One of the custom motorcycles we saw during our rounds at the recent Piston Powered Auto-Rama in Cleveland was this 2009 Big Bear Chopper. Built by Mickey Dent, he was kind enough to give us the full details of the bike for our latest Ride of the Week!
TRANSCRIPT
Hey guys Evan Laux here with Motorcycle and Powersports News as you can see we’re at the 2023 Piston Powered Autorama in our backyard Cleveland, Ohio, and behind me is this 2009 Big Bear sled and it’s your Ride of the Week.
Guys I’m here with Mickey Dent he’s the builder of this beautiful bike right here, and Mickey to the people who don’t know about Big Bear, where are they out of and what kind of bikes are they making?
They’re out of California. They’re very well made choppers. I found this one very neglected in Georgia and then I acquired it and took it home and made it what it is today.
Ok, and what’s your background in motorcycle building? Do you have a shop or are you you know doing it out of your garage?
I own a construction company, so this is what I enjoy doing in the garage in the evenings when I get home. I’ve got several bikes. I’ve raced for Harley-Davidson for seven years and I figured that I could do show bikes a lot easier than I can pay hospital bills.
Right, right! Well, obviously you’re good at it. You’ve got a beautiful looking bike here. What are some of the main additions, custom additions that you’ve put on this Big Bear?
Well, I’ve changed changed the front end. I put new wheels on, new exhaust, chromed pulleys on the chain tensioner. I’ve got a chrome chain on it, chain guard, controls, pegs, grips, shifters. Just about everything. Yeah, quite a bit of work in it.
What about the engine? What kind of motor do we got going there?
This was an S&S motor. It’s a 111 smooth. They don’t make it no more, so the smooth part comes from the in-balance in the crank before you buy them. An S&S motor has got quite a bit of vibration to them. This one it is what it is, a smooth-running 111.
I was going to ask you how smooth the ride is here because you know the bike’s super low to the ground. How does it ride.
It ride’s great. It’s not a quick turner, but as far as the ride goes, it’s a softail. It does have chrome shocks up underneath it. They’re kind of hidden, but it rides good.
Do you take it on the freeway at all?
Oh yeah, I’ll ride around town, or if we go to Myrtle Beach for Bike Week or Daytona, we’ve got riders at home too that we bring along with us to ride.
Perfect, well, like you said it’s got a ton of custom additions here. Is there anything that like one key aspect to hone in on that you know is really cool about this particular build?
It’s just low and long. That’s the cool factor.
Yeah definitely. I’ve seen a lot of people stopping by looking at it checking it out so you’ve got a really cool bike here. Well Mickey thanks for telling us about it, you’ve got a really cool Big Bear. Guys make sure you’re checking out Motorcycle and Powersports News for some more Ride of the Week content. You can follow us on YouTube and across our social media pages and keep checking in. Thanks for watching guys!
