Love In Luxembourg

February 29, 2016

0Points

Article & Photos By: Grizzly

Originally Published In The February 2013 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

It does not happen often, but sometimes American bike shops get the chance to build a bike for a European customer. In this case, it was Jeremiah from Love Cycles who had the opportunity to build this ultimate ‘70s chop for Andrea from Luxemburg. Yours truly loves to collect photos of bikes from blogs and Facebook. I collect only pics of the choppers I really dig. One of my favorites is the one featured here on these pages of Cycle Source. I stumbled across this bike for the first time on an American blog. I copied the picture and once in a while looked back to drool all over it. Besides being a chopper-nerd, I also like to travel by bike with friends. I visit Luxemburg, a beautiful but small European country with only 450,000 inhabitants, several times a year. One day I met Andrea there: a hard riding member of the Harley Brothers. We got along real well, had the same interests and both loved the traditional biker lifestyle. Eventually he told me he owned several bikes. My friends and I were invited by him to the Garage Hangout. This is a place in Luxemburg that is in the middle of nowhere. It’s where chopper enthusiasts meet and is run by Andrea’s club. They were working on several stunning chopper projects over there. However, in one corner of the bar, I suddenly discovered the very same bike I had been drooling over for quite a while. ‘Shit, Andrea, whose bike is that?’ I asked. The man smiled and said, “It’s mine!” I did not understand. I responded, ‘Naah, you’re kidding me, right?’ I was convinced the bike was American built. Andrea bought me a cold beer and started to explain.

“I began riding Harleys in 1988. I was especially crazy about old Milwaukee iron,” said the Luxemburg man. “I am certainly not a rich guy, but I slowly started owning more and more vintage Harleys, both choppers that I built myself as well as bone stock classics. At a certain point in my life I realized I was more of a chopper man. The feeling I got riding stock old Harleys was just not the same as the absolute thrill I get riding my home-built choppers. I definitely prefer them! And I do like to ride them a lot! One day I wanted to make another road trip in the States, but renting a bike was not an option. Too damn expensive! So I thought of another way. I asked myself, why not sell one of my classic Harleys and with that money I could buy a chopper in the States so I can ride it when I am there? It seemed like a good plan. I sold a Flathead I had and went looking for a nice cool chopper on the Internet. One of my favorite shops on your side of the ocean is definitely Love Cycles in Phoenix, Arizona. I called up owner Jeremiah and asked if he had any cool choppers for sale. He didn’t, but he could build me one, he said. I told him I was coming within a couple of months and had the plan to ride it all over as soon as I arrived. He said, ‘No problem. What kinda bike do you want?’ ”

Andrea had already seen a lot of Jeremiah’s work, and while talking bikes with the man on the phone, it just clicked. They had the same ideas about how cool bikes should look. Andrea explained, “I believe in Jeremiah’s creativity and think you should never try to direct an artist. I just gave him some keywords to go with and let him do his job. After six months, I arrived in Phoenix. The chopper was finished but I had not seen one single photo yet. So when Jeremiah pulled the sheet off of the finished product, I saw it for the very first time and holy shit, did I love it! ‘Is that really mine?’ I shouted in awe. Man, I felt proud like a dog with seven pricks! The next day we immediately left for the Ground Zero Throwdown organized by Trent of Atomic Cycles. I rode my brand new Love Cycles’ Panhead chopper. Jeremiah, Robert Hernandez, George Counes and others rode theirs. We were on the road for quite a while. I went to a party in the woods in New Mexico, and won first prize at a chopper show in Albuquerque. I handed the prize to Jeremiah who truly deserved to have it, and from there I rode back to Phoenix. From Arizona I cruised to San Francisco, did Highway 1 and actually met an old friend and biker cult figure, Dick Allen, who was totally flabbergasted when he saw me and my bike.

He said ‘Wow, what a flashback! This is exactly how my friends and I used to build them!’ After a great trip, my wife Angel rode beside me all the time on a stock Sporty. We shipped the chopper home and now it is here in Luxemburg!” Andrea loves the way the bike looks and handles. He says, “Riding slowly it is quite a handful, but when it’s rolling, the chopper is an absolute blast to ride.” The motor of the chop is a 1200cc Pan from 1949. Part of the motor has been fine tuned by a Hell’s Angel in a way they used to do it in the old days. The motor hardly vibrates at all. The Linkert carb is maybe not the best thing to run, it needs attention all the time, but hey, without it, this chop would just not look right! Andrea continues to tell me that the frame and Springer frontend are one-offs by Spartan Frameworks and are of excellent quality. I have never quite seen such a good looking Springer. The chop sports a high sissybar with a glossy porn black king and queen seat, racy drag bars, a modified Wassel gas tank, a handmade oil bag and not much more. The stance of the bike is just right and will give anybody who has been there in the early seventies a total flashback.