Arlen Ness in the early days
If anyone could call themselves the godfather of choppers it's Arlen Ness. The guy reinvented the whole scene. He and his wife built a chopper empire from nothing through a lot of ingenuity and hard work. On top of that he's a nice guy. I have met him several times and was amazed how down to earth he is. which makes sense because before all the celebrity bike builders we were all just chopping our bikes.
If you get a chance visit his shop in the Bay Area, it's a very cool experience because most of his epic pieces are stashed in a museum upstairs. The knucklehead in the picture above was his first bike which has been rebuilt who knows how many times.
