How much do you, the reader and motorcycle
enthusiast, know about Sugar Bear? How familiar are you
with his frontends, the choppers he's built since the
late '60s, or his influence through the evolution of the
custom motorcycle industry? Chances are, not much, if
any.
Somewhere in CA (at least that's what
his shop shirts indicate) are black and white and old
color photos of chops and time-frozen snapshots of a
riding camaraderie that line Sugar Bear's walls. But
sorry, Sugar Bear; the Gardena, CA-based time capsule
not only captures the early beginnings of choppers, it
tells the history of an individual who has been there
since the birth of choppers, and to whom these pages
cannot do total justice.
"If it ain't long, it's wrong," says
Sugar Bear, which frankly sums up the style of choppers
he builds. Tastes change over time, bike-building trends
go in and out of style or come back full circle again
like history repeating itself-well, not with Sugar Bear.
His intent when the shop opened in 1971 was to build
long and low street-rideable chops with a little extra
power. Thirty-six years later, his intent has remained
unchanged. Sugar Bear's belief that "All bikes were
meant to have scrapes, chips, burnt pipes, dents, style,
and smiles-per-miles," has been the shop's aim since the
beginning, and is still about rideable choppers today.
The year was 1972, a time when most
Springers were tubing, and Sugar Bear constructed his
out of solid steel. This enabled Sugar Bear to construct
a quality Springer to achieve his customers' desires for
a strong and long look. "Our first Springers were made
in lengths up to 18 inches over stock," and throughout
the decades Sugar Bear has mathematically tweaked and
perfected from short to long to extremely long fork
lengths, and made a name for himself with his signature
Springers and hard-to-miss rockers. "Most people think I
only make long Springers, but I do make different
lengths, including short ones," he said. How comfortable
and safe are these Springers? You'd have to sift through
decades of repeat customers to understand.
What's interesting is that Sugar Bear
became more known for his Springer frontends than his
bikes, even though he has been building both since the
early '70s. "I've always built bikes and frontends, but
maybe that was little known 'cause I wasn't in the press
or something," Sugar Bear said. "My frontends spread by
word of mouth." Word of mouth has served him well, as
word eventually traveled, but the length of time it took
for Sugar Bear to receive the recognition he earned and
deserved is inexcusable. In a time when ignorance and
racial differences affected Sugar Bear's career, the
mild-mannered, laid back, kind-hearted Bear pushed past
it all and doesn't dwell on it.
Now, you didn't just think we would show
you pictures of these bikes, tell you about them, this
and that, and the end, did you? No, a little background
was in order seeing as there are not enough pages here
for Sugar Bear, the individual responsible for the two
bikes before you. The other individual you should have
noticed on the cover is Sugar Bear's son, Turk. Turk (or
Little Bear) started at the shop in September 2006, and
told us "he has settled in with his dad." We hope to see
the Sugar Bear Choppers legacy carried out.
Although they say ladies first, let's
start with the bike before you named "Gorjus." It's
pronounced gorgeous, but Sugar Bear put a little
spelling twist on it just for fun (and perhaps to drive
us editors crazy).
Like flipping on your TV to watch the
History Channel, you're looking at a 1948 Panhead with
mostly original parts that was built in 1969 by Junior
Batista. A bike builder and painter as well as friend
and riding buddy of Sugar Bear's, Junior originally
built this bike, and then unfortunately had to sell it.
He turned the bike over to George Houghley, who was also
a friend and riding buddy of Sugar Bear's, "but not
really a mechanic or builder." The bike then found its
way into good hands: those of Sugar Bear and Ben Hardy,
who started working on it. Chances are you might not be
familiar with Ben Hardy. Sugar Bear was around when his
friend and mentor, Ben, designed and built the two
choppers in the 1969 classic Easy Rider, but was pretty
much ignored and discredited with the building of those
bikes. Ben was profoundly affected by that, but he
persevered with the attitude that he was in the business
purely for the love of bikes.
Sugar Bear draws on the same parallel,
where all he wants to do is ride what he likes. After 30
years on the road, Sugar Bear said, "I just can't ride
rigids anymore." And speaking of retiring rigids, Gorjus
was retired in 1999 and is living its golden years as a
show bike. "I keep it to show people some of my
history," he said. And what a conversation piece it is
when most people's reactions are to just stand there and
look at it, usually uttering the words, "It's gorgeous."
Sugar Bear said, "It represents a good deal of the past
and what we were riding back then."
Although Gorjus has gone through several
changes-we're talking general maintenance, repainting,
and rechroming-it's been the same style with few
modifications. The motor started out as a stock Pan, the
cases were split, 80-inch UL flywheels went in, and
spent gases left via Sugar Bear's 2-into-1 exhaust. When
it came to the frame, because they didn't rake a bike
back then, they cut the front legs and added six inches
of stock into the frame. The greater picture here being
able to accommodate the 22-over Sugar Bear Springer.
What's most significant here is Gorjus
has always had the same frame, gas and oil tank, fender,
primary cover, and why this is of importance is because
the parts are not modern-day items. In fact, Sugar Bear
is going to be removing the disc brake and putting the
old mechanical brake back on to present the bike the way
it used to be. And like Gorjus, most of Sugar Bear's
bikes have narrow handlebars-10 o'clock and 2 o'clock
position-like your hand position on a steering wheel, or
at least the way they teach you in driver's ed. "It was
the most comfortable and desired style of bars running
in the area during our time," Sugar Bear said. Other
style elements running back in his time and on Gorjus
were side-mounted taillights, Bates-style small
headlights (which enabled them to have a panoramic view
in the headlight shell), and round stock welded onto a
piece of metal with no glass but enough reflection to
act as mirror to avoid hassle from the police. This bike
is all about the cool little things and
originality-keeping it simple, real, and Gorjus.
As mentioned a little earlier in the
story, we were going to come back to the meaning of the
fuel tank graphic on Gorjus. The heart and wing symbol
that signifies Sugar Bear was explained: "Back then when
you started riding you had to put in your time before
you got your wings." Sugar Bear continued, "I earned my
wings, my heart has wings...that's what it signifies to
me."