”What the hell?” I shouted.

“Watch your mouth,” Dorothy “Troll” Marino, barked from the back of the shop. A hush fell over the 1,600 square foot facility, and I immediately knew who was boss and Grandma to 16 Trolls. From that point on I spoke with deep respect and admiration. I’ll try to explain.

I’ve known this family for over 30 years. Dad, Terry, and Todd, his son, have been following my bikes since the beginning of Easyriders. We’ve mingled once in a while through 30 years of building and enjoying the freedom of the road. When I called Trollworks to interview the family about the Grudge bike, Todd whispered into the phone, “I’m getting married tomorrow.” He’s just 30 and slipping into his second marriage.

”What,” I barked. “You can’t do that.” I have an aversion to marriage, like felon to the third charge. Then I discovered Todd’s link to his mom, their family and this motorcycle. Todd has a 7-year-old daughter and Lacey, and his new 23-year-old bride is pregnant with his first son. The marriage was beginning to make sense.

Mom and Dad on the Troll side, each came from other relationships with three siblings from dad and two from mom. After 27 years together, they’re getting use to it and now have 16 grandkids. Get the picture? The Trolls are taking over Hesperia, California at a rapid pace, and Dorothy, or mom runs the roost. “I fab, weld, grind and paint,” Todd said of his duties. “My dad handles the details and final assembly, and my brother, when he’s around, performs service work on client bikes. Mom runs the collection agency and the rest of the shop duties.”

This bike even has a family connection, if I remember it correctly. Hesperia kid, Paul received this bike from his dad, Ron, who built it in Missouri and rode it out West, then bought a bagger for longer hauls. Paul took it to a friend’s shop and during the build process lost that friend and took his project back. “We were riding to the Johnny Chop memorial,” Todd said, “and the frame broke.

Paul brought it to the shop, “Do anything you want to it,” he said. “I can’t sell it. It was my dad’s.” The Trolls went to work stripping it down and ultimately using only the engine and trans.

It became the grudge bike behind Paul’s relationship with his ex-friend. Todd designed the piece with motocross race flair, lotsa holes, screens, and some brass for glitz. He came from a history of attending swap meets at 10 years of age and his father building bikes, VWs, old cars, and boats. Terry is now 55 and still active in the building process. So now Paul is Todd’s best friend and they ride all over the southland. “We discovered these semi-knobby tires works well,” Todd said. The recently rode to Big Bear on these 60 percent dirt, 40 percent street Metzeler tires and didn’t have a problem. “Paul smoked us.”

Okay, I hope I haven’t fucked up this story much—sorry mom. I’ll try to post it today, while Todd and Lacey are getting hitch in the high desert, the no-man’s land between LA and Las Vegas. You’ll read this while their playing grab-ass on their honeymoon in Huntington Beach. Then you’ll spot all the corrections, when he returns, reads the article, calls and chews me out for all the mistakes. Watch for more Troll built bikes in the near future. The mad Linney man, photog, already submitted another Troll creation.

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