I caught a break here. I was able to interview the owner, Tom Eilek, and the builder Jon Fox, from The Shop in Minneapolis. Hell, they tried to pass me off to a guy who wants to shoot an ex-Easyriders model with the bike, but they never brought up the color scheme. More good fortune befell me when I found out the bike had a history. It originally belonged to a famous custom painter, Mallard Teal's buddy, Charlie.

The story takes place on the back streets of blue-collar Minneapolis and the Rice district of St. Paul. Racing through a community of saw mills and wheat mills from the 1850s, Charlie slipped and went down on the cold concrete and was no more. Mallard Teal inherited his tight classic scooter and rolled it into a corner of his shop in 1965.

I did some research on Minneapolis, since that name is on the strange end of the title spectrum. The first name selected by the county commissioners in October 1852, was Albion. However, it proved unpopular. Other names considered but discarded for the young community included All Saints, Lowell, Brooklyn, Addiseville, and Winona. The name Minnehapolis was selected by popular acclaim following schoolmaster Charles Hoag's proposal to the editor of the St. Anthony Express, George D. Bowman. The name came from a derivative of laughing waters, "Minnehaha," and the Greek suffix for city, "polis," or city of the falls. Bowman published the name in the paper on November 5, 1852 and in the November 12th issue, it was given favorable review. The 'h' was dropped early on; the literal meaning is "city of waters."

The Minnesota Territorial Legislature authorized Minneapolis in 1856 as a town. In 1858, the town government was organized. Then in 1866 under a legislative act, the city of Minneapolis was incorporated.

I couldn't find out much about St. Paul on the edge of the Mississippi, except the town's folk are still pissed off about a building. The Ryan Hotel in downtown was originally located at Robert Street North and 6th Street. Built in 1882, the hotel was demolished in 1962 (remember the song, "They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot?"). A parking lot replaced the hotel until the Minnesota Mutual Life home office was built on the site in 1981. Currently, the Minnesota Historical Society is active in saving the history of Saint Paul. Unfortunately, they couldn't save this great hotel.

"I'll take it, If you ever want to sell it," Tom said about Charlie's Panhead. Mallard, attached to his brother's memory, didn't want to let it go, but time crept past. Cobwebs build up around the classic Paughco springer and frame, and Mallard ultimately decided to close his shop, clean out the corners and retire to his home studio.

"I was there at just the right moment," Tom said. "He was moving out of his shop." Tom took the bike home, stripped it down and hauled it to Jon Fox at the shop for refurbishing. "It had a rat's nest in the carburetor," he said.

"We didn't want to change much," Tom added. They switched out the Paughco frame for a Kraft Tech to encompass a 180 tire. "We took a stock 45-inch rear fender widened it two inches, but left the hinge in place." The hinge is faux, because they wanted to avoid chipping paint, so the sheet metal was welded underneath.

They purposely let the fender ride a tad off center. "They weren't perfect," Tom said, "so we let it ride like nostalgic fenders did." Tom is a retired truck driver whose dad was a dispatcher and didn't drink or smoke.

"My first bike was a '63 XLCH," Tom said. "My dad oversaw the paint job and had it painted with gangsters, machine guns and a guy giving the finger to the gas cap. I could never figure it out. It was a bastard to start because of the magneto and kick only. My dad let me hang onto the car door until I could pop the clutch in third gear and let her rip."

Tom spent three years in Vietnam, 11 years as a cop and 30 years behind the big wheel. He's 56 and won't ride anything but rigids. "They fit me. I also have a Sucker Punch Sally bike by Donny Loos."

The '65 Pan engine was built to 80 inches and recently dyno tuned for 71 horsepower. "She's quick," Tom said. But just as I tried to ask about the dreaded green paint job, Tom had to split.

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