Every so often I receive 10 e-mails from Big Mike, or Mike and Wendy Rouse, of Big Mike’s Choppers. He always sends me 100 shots of his latest model, or a bike he build for Jack Daniels (which is feature on Bikernet). I’ve watched Mike grow to building seven models, two Bobbers, three Holligans and two Big Daddy’s. Mike has hung in there when a lot of companies are struggling. There’s a helluva lot of competition on the streets, but fortunately the sun is shinning on the summer and riding season is approaching.

For any guys to make it in this biz, he must understand business, sales, product purchasing, staffing and leadership. Mike’s a big ruffian looking bull of a man, but he’s cool and as you will see he knows how to take care of a customer. He’s not afraid to get down and greasy.

In my cursory way of analyzing his abilities from afar I can see that he has a way of injecting style into his bikes that are not wild by any slant. They’re simple choppers designed with the right components and put together in proper fashion to hang on the open road. But each model contains distinctive elements that make them stand up on the streets. I like his wheel treatments with powdered rims and pinstriping. I like his traditional fork books, the strung seats on the rigids and the paint schemes. They’re classic.

So here’s the lastest news from Mike, a tech sheet on the Bar Hopper so you can see what components he uses—Enjoy.

--Wrench

BIG MIKE CHOPPERS TESTIMONIAL-- Hey Bandit ,great website. I bought a new bmc a year ago and had a local bike shop install a air ride system. After about 600 miles with the new air ride the plate that holds the shocks to the swingarm broke while riding home one day. I contacted lazo [one of Mike's original partners in Santa Cruz, I met lazo at the Arlen Ness bike show in San Jose at the bmc booth]. Lazo brought his trailer over from Santa Cruz and picked up the bike. Big Mike came down from Oregon to help dissasemble the swingarm.

Turns out that the bike shop did not install the air shocks properly and they were going sideways as well as up and down, and they forgot a spacer on the wheel axle. Mike took the swingarm back to Bend Oregon, had it rewelded with an extra gusset and re powdercoated for NO CHARGE. Can you believe it .The service and work I recieved from Lazo and Mike and the BMC crew was exceptional.

--Steve Parker
San Jose Ca

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