It’s interesting, some companies are growing and running strong whereas some of the most talented guys in the industry are struggling. Some are masters at marketing while others are masters at style and stay clear of the limelight. Gard is one of the latter. When it comes to design and fabrication he gets the job done with class and often does it for some of the biggest names in the industry, while sequestered in his small machine shop in the back streets of Gardena surrounded buy thundering 18-wheelers. It’s sorta like the Bikernet Headquarters, except we’re in a ghetto 8 miles away.

Let’s get to the story behind this bike, because there’s a myriad of stories when it comes to Gard and LA Choprods. He opened one of the first and biggest Indian Dealerships in Marina Del Rey, made parts and built bikes with the former Russ Tom of Downtown H-D, was the talent behind the scenes during two seasons with Build or Bust television series. He built one of the finest bikes every featured in the Seminole Hard Rock Road House tour and built a key element for the World’s Fastest Panhead for 5-Ball Racing and Bikenet.com, which ran 162 mph in very rough salt conditions at Bub’s Bonneville Speed Trials in 2007.

Gard restores cars, builds firewalls and all levels of custom sheet metal fabrication for hot rods and bikes, plus designs a line of custom parts. In the middle of closing his high- class dealership and dealing with a friend’s death, Steve Finer, under his ’62 Impala project, Hugh King called and invited Gard to a Build-Off competition with Jay Hart of Chopsmiths. Gard suggested that this effort reach out of the box away from building bikes and riding to shows.

“I knew Roland and Jesse raced,” Gard said, “ But they didn’t concentrate on the drag racing, so I suggested a drag race. I felt it would be more of a challenge to build two bikes for the street and the track.”

The rules called for a three-week build. Hugh’s team would cover the LA Choprods fabrication process for a week, then fly to Jay’s shop and do the same. Then they would return to Gard's shop for final assembly and start up. Then back to the Hart facility. “I started to collect parts, build a frame and make phone calls,” Gard said. “I’ve never drag raced, but it was key to win. Sandy Kosman was a great help and donated special drag racing wheels.”

During this process Gard dealt with his good friend’s death and named the bike after him, Super ADD. “He always said he had Super ADD,” Gard said, “But he didn’t. He was sharp as a tack.”

Gard was also interrupted with Biketoberfest, where one of his bikes was on display at Carrie Repp’s Seminole Roadhouse Café tour. Then Russ Tom died the day before the Build-Off started, in a helicopter crash and Gard, close to the family, flew to his funeral in Seattle. “I had 4RT pinstriped on the bike for Russ,” Gard said. “Not only did I consider him a great friend but I've credited him often with introducing me to the artistic possibilities of the V-twin and I always had great respect for his business acumen."

The scramble to build the bike began with Gard's harried schedule. "It usually takes me a week to build a frame, but I built this one in 1.5 days. We worked plenty of 20 hour days.”

Gard attempted to set deadlines and make goals, but missing parts including the engine set him back. “I was trying to build around not having an engine or tranny,” Gard said. Jay Brown, Gard’s right hand drove parts from LA to the Bay Area 500 miles away for powder work and performance coatings by RS Performance by Bob Simpson, Jr. More than once Jay stayed overnight to return with parts in hand. Once Bob Simpson actually delivered the much needed components. Sandy Kosman designed the wheels but Gary Turner, from Black Stone Tek, in South Africa hand delivered the product to Gard’s shop.

Plus Gard donated many of his own LA ChopRods custom parts for the project, many of which have that race-bred styling, including the gas tank, the foot and hand ISR controls, his builder helpers, frame, brackets and battery mount. He’s constantly designing something new.

It was a dire team effort on every front to pull this machine together in the nick of time for filming the first start-up under the Discovery Channel lights in Gard’s LA ChopRods location while the band played outside and Eric and Bob Bennett stood by for tuning needs. Thick Nick handled the final pinstriping. Sammy V kept the shop in order, and Kickstart John Schiess was always on hand to help.

The bike fired after the first battery died and the short-lived party began. The competition was underway. The strident schedule called for a warrior’s meeting at Deadman’s Point in Mohab and a ride to Las Vegas. They rode, but the bikes were designed for the track and the open road took its toll on the performance machines. The teams were quickly discovering Gard’s performance superiority. “Physically our bikes couldn’t make 500 miles on the open road,” Gard said. “We clocked over 150 and loaded them for the remaining run. We had to get to the track.”

At the party, the night before their first track time, Gard’s bike acted up. An electric problem surfaced and the bike wouldn’t start to impress the fans. “Did you know batteries can actually short out internally,” Gard said? “We scrambled around the bike cutting wires and pulling components off like the ignition switch, coils and shift light module, only to discover the battery was the problem. We put everything back together and headed to practice day on the ¼ mile track.”

During practice Gard’s bike sang down the AHDRA track over and over, more than 4 seconds faster than Jay’s ride. “My bike was hooking up like a dream,” Gard said. “It was way faster and handled the track, like it was meant for it.”

The competition consisted of three elements. Meeting the deadline demands, plus the day of the race the folks in the pit could vote for the bikes, but Gard was experiencing some clutch problems and dealing with the supportive but confusing input from a myriad of sources. He didn’t pay much attention to the voting and Jay won the popular vote. “It was all about the race,” Gard said. “Other builder said, ‘you should have asked us to vote’.”

The first official race of the day Gard’s bike lumbered down the track and still beat the competition from Chopsmith in Greenwood, Indiana (317) 246-7737, by two healthy seconds.

“We made some clutch adjustments that I wasn’t familiar with,” Gard said. “When I pulled up to the lights, for the second pass, the bike jerked and I bumped the red light.” He heard shouts to make the run anyway and started down the track, only to discover the jerking clutch had caused his motocross injured shoulder to dislocate again.

A flurry of activity ensued. “They wanted to cut my leathers off,” Gard said. “But I wouldn’t let them.” Ultimately the ambulance arrived and they peeled him out of the race suit, so he could relocated his shoulder joint then pray that they would let him run again. “I raced motocross for years injured,” Gard said. “I could do this.”

A brother named Super Kaz stepped up and taped Gard’s shoulder so that he was completely secured (superkazracing.com). “As I reached for the bars, Kaz taped my shoulder so the more I reached the more secured the bond became,” Gard said. “I was good to go.” Kaz set a LSR on a V-rod of 200.693 mph.

Gard was nervous as hell surrounded by a number of experienced racers, a sticky clutch, cameras and thousands of race fans. “I didn’t want to red light,” Gard said. “I knew I could blow past him, so I backed up in case the clutch jerked me forward.” Emotions were high during practice, down with the popular vote, up with the first run, down with the red light and slammed with his injury.

“We were emotionally wound tight as I entered the traps. Then I backed away from the line, confident that I could win.” Only he backed up too far and the light blinked red. “I didn’t know I could red-light backing up.” But he did and the race was over. The Build-off competition was finished and Jay won the prize. But that’s not usually an Issue with Build-Offs. They’ve been more about the fun and experience, and of course the publicity, over who won supremacy on TV. Hell, Russell Mitchell has been one of the most coveted builders, but never won a goddamn trophy.

As you can see, this is one helluva bike, built by a top-of- the-line builder and innovator who designs products and models for Saxon Motorcycles including the impressive Black Crown and the new Mad Jack bobber for 2008. Watch for a feature on Bikernet of the Mad Jack in the near future. In the meantime watch for Gard’s Product line to grow on Bikernet. Gard works round the clock to keep his product line fresh, he just keeps ‘em secret, but we’ll bring you the news.

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