This is a story of love, budgets and practicality. Terry Lee, the boss of Envy Cycles and Street Walker Exhaust, has been designing and building custom motorcycles for over three decades. Bikes are still at the core of his soul, but the bills are predominately paid with sale of 80-100 sets of Street Walker exhaust systems a month, with 80 percent of them containing elements of his lightening holes motif. But once in awhile, he builds a shop bike to promote with, or a customer steps up and asks Terry to build him a ground-up.

This story is based in Arizona, one of my favorite places on the planet to ride. It personifies the old west, open spaces and hot nights blasting across the desert; that is, until urban sprawl implants a MacDonald's, Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot on every corner, all selling Chinese products. A grizzly thought. So let's start in the Desert Emerald Palace on the Colorado River, Laughlin, a couple of years ago.

"I had my big tire gold bike, featured on Bikernet and in Easyriders, on display," Terry said. "A young man approached and started asking me to build him a bike, but he had a concrete $25,000 budget. That blew it for me. I couldn't build anything close to our gold bike for that."

It was a blistering day on the Laughlin strip and Terry didn't take Troy seriously. He had lousy casino food, lots of cops, and hot asphalt to contend with.

Scroll forward and Troy, a young rookie cop in Mesa, Arizona, kept coming around, but the budget didn't change. He was on the verge of tying the knot and buying his first home. Ah, but the Envy Cycles Chopper was still a major priority. While waves of heat rippled off the desert floor drawing any man away from all that straight society challenges us with, to ride alone and free, Terry and Troy negotiated a deal. This aspect of the story has an educational, thought-provoking side.

Troy, who never owned a chopper before, had his mind filled with chrome and steel desires. He wanted a wild shovelhead hotrod rigid that was capable of long blistering runs across the country. That recipe was, in many respects, an oxymoron, and he was still handcuffed to his budget.

"I had to convince him that his budget made it necessary to reconsider expensive engine options," Terry said, "but I was able to install a very reasonably priced 120-inch Ultima engine, with primarily JIMS components." Terry explained that Ultima 120s are square motors, don't vibrate, run strong and are reliable.

"I also had to point out that long-distance riding on a rigid wasn't exactly the best formula," Terry said. He saved money with the Canadian frame purchase.

“I took the bite out of the 6-up, 4-out, 40-degree frame with Chopper Shocks under the seat,” Terry continued. "He also wanted a suicide clutch, jockey shift, like a Rat Fink job. I had him ride one of my bikes for an entire day with a hand shift and a Grandeur auto clutch. He fell in love with it. They’re quirky, but work terrifically for jockey shift bikes."

As a safety device, Terry installed a bright but small neutral light in the headlight bucket so Troy would know when he wasn't in neutral and not to rev the engine.

"They're terrific for racing, instantaneous launch, but out here in the desert, we need to keep the dust out of the pressure plate or the clutch gets sticky," Terry explained.

The quest for the finest, unique, hand-built chopper for a little over what a stock dresser cost from a dealership continued. A mid-west 6-speed, built overseas, was used to keep the price down. Terry handled all his own sheet metal fabrication, including the rear fender, a slightly larger oil bag (4.25 quarts for long cool runs), frame mods, battery box, and copper oil lines.

"I learned a trick from Billy Lane at Mike Lichter's display, at Thunder Road, in Sturgis. He recommended the short oil line additions to prevent vibration troubles from a rigid on a long run."

Terry lengthened the Sporty tank to afford more miles on the open road. "He wants to ride it to the Rocky Point, Mexico Run," Terry said.

Terry fabricated the sissy bar, and since he came from a background of painting custom cars, he handled the paint himself, except for the Von Dutch-styled pin striping by Tony Perez. The frame was powder-coated for durability and price.

"We ducked chrome and used powder for cost savings and durability," Terry said. He stripped the headlight of chrome, soda-blasted it, copper-plated the ring, and added satin powder to both to protect the finish. He did the same to the battery box, which he built out of steel.

"For awhile,” said Terry, “I had access to a cool water jet house to cut the holes in my products, but they snagged a large contract and my stuff slipped to the back burner. I now drill all the holes in all of our products and pipe heat shields by hand, hit 'em with deburring tool and polish."

That brings us to his Street Walker pipe business. If you look at the engine close, you'll notice how he stretched the rear pipe and built the air cleaner out of the way, to allow the rear exhaust pipe extra space and yet maintain that massive shotgun style.

"I make every effort to keep the length the same or similar for tuning," Terry said. He built these pipes with a titanium ceramic coating and a brushed satin heat shield protected by the insul-shield for a slightly different hue.

"We have a popular set that is Titanium flat black ceramic on the pipe with gloss black powder on the heat shield with a layer of insul-coat on the inside of the heat shield to create a 2000 degree heat barrier between the two elements.” He offers his hand-made pipe systems in black, titanium or copper finishes. "I don't even polish the copper. We heat it slightly and it creates a wild patina."

Here's the latest on the Street Walker Exhaust line:

NEWEST STREETWALKER HITS THE BRICKS

The newest entry in the ever-growing stable of Streetwalker Exhaust Systems, the FMJ (Full Metal-Jack-it) is now available in three different colored ceramic coatings in addition to show chrome.

The FMJ is a two-into-one, with 1 ¾-inch head pipes stepped up to 1 7/8-inch and coming into a merge before transitioning smoothly into a 3-inch collector. The custom exhaust system is constructed entirely of 16 gage DOM tubing. It is designed to fit stock bikes with either Evo or Twin Cam motors. It is available with an O2 bung for bikes equipped with an O2 sensor. Dyna owners, take note: It is transmission-mounted. The FMJ comes with the full sleeve heat shields, and several styles of flanged bolt-on tips will be available.

Designed to have a hot rod look, the FMJs will be available in black ceramic, show chrome or the new titanium ceramic finish shown in the pictures. The full sleeve heat shields require the rider to make a serious choice between show chrome, a brushed satin finish, ceramic black or titanium.

FMJs are also available in a right side drive (RSD) version that will fit a 300 belt or 330-rear chain drive. The RSD model is not intended for cable clutch applications. They are available online at www.streetwalkerexhaust.com or call 602 391 8488 to place your order.

Since they started with the road-worthy hot rod Ultima engine in a natural finish, he carried the silver base throughout the Envy Chopper, ultimately named the Neighborhood Bully. We spoke to JIMS to confirm their involvement in the Ultima engine package:

"Right now just crank pins, sprocket and pinion shafts. We used to do their oil pump, breather gears and pinion gears, but Kenny went overseas for them," said Paul Platts of JIMS.“We are sensitive to the made-in-America mantra and like to support products built by our brothers and sisters whenever possible.”

There you have it. Troy plans to ride this dazzler to the Phoenix Raid Run to support the Race Against Impaired Drivers in the near future, and he's sure to turn heads, run at the head of the pack with this hot rod and keep jamming right across the country to escape the impending marital shackles. This scoot met the deadline, the budget and the design criteria, plus it looks killer. Hit the road, Troy.

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