CHOPPER BUILDER
AL | AE CHOPPERS
Desert Mama- Who is Al and where can we find you?
Al- I’m just a hard working blue collar guy from small town Iowa hustling daily to pay the bills and avoiding the majority of people in the process.
D- How long have you been working with motorcycles and when did this love for the art come about?
A- Motorcycles have been a huge part of my life since I was a kid.
I grew up wrenching so I’ve been working on bikes as long as I’ve been riding.
The first bigger motorcycle I rode was a 70’s Honda 550. I think I was 10 years old. It was a pile of shit. We had to charge up the battery every time, pull the spark plugs, dump a little fuel in the cylinders to prime it, kick start it and my brothers and I would take turns dirt biking it around the farm till the battery would eventually go dead. Good cheap fun.
D- Who taught you how to do this?
A- I grew up wrenching on cars with my dad. Not so much a father son bonding experience but either way I learned a lot of mechanical knowledge at a young age.
D- Show us your best work by now and tell us why you love it.
A- My favorite bike I’ve built is one I built 6 years ago actually.
My skills have progressed since that build but it’s one I’m most proud of. I handmade basically every part or heavily modified any part I didn’t make, frame, wheels, frontend, axles, sheet metal, etc. , every important part that connects your ass to the ground on the highway. I rode the hell out of it before I eventually sold it. Lots of miles and good memories with friends on that bike.
D- What inspires you, and what other artist currently working inspires you?
A- I’m not really inspired by any one particular builder.
I just love clean and simple well-built choppers that are built to ride. All business no bullshit kind of bikes.
I take inspiration from all sorts of motorcycles street and dirt. My main inspiration building bikes comes from riding. They have to perform and hold up to the miles.
D- The part you love most about what you do, and the worst part:
A- What I love most about what I do is I turned what I love to do into a career.
The worst part is some days it feels like a job but I wouldn’t trade doing it for anything else.
D- Where would you like to see yourself 10 years from now? :
A- Honestly if I’m still doing the same thing, I’ll be happy. Building, riding choppers and partying with friends I’ll be good.
D- You only have two days left, what would you do?
A- Two-day Party
D- Your best quality and worst defect:
A- I have crazy ocd with how I build things, which helps with making quality parts but it slows me down considerably.
D- How is a perfect day in your life?
A- Any day I get to live life on my own terms.
D- A success and a failure:
A- Being able to build choppers for a living. You don’t get rich off of it though.
RECOMMENDATIONS
– A phrase: Life is tough but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.
– A song: Wymore’s Blues
– A drink: Budweiser
– A city: Music City (Nashville, TN) I love bars and good country music
WHAT DOES AL PREFER?
- Ten years in a coma /Ten years in jail
- City life / Country life
- Talking to animals / Talking to the dead
- Only being able to whisper/ Only being able to scream
- Lifetime free wifi / Lifetime free coffee (I could probably sell it ha)
- Singing in public /Dancing in public (No one needs to see me sing or dance in public )
- To only eat salty / To only eat sweet
- Waking up in a desert / In a boat in the middle of the Ocean
- Something organized / Something improvised
- Visiting the past / Visiting the future
- Being unable to see / Being unable to hear
- Reality / Fiction
- Motorcycle trip / Car trip (Chopper trip)
- Never leaving your city / Not being able to return
- Being submissive / Being dominant
- Continuing with your life / Restarting your life (I never look back)
- Knowing what you will die of / Knowing what day you will
- Music concert / Theater play
