Not long before I started this bike project I was talking with a friend about what a Frisco style chopper was. That got me thinking about back when I was growing up in the bay area.

Growing up in Oakland and later moving to San Francisco, I was exposed to plenty of “Bay Area” choppers. It was several years before I had the opportunity to throw my leg over a chopper, but it was inevitable. Trust me, I am no expert. I have never even considered myself a biker, and I claim nothing more than being a weldor with a custom motorcycle problem.

The first person who took the time to explain to me the way a Frisco chopper is set up and why was Patty Pink. As you can imagine she was no regular gal. The first time I met her she had parked her classic bright red 1968 Norton right in front of Mabuhay Gardens, a rock-n-roll club on Broadway located in North Beach, Frisco.

Her Norton was exactly like the kind that won the Isle of Mann TT Race five years in a row, but in a heavy duty Matchless sidecar frame. Oh, and except for the Norton Commando disc brake front end, it was a race bike all the way! The bike was well cared for, but very beaten by use, and it had obviously been down a few times. The first time I saw her, she was safely chained to a light pole. (For anyone who is confused, I am talking about the bike).

The chain ran right through the sound hole and into the back side of her guitar through a hole that had at some point been accidentally smashed in the otherwise rare and beautiful vintage 1932 Martin guitar she strapped to the seat. Patty had just finished playing a gig with her metal band, Mean Machine, and it was party time for the band members after the gig. I was young, out on the street, and always looking for a good party or some kind of trouble!

Patty took a liking to me, maybe because I obviously liked both motorcycles and metal music, and invited me to hang out with her, like the kid brother she said she had always wanted. I later found out that she had also played stand up bass, jazz big band in college? WTF?

So, after that night of partying, I didn't get a chance to party with her again for a short while. By the next time we met, Patty was Vice President of San Francisco Motorcycle club (started in 1904). She was the only woman officer in the entire history of that club! She began that year and held high points rider in the club until the very last run of that year. The Prince of Darkness and his notorious Lucas British bike electrical failures lost Patty her first place rider standing at SFMC. Unfortunately she was unable to get a Zenar diode for her rare Norton race bike. ( Doesn’t that sound like something that belongs in the trash anyway?)

Needless to say Patty became disgusted with the evil plague and vowed to get an American motorcycle! Chanting “No more dragging three sets of tools!” she was sick of it; Whitworth, Standard, and Metric!!! Things a rider had to carry on the long distance runs she often enjoyed on the Norton.

By the next time our paths intertwined, Patty was roaring around Frisco hills on a kick start custom Shovel with loud ass straight pipes. She sure was a cool Gal, long blond hair almost always wearing custom made heavy leather boots (over her knees) with leopard skin mini skirts. We became very close friends over the years, she even adopted me as a member of her family.

Then to her surprise, Patty became the single mother of twins and has spent the last few years devoted to her boys. They are both studying the wonders of BMW's, specializing in vintage and classic airheads. One has a completely stock 1973 kick and an electric start R90S Daytona Racer, the other has a touring 1975 R75/6 he has restored to stock condition. They both take education seriously, study hard, and plan to ride their bikes to college classes this winter. Believe it or not, this will be their second year attending college, though now 16 years of age.

To this day we still keep in touch. On a biking front, Patty is bringing her much loved Shovel back to life and getting it in order. After spending some time on the side stand waiting for Patty to get out of a wheelchair and back in the saddle, it needed some restoration and the addition of a button spinner for starting. I send a few parts, when I can to help out, and her sons have found her an electric-start, 1981 BMW R65 to ride as a parts bike, to get her around while she upgrades her 1966 Shovel. Patty must ride, or she's not happy!

Shorty! LD’s translation of a ‘Frisco chopper.

As for the bike Build, I gave it my best to build something close to what you might have seen blasting around the neighborhood back in the day. I lived in Oakland during the '70s so I didn't see too many Frisco style bikes, but sometimes I'd sneak a couple blocks out of the way, while walking to school, to check out the cool bikes parked outside the local clubhouse.

I don't think the bikes were too different from one side of the bay to the other. I do remember seeing more long bikes and slightly taller choppers in Oakland than this one here.

To the best of my memory, A Frisco chopper, according to Patty, was never to have more than about 34 degrees of rake and no more than 4-inch over on the fork tubes to make sure it'll handle, as she put it, plain and simple. So, this is my version of the Frisco style choppers that would have been burning up 101 (except for the forward controls), Frisco all the way!

OK, well, maybe they didn't have the disk brakes then either, but she is a Bay Area Babe.

The devil’s in the details, right?

Oh yeah, maybe the 3-inch open belt is not time accurate as well. But that's it; Shorty is a Frisco Chopper all the way! I think I'll go break her in so I can take her for a nice hot blast around town, in my beloved tropical home of Houston, Texas!

Now if I can keep RFR (the photographer) from stealing it. He hides it behind equipment in Lucky Devil's Metal Works shop, hoping I will forget about it.

--The Devil

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