performance Machine
FINISH/PAINT
Colors Ceramic Piston Coating
Painter RS Performance Coatings
Graphics “Thick’s Pinstriping”
Molding N/A
Chrome Plating/Polishing N/A
Powdercoating RS Performance Coatings
ACCESSORIES
Front Fender N/A
Rear Fender N/A
Gas Tank(s) and Cap(s) LACC / LACC
Oil Tank In Frame / LACC
Gauges N/A
Handlebars LACC
Hand Controls ISR from LACC
Foot Controls Performance Machine / LACC
Footpegs Performance Machine
Electrical LACC
Headlight PIAA
Taillight LACC
Turn Signals N/A
Seat Bill Wall Leather / LACC
Please give special thanks to the following:
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
S&S Cycles / James Simonelli
Performance Machine / Ted Sands / Rick Pruse
Baker Transmissions / Stretch / Bert Baker
Bill Wall Leather
Goodridge USA / Dale Berg
RS Performance Coatings / Bob & Bob
MarkKings / Danny Sutton
Trax Dynamics
Miller Welding Company
Thick’s Pinstriping
