I often feel like a basketball player during the final game of the season, when I start a bike feature. I’m pumped to share a passel of info about the bike, the girl, the builder, the owner, their dog and the naked chick in the window next door. I’m dribbling like crazy trying to make all the elements hang together and score a couple of points with an entertaining feature at the end of the day. Good fuckin’ luck.

I’m centered in that whirlwind predicament this morning while shoveling fruit, cereal, yogurt and coffee. Let me know how I did? The owner is JR Candy and he owns the building Dave Haze, the builder, leases for his shop. JR also runs a couple of Web sites having to do with playing pool, or Billiards. One of his sites is all about Biker related Billiard products. My attention level immediately piqued. I would love to have a small barroom pool table in the Bikernet headquarters. We recently scored a synthetic ping-pong table, but that’s not a pool table! Maybe it’s a good thing. I’d never finish another chopper build or a book, if I could do shots and play pool all day.

You’ll see some of JR’s billiard products on Bikernet in the near future, but we need to move on. I’m still researching the girl, but I spoke at length with Dave Haze, who has built choppers all his life, in Medford, Oregon. Just eight years ago he went official and opened a store front, Haze Custom Choppers. Get this, for all the naysayers in this business, during the 2007 downturn in the industry, Dave doesn’t do service work. “No stock bikes,” he told me. He simply builds bikes for customers and helps friends with custom alterations. Plus he sells a few parts. “This year has been just fine,” Dave told me. “Some of my customers have three of my bikes. But there’s always new customers rolling in.”

So obviously Dave is a good chopper builder who knows how to build and maintain a client base. In this feature you’ll see three examples of his workmanship. I asked him if he only worked with specific tried and tested manufacturers. “No,” Dave said. “I get engines from Ultima, TP, S&S and H-D for low budget builds. I buy frames from several guys. But if I buy a product and it breaks, I don’t go there again.”

On JR’s bike Dave built the oil tank, the custom fender, the seat pan. “I used a compressor air cleaner cover to hide the electrics,” Dave said. “We used an automotive serpentine belt pulley from a small block Chevy engine for the top motormount and installed an automotive high/low beam switch, so he could switch it with his foot.”

“During the build I ran over to the shop on a daily basis to sit on the bike,” JR said anxious to go for a ride, or was it the girl?

“The .44 mag risers are mine,” Dave said, “and the caps for the oil bag and gas cap. We reverse them from Billy Lane’s.” They build their bikes and paint them in-house. “We mix our own paints. JR’s is a mixture of green pearl, gold pearl, platinum pearl and gold leaf.” His father-in-laws brother, and 80-year-old gent does the leather seatwork in his trailer nearby. “He’s from Texas and I like that his work isn’t perfect.

His shop isn’t massive, just 1,500 square feet. “I grew up in the Bay area across from Arlen’s shop. As a kid I could see the mechanics working on bikes in the back, but gazing over the counters. Like a candy store for motorcycles.” He set up his shop the same, with a 4-foot wall behind the counter and windows into the build department. “Sometimes it turns into a party, but what the hell.”

He generally has 7-15 bikes being built or modified in the service area. “This month we have 12,” Dave said. “We build quality and I stand behind every bike.” Each Haze Chopper comes with a two-year warranty and there’s only Dave and Taco who work in the shop. “He’s a painter and a mechanic and I’m the same, plus handle the business side. It’s a solid team.”

I dug in and asked for a wild wanton story and his build philosophies, but he was Slim Pickens. “I like to keep my builds powered with 107-inch engines or less, or they’re in the shop constantly.” His formula creates fast bikes that rigid frames can handle for the distance. “We use stock motors for guys who are on tighter budgets.”

When it came to stories he had one from his first attempt to ride a Harley. “My uncle threw me his Panhead keys,” Dave said. “He told me if I could kick-start it, I could ride it for a day. I ran out to the bike, slipped in the key, grabbed the throttle and kicked it twice. I broke my leg.” He was 23 at the time and weighed 125 pounds. “I’m about 225 now and can kick anything.

There ya have it. The story of the Candy Chopper and Mr. Haze the builder.

--Bandit

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