Digital Editor’s Note: Damn, we scored this 1960s issue of Ed Roth’s Choppers Magazine, from the Sheriff out of Sweden. We dug around a found an interview with Ed Roth and Bandit in April of 2000, for Hot Rod Bikes, when Frank Kaisler was the editor. This interview took place just a year before he passed into metalflake heaven. So, enjoy both the old mag and the interview with the master, by the sonuvabitch we work for.–Renegade
The master of custom car mayhem now lives in Utah and drives 100 miles to the chrome shop once a week. Born in Beverly Hills, Roth became a backyard builder, racer, and teenage icon in the ’60s with his refrigerator/T-shirt character Rat Fink and others. In 1963 Revell paid Roth one cent royalty per models sold. He received a check for $32,000 at the end of the year.
“Ed helped lots of people to see beyond their garages back in the ’60s,” said Carl Morrow. Carl kicked off his business in the front of Ed Roth’s shop. Ed’s perhaps the best known car customizer in the world, yet he had a fleeting career with choppers and even started the first chopper mag in the ’60s. The following touches on his experiences with Harleys, outlaws, and the fledging chopper era.
When did you see your first chopper?
ER: In 1963 there was a custom show at a bar in South Gate. The radical kids were hanging out there. The one thing that was common to all the guys was the chopper motorcycle. I didn’t know what a chopper was. I just knew it looked good, and the guys rode fast and were always on their way some place. In 1964 Life magazine sent down a reporter to do a story on motorcyclists, and I went down to the bar and asked the guys to put me in touch with the Hells Angels and the Galloping Gooses. The guys said, “That’s us.” So I introduced them to the Life reporter and photographer.
HRB: Who was the first builder you ever met and what was he building at the time?
ER: The plater, Mando, I was going to at the time constantly spoke of choppers, and he told me stories about builders in the area building bikes on the coffee table, or in the kitchen. I remember a story about a guy who went to a race and blew up his engine. He rebuilt it in the motel room over the bathtub. That was in 1960 and I thought the guy was spinning tales, but he wasn’t. I was working on the Beatnik Bandit at the time, and going to the chrome shop once a week. I didn’t know much about choppers until they were introduced at a car show.
I had met a builder, my plater, but I didn’t know it until I saw his work at a show.
HRB: Who was the first outlaw motorcyclist you ever met?
ER: I think that would be Dougy Poo. He was my go-between with the Hells Angels and the Life magazine guy. They were real reluctant, but got clearance from Sonny Barger in Oakland and were able to do the story. Later I met Sonny at the Oakland Roadster Show. They all had custom choppers at the time. That was back in 1964.
HRB: When did you build your first motorcycle?
In 1965 the police department had an auction of recruit motorcycles that were used in the L.A. river bed for training. The bikes were beat up bad. The tanks, the roll bars, fenders were smashed. Instead of fixing ’em up, it was cheaper in those days for the department to buy new ones, so they put some 50 motorcycles up for silent auction. I bid on ’em, one at $275 and two at $325. I got all three of ’em. None of the parts we needed for choppers were damaged, basically the drive train, the forks, and frame. We took off all the sheet metal except the rear fender, which we chopped. Then we put a small front wheel on and Sportster tanks, and rode it around for quite a long time.
In 1966 I got rid of the Panhead engine and went to a dealership and bought a new Shovelhead engine. I painted it at that time. I started learning about the transmissions and what made the engines run. Carl from Carl’s Speed Shop put on a 2-inch S.U. because he rented part of my shop to build engines and do carb work. It ran really good, but I couldn’t keep up with the cars anymore. In 1966 Ford Mustangs came out with a very fast car, and I couldn’t keep up so I sensed the end of my chopper days approaching.
Carl Morrow is the epitome of a biker. All he talks about is motorcycles. Carl saved my life. Some guys were going to shoot me and Carl took a hammer to ’em. He’s ready for anything at anytime. He was always a Sportster guy and always will [be].
HRB: When and why did you start Choppers mag?
I started going on the District 37 runs. I’d always take two cameras with me because they’d vibrate apart on that sissybar. I’d stop on the roads to the destinations like Yuma, Arizona, Bass Lake, and Ridgecrest and take pictures of the guys riding in. They were family-oriented AMA runs. They would let the chopper guys in, but they raised too much cane. I could see this was a national custom American thing. So I went to Petersen Publishing because they were starting a hot rod magazine, but they wouldn’t act on it. Finally, I spoke to Petersen himself and he said, “You’ll never see a picture of a two-wheeled vehicle in Hot Rod magazine.”
So I printed up the first one for my friends. I didn’t make a big deal out of the club issue, but covered the tech stuff to spread the word on how to do stuff. I wanted to show people how to chop and extend a springer or lengthen a glide, narrow triple trees, frame alterations, and engine swaps. The first issue I printed like 200. The second issue I started charging a quarter. I did that for three years.
HRB: When did you see your first extended front end?
ER: I think the first extended hydraulic front end belonged to Buzzard. I don’t know about the springer. Buzzard was always ready to ride at anytime. He showed me tricks on how to ride in the rain, how to deal with bugs, whatever. But that only lasted a year, ’cause I started building three-wheelers, so I started riding by myself ’cause I was going too fast for choppers. I like to ride fast. Dick Allen built a trike and he liked to ride fast too. We rode so fast, we took chances you should have never taken.
HRB: Can you tell me a story about Buzzard?
ER: He was the guy who was always ready to do anything. Otto was the president of the San Bernardino chapter of the Hells Angels, and he would act as his spokesman. Otto would come up with an idea and tell Buzzard, and Buzzard would implement it. He could get along with everybody. He would be the representative on television shows. He’d do all the talking. They both became devout Christians but discontinued motorcycle riding.
HRB: You went to all the early runs, tell us about that time.
ER: Well, the Bass Lake Run stands out in my mind. It was an AMA run and a family event, but when all the chapters came of the Angels and Goose, things got different. The AMA had games for young people, but they were family-oriented games. The club’s games were more adventurous, how fast could you go, how many guys they could get on one bike. They’d try to emulate the Victor McLagen trick guys. It was more of a loose thing. The fun was there, but it wasn’t exactly a family thing.
The AMA was trying to make it a family event, but the meeting of the chapters disturbed the event, even the local cops were trying to figure out how to cope with it.
HRB: What was the wildest custom feature you came across?
ER: At the time, molding the tank to the frame was the baddest, but then we raked the front ends, filled in the neck, chrome was used more. The ordinary biker didn’t have that much to spend. Not much use for chrome. They were in the riding business, not the show business. There were a lot of educated people who joined the ranks; there was a doctor, an attorney. Everybody got along good regardless of the status.
HRB: Why three wheelers?
ER: I got into the three-wheeled thing and dropped out of bikes because there was so much to investigate with three-wheelers. They were faster. Then V-8 trikes came along and I was gone. I quit building VW trikes and went to work at Knotts Berry Farm to reevaluate my responsibilities. For ten years over there I learned a great deal, but became very inactive. Then in ’84 I built a three-wheeler and went to Alaska. I built several three-wheelers that were fast and could run for a long time. They all proved to be a step toward these things I’m building now.
For years we stripped VWs down. We just bought the floor pans. The junkyard guy supplied us with ten pans a month. We built about 700 of those, me and Woody.
HRB: Why did you quit the magazine?
ER: Divorce time, Peterson started doing articles on bikes in Hot Rod. So I figured my time was over doing that. I had done everything I wanted to do to get the guys back East moving to build their own choppers.
I introduced the East Coast to what was happening on the West Coast, and visa versa; I did that. I liked introducing the chopper to the world at large.
HRB: Who was the wildest biker you’ve ever met?
The old Hells Angel Tiny, who was Sonny’s right hand guy was at the top. When the Vietnam thing came along and they stood up for the guys in the service, that really improved my opinion, because no one would back up the guy in the field. That always bothered me. Sonny and his people looked to the American way of doing things and I agreed with it.
HRB: Did you ever build a movie bike?
ER: No, I didn’t like doing commercial work. They wanted six wheels and a cannon sticking out the front. I just threw my hands up. There was quite a bit of money in it during those days, but I told them I wanted to build what I wanted. I needed to get down the road, I don’t want to build no crazy thing, fantasy mobile. I want to go fast. Carl Morrow was building faster bikes. He’s a meticulous guy. He was driving trucks for Bethlehem Steel and would stop by the shop. I offered him the front of my shop, because I didn’t have any use for a retail store. He’d take care of the performance side of the bikes.
HRB: What was the wildest bike you ever built?
ER: It was such an insane idea to build a V-8 trike. I took a lot of chances putting a car engine into a trike. We built it in the garage. We were running a dragster and guys would come over and laugh at the trike. I realized that it needed to be laughed at. It was a crazy idea, but I continued to build it. Well the day I started it up and went out on the street… Of course I couldn’t open it up for two to three hundred miles to see what bolts would fall off it. I didn’t use any motor mounts and no drive shaft, but it went good.
We started riding to Ensenada to test the bikes out. Guys on two-wheelers would try to keep up, but it wasn’t a good thing.
HRB: Where were all the wild nights during the ’60s?
ER: We went to the Blue Baze every Friday night in Fontana. I took Sal Mineo out there one night. The girls all crowded around him. It was a learning experience. Guys were always partying and sharing ideas ’bout their bikes. For instance, the first time a guy showed up with a 21-inch wheel, no one knew where to get tires. No one made performance parts. They’d make their own speed equipment. Guys got rid of Linkerts real quick. They made ’em hop around. William Smith from Chicago was building strokers. He ultimately started S&S in Viola, Wisconsin. Smitty in Chicago was building choppers, and still is.
HRB: Would you ever build another Chopper?
No, Life is too short to repeat something that’s been done. Arlen Ness has the range on the motorcycle thing and ya can’t beat him. He knows what he’s doing. Carl Morrow is building speed equipment and he knows what he’s doing. There’s no way you can compete with those guys.
There was no set path in the past, now it’s all too normal. Nowadays you buy your Levi’s made to look ragged. In those days they got ragged by themselves from the chain oilers and working on the bikes. We built ’em ourselves, got greasy on our own.
HRB: Do you still like custom motorcycles?
Sure. You know, there’s a lot of depression out in society now. If a guy is feeling low, he should go out and get a bike, even a little one, tear it down, paint it, make some changes, and go for a ride. It’ll keep ’em off the streets and prevent ’em from getting crazy ideas. That’s what saves me from having thoughts I shouldn’t be having, workin’ in the garage.
