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I’ve been around motorcycles, custom motorcycles and motorcycle restorations all of my life. I’ve been very fortunate to witness many of the best builders in the field. We have all witnessed greatness when it comes to motorcycling. I didn’t intend on blowing smoke. But you know the drill. Some builders reach way beyond the notion that motorcycles are just a machine.
Matt Hotch is one such builder. He can meld the mechanical with the artistic, and refined detail. I’ll never forget a builder from Lancaster, California. He didn’t work in a shop, but built just one custom motorcycle. It was absolutely a world-class winner from every element. A young guy by the name of John Dodson built a couple of motorcycles so mechanically superb as to defy imagination.
When it came to restorations, I worked with a pair who turned stock classic motorcycles into something more. They weren’t custom, yet they went way beyond stock restorations. That was Don Whalen and Tom “Rodan” Evans. They built only a handful of motorcycles, but each one was amazing. I will run an image of an example here.
Several decades ago, I started to see more restorations and got to know one of the masters, Mike Egan, in Santa Paula, California. I hope Mike and his wife Patty are still going strong. Then one day, a bike was being delivered to a friend’s house. He was waiting with rapt attention for his 1915 Harley to be delivered from the hills above Santa Maria, from a restoration expert, Steve Huntzinger.
I stood outside his lavish brick garage in Beverly Hills, California as this spindly old Harley rolled out of the back of an enclosed trailer and started to glisten in the afternoon sun. Suddenly, a rattletrap old motorcycle became a refined artistic jewel before our very eyes. Every detail was enhanced. A carburetor never looked so good. Every delicate detail was polished, nickel-plated, refined, pin-striped, engine turned, gold-leafed, wrapped in hand-stitched leather, or engraved.
I met Steve during this exchange, but he was a man on a mission and we spoke little. A couple more times we featured Steve Huntzinger restorations in Easyriders, and each time I was startled by the complete mastery of each restoration.
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