Over the years, I've interviewed motorcycle brothers and sisters all over the world. We are all members of a passionate breed. In each case, specific feature bikes represent vast undertakings in a mission for love, freedom, or artistic expression. To Roy Gregory, this motorcycle represents overcoming a life of alcohol and drug abuse. It was a distant vision for seven years.
Roy grew up in Cincinnati, an iron worker, now at the Local 44. So I asked him: Why the white paint job?
“I've built two white bikes,” Roy said. “The first one I lost during a drunken blackout. I moved from one crappy apartment to another. Each time, the landlord painted the walls white and told me, 'That's the base coat. You can paint over it any color you want.' So I figured, when I sell this bike, the new owner can use white as the base for whatever color he or she wants.”
Roy, 55, has ridden one helluva intoxicated rollercoaster of life. He snatched five DUIs before he got sober the first time. He scrambled through nine years of sobriety before falling off the wagon like a beer keg off a delivery truck on the interstate. He drank and scored three more DUIs in 3.5 years before the law forced him into sober living.
“I built my first bike, a CCI Hardcore kit bike, with my nephew during my high period,” Roy told me. “We drank enough to float a freighter, smoked a ½-pound of weed and danced the white line blues.”
Roy ended up in jail after an alcoholic blackout. When he asked about his bike, the jailer said, “It ain't here; better go back to the bar.”
“I don't remember where I was drinking,” Roy continued. Turns out his brothers hid the bike.
He poured $13,000 into that project, and he was forced to sell it to a woman for $10,000. It was a gift for her husband's birthday. He needed the cash for legal assistance.
“My drinking was way beyond a little problem,” Roy admitted while driving his truck during his 173-mile round-trip daily commute. He's had his problems with chemicals, but he's no dummy. He became a certified welder, worked in a massive custom fabrication shop, designing industrial systems for food processing for Frito Lay, Heinz, and Carnation for 14 years. A fortune 500 company bought out the company, and he stepped away to run a home remodeling company with his brother.
“I've always been a union man,” Roy said of trying his hand at entrepreneurship.
He took a job as a boilermaker through the National Transient Lodge Book, but that wasn't the way to go in union circles. He applied for an apprenticeship as an iron worker in '96, a long and arduous four-year program, but his welding experience helped him cut the time to three years before becoming a journeyman. He helped build the Paul Brown Stadium, then the Great American Ball Park.
“It was a kick working on the new FBI building in Louisville, Kentucky,” said Roy.
In 2002, Roy started to buy parts for this White Devil, White Death or White Trash, depending on which day you ask Roy.
The irony of addiction is that it attacks anyone of any intelligence level, upbringing, social status you name it. It's become Roy's vision and goal to help others facing similar obstacles to overcome addiction. Brothers in shops helped him build this hot rod, such as Jim Amoit of ChopperWorks, until Roy ran out of time to help around the shop with welding projects. Then he moved it to Sin City Choppers for final assembly and wiring.
“I'm a welder,” Roy said. “That cobweb of wiring stuff isn't for me.”
He's helped high-paid accountants deal with addiction, doctors, lawyers, and bike club members, anyone in need. His dad was a Baptist Minister.
“We're creatures of habit,” Roy said. “It's tough, but we need to break the chain that leads us to saloons. We learn that if you go to bars, ultimately, you'll drink. If you don't drink, it's guaranteed, you won't get drunk.” He is always available to a brother who needs help.
“It's all in the vision,” Roy said.
After seven years of buying parts, this bike was still a vision. After eight years of sobriety, tomorrow is a vision of building toward a progressive future without addiction. We all walk that line sometime in our lives. Some step over and can't get back, others survive, and some dance with the devil by the pale moonlight almost every night. Fortunately, there are a lot of brothers like Roy out there willing to help when you or a friend is ready.
Bikernet.com Extreme White Trash Tech Chart
Regular Stuff
Owner:Roy “Zoo-mon”Gregory
Bike Name:”White Trash”
City/State:Cincinnati Ohio
Builder: Self assembled with a lil help from my friends.
e-mail:
Engine
Year: 2002, 121” TPE EVO Style
Make: PRO Street
Model: Evo Style
Displacement: 121-inch
Builder or Rebuilder: TP Engineering
Cases: TP
Case finish: natural
Barrels: TP
Heads:Edelbrock
Carburetion:45 mm Mikuni
Air cleaner: K&N
Exhaust: Custom Built with Speedway Motors bends
Mufflers: None, pipes welded by Roy
Transmission
Make: JIMS
Final drive:1-inch Belt
Primary:3-inch BDL open belt
Frame
Year: '02 Redneck engineering
Make: Redneck engineering Powder coated White
Style or Model: PHAT Tire Pro Street
Stretch: 4”out 3”up
Rake: 38 degrees
Modifications: none
Front End
Make: Duece
Model: Glide
Year: '02
Length:2” over
Sheet metal
Tanks: Phat bobs. Welded together and streached to 26 inches long. Flattened the bottoms. Added flush mount pop-ups
Fenders: engraved with flames and dipped in chrome
Paint
Sheet metal: Cadillac White
Special effects: Built to ride
Wheels
Front
Size:21-inch, 60-spoke
Brake calipers:PM
Tire: Avon venom
Rear
Size:18-inch 250, 60-spoke
Brake calipers: PM
Tire:Avon venom
Controls
Foot controls: legends
Brake lines: ss braided
Handlebar controls: Legends.
Electrical
Ignition:
Ignition switch:
Coils:
Regulator:
Charging:
Wiring:
Harness:
Headlight:
Taillight:Trucker Girl LED’s
Accessory lights:
Electrical accessories:
Switches:
Battery:
What’s Left
Seat: custom made with fiber glass resin
Mirror(s):
Gas caps:
Oil lines:ss braided
Fuel Lines: ss braided
Throttle: Internal
Comments:This project began in 02. Bought the roller And motor from Chopper Works. BL Customs supplied the rotors, calipers, and hand controls. The Guy’s at Cinn City did the final assembly and wireing, due to my work schedule. And on reds opening day 2009 it was inspected, titled, tagged and insured. Since then it has been in the Wind.
Credits: Chopper Works, BL Customs, Cinn City Choppers, Chrome Fusion, And Curtner fabricks.
