Kingman, AZ – In order to make an extended stop inKingman, AZ you don’t have to attend, as I did a couple of months ago, theLaughlin River Run on the Nevada side of the Colorado river. But it helps.Firstly, one is normally traveling through Kingman and not to Kingman.
Beyond “King” – a town thatloudly touts old-time, plus-sized film star Andy Devine as a celebrated son –is the grandeur of the Grand Canyon and the edgy vibe of Phoenix. Even artsyfartsy affectations of Albuquerque, NM are a bigger draw. So, except for some“vintage” motels surviving from the early days when motorized travel became thenational rage, there’s not too much reason to linger here. As a result, Kingmanis often relegated to an eat-here-and-get-gas stop. That’s probably not fair,but that’s just the way it is. No offense, Kingmanites.
However, during the annualLaughlin River Run, many of the motorcycle riders attending that celebratedevent apparently can’t wait to get out of the host Nevada town (the “why” ofthat is better left until another time). Even lowly Bullhead City, AZ drawsriders looking for something, anything, to entertain them. In that light,Kingman looks like a beckoning motorcycling Mecca of unimaginable allure; or soyou’d think judging by the number of bikes boogying east during the springtimeLaughlin event.
The River Run organizersseem to know this and obligingly schedule a major poker run to leave Nevada onSaturday morning and make tracks for Kingman. This year, the first road stop onthat run was at the Powerhouse Visitor Center in “olde” downtown Kingman, rightoff historic Route 66 (which doubles as Andy Devine Ave.). The center is home toa museum devoted to the Mother Road, as many call old Rt. 66. This exhibitalone does make stopping in Kingman well worthwhile.
Upon arrival we saw thatthe center’s parking lot was filled with the poker runners’ rides. To draw acard, they would have to maneuver through a hotrod car show that sparkled underthe bright Arizona skies. What we didn’t know was that, like the Arizonaprospectors of old, we were about to strike it rich. The difference is ourdiscovery was to be a cache of chopper bike gold.
Choppergold
As metalflake terrific asthe rod show was, it was a row of what looked to be custom motorcycles alongone edge of the lot that caught our eye. Even from a distance, it was apparentthat these long, low-slung custom motorcycles sported the extended front ends,wild paint, king and queen seats, tiny “prism” tanks, molded hard tail frames,and one-off sissy bars, all features that came to define the classic choppermade popular several decades ago.
A closer inspection thisday revealed that many of these confections, some with 20-inch over (or more)extended front ends — naturally, sans fenders or front brakes — were poweredby metric engines, particularly the venerable Honda in-line 750 power plant.Zowie, Honda choppers!
Not every power plant wasmetric — at least one of the bikes had an H-D Sportster engine — but wewondered if this marked some type of retro revival of the crazy-cool,days-gone-by bike styling of the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s? All that wasmissing were guys in bell-bottom jeans with mutton chop sideburns.
But an even closerinspection showed that, holy crap, these weren’t tribute bikes, these were the bikes of that golden era of custombuilds, the ones that graced the old bike rag covers, like StreetChopper, Hot Bike, and Easyriders. These were the chops that inspiredthe work of the legendary artist/illustrator, David Mann. This was chopper goldand we were standing at the entrance to the mine.
Nor were these just anyrag-tag assembly of choppers. From their crushed velvet-upholstered seats ondown, they were the spawn of one legendary San Bernardino bike shop, Denver’sChoppers and its late, visionary owner, Denver Mullins (who reportedlypreferred the metric engines for their bullet-proof reliability and muscularperformance). These bad chops were straight out of Berdoo and are livingchopper history. The mystery – at least for us — was how the hell did they cometo be in Kingman, AZ and all at once?
Objects ofobsession
Luckily, we couldn’t staybaffled for long. That’s because the moving force behind the preservation ofthis batch of bikes, Kayelynn Johnson (AKA KayJohn) was standing nearby. So toowere his two principal cohorts in this shared obsession, Jim Stephens (AKAChopperjim) and Kenny Scott. They were happy to discuss the bikes and pose forsome photos.
Later, aided with Internetaccess and armed with email addresses the trio had provided, we were able topiece together at least some of the story behind these remarkable bikes. Thecaveat for what follows is that some of this history — spiced, perhaps, with adose of myth and biker legend — is a bit clouded by time and the times (it wasthe 1960s and ’70s after all), so rabid chopperholics will have to wait for thedefinitive word until KayJohn and Chopperjim publish a long-awaited book onDenver’s Choppers.
What is very clear inKayJohn’s mind is the day some 18 years ago when, while delivering some autoparts he had painted for a customer in Northern Arizona, he first spied aDenver’s Chopper under a tarp in the customer’s garage. It was love, or atleast lust, at first peek under that dusty covering. After some haggling, hesoon carted the bike home.
Ironically, he wasn’treally aware of what he had; he just liked the bike the way it was. Later, acustomer would show him some back issues of bike magazines with Denver’s buildsin them. An obsession was born. Without fussing too much with the originalpaint, he tuned the CB 750 Honda engine, slapped some new rubber on the rims,and replaced a couple of minor missing items. It remains, he says, the bestexample of an un-restored Denver’s Chopper that he and others have seen.
Next, his buddy Jim, who,up until then, hadn’t even owned a motorcycle, went after and found his ownDenver’s Chopper. In the years that followed, there were more bikes discovered– with names like Exorcist’s Delight and My Dream — and additional friendsbought on board. Collectively, the group now has seven DC builds.
Back in theday
Luckily for thoseinterested in preserving or learning about the early history of the Californiachopper bike scene (and the legendary Denver’s Chopper builds), many of thebest examples of that era’s bikes were documented in the enthusiasts’ magazinesof the day. Many of those gems either came right out of the Denver’s Choppersshop (or its successor shop, Berdoo Choppers) or sported parts, paint or otheritems from the men who worked there.
Fortunate too is the factthat folks like Denver’s partner Butch Araiza, painter Mike “Mafua” Craig, andbuilder Freddie Hernandez – to name only a few — survived on the scene longafter Denver’s death in a drag boat accident in October, 1992. Theirrecollections have helped fill in many of the blanks in telling the Denver’sChopper story. Helpful too has been input from Denver’s widow and his daughter.(Mondo Porras, who did some work for Denver way back and was involved in thepair’s boat drag racing adventures, purchased some of the original shop’s stockafter Denver’s death, and now has a motorcycle shop in the Las Vegas area.)
Today, after restoringseveral of the Denver’s Chopper’s bikes, KayJohn and friends are still hungryfor more. It’s estimated that some 2,000 bikes were built in whole or part (orused components such as the frame or extended front end) during the Berdooshop’s heyday. Bandit built one, and it was featured on the cover ofEasyriders in the ’70s.
At least one discussionthread on the Internet (go to www.JockeyJournal.com) contains a gold mine ofinformation about these special scoots. Lastly, KayJohn and his buddies havehad business cards printed up that ask questions like: “Do you have a Denver’sChopper or know someone who does?” If so, please, they ask, please send anemail to kayjohn1960@hotmail.com. You too can share a wonderful longbike obsession. It’s the best reason we can think of to make a trip to KingmanAZ. Maybe it is a motorcycle Mecca after all.
