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Click HERE to view Terry Lee featured on the American Biker television series. Please turn off the sound below First! |
I started
building Custom motorcycles in 1969, thinking I could make a paying career
of it. By 1974 it was painfully obvious to me that for a multitude of
reasons that I was not destined to be a creator of custom motorcycles,
so I left that dream and went on with my real life. I was never too far
from the two wheeled world, choosing a career in the Automobile Industry
that carried me to the position of General Manager of an Automobile Dealership,
a position I have worked at for 12 years.
In
1999. 30 years after I got out of the custom motorcycle field, I picked
up a copy of Hot Bike Magazine at a local Walgreens and my passion for
customs was re-ignited. I quickly purchased a 1998 Custom Softtail built
by a "name" shop for a big corporation, to be used as a contest give away,
from the eventual winner of the contest, who was thoroughly disenchanted
with the custom because he couldn't go more than 20 miles without the
bike breaking or something falling off.
With 250 miles on this dream bike, he put it up for sale, because he couldn't
find anyone who could or would fix the bike. I bought it, and on the way
home it broke leaving me stranded by the side of the road. So I took it
down to the bare frame to re-assemble it only to end up putting all new
sheet metal, different wheels, rotors, brakes, front end, seat, new wiring,
bars, forward controls, custom paint not to mention the 96" motor that
replaced the stock 80" motor.
I was hooked again and before that project was finished I was already
dreaming of my next custom that I had begun building in my mind.
"A 5" stretched custom softtail frame with a big motor, dual carbs, air
suspension, wild sheet metal, billet wheels, left side drive, lots of
chrome" and that's how "Envy " was born.
It took me
about 10 months off and on to build "Envy". I did the fabrication, welding,
assembly, molding, paint and wiring all myself and I wasn't finished with
"Envy" and I was already dreaming about my next project. " A rigid frame
right side drive, 250 rear tire, even bigger motor, say maybe 121 or maybe
131, radical rake, maybe 47 degrees, long front end 14 or 16 over, of
course radical sheet metal, maybe turbo charged, yeah why not?
It
can be a curse or a burning passion, and when you catch the custom bug.
It can be a fleeting encounter or last a lifetime, and even go dormant
sometimes, for say 30 years, but once you catch it, you never really get
completely over it.
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Envy Spec Sheet |