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Motorcycles Rock 'N' Rumble

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By LIZ BLEAU, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 19, 2007

Updated: 09/17/2007 09:44 pm

GIBSONTON - Many family photos capture memories of the old family car - that old Plymouth or Ford that our parents drove and proudly posed next to for a place in the family album. Some might remember the cars of their grandparents.

In Alan Bernard's family, the family photographs include motorcycles. Bernard is co-owner of Santiago Chopper, a custom chopper shop. His family photographs with bikes date to his great-grandparents. There's a sepia-toned 1904 photo of his great-grandfather on a Belgian-made Sarolea 500, with his great-grandmother Madeleine on the back.

'In my family, it was always motorcycles,' he said. 'We also worked on cars, but bikes were our big thing.'

Bernard, from France, and his partner, Mike Bashaw, operate the shop whose motto is 'It's Not a Bike; It's a Chopper.'

Choppers are motorcycles with long extended front-end frames.

His family, from Lille, in the northern part of France, had a motorcycle shop and often another business attached. His great-grandfather, for example, owned the city's first motorcycle shop that also had a bar and a barber shop.
World War II was hard on the Bernard family, who lost almost everything.

Alan Bernard dreamed of coming to the United States, and in 1994 he arrived here on vacation with a friend.

Five hours after arrival, Bernard was in Daytona on a motorcycle when he and his friend were struck by a car.

'I spent a year in the hospital,' he said. 'I spoke no English, except for 'please' and 'thank you.' I lost everything.'

After seven operations, he was out of the hospital and on his way to Riverview. He chose Riverview because while in the hospital he had met a biker from there.

His wife, Christine, joined him, and using money from an insurance settlement from the accident, Bernard set up shop.

The shop is known throughout the world for its custom chopper creations, Bernard said. Last year, the shop sent more bikes to Australians than U.S. customers.

The built-from-the-ground-up bikes sell for $20,000 to $80,000. Most, Christine Bernard said, are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

The shop has several specialities. One is a show bike Alan Bernard created with a fender that lights up with the shop's trademark spiderweb and name showing through the special night-vision paint.

The shop also created a purple trike for the Jessica Lunsford Foundation, called 'Jessie's Ride.'

'We wanted to do something,' Bernard said. The trike is kept mostly at the shop, but the owners take it to shows and events and pass out brochures about the foundation in memory of the 9-year-old girl who was abducted from her Homosassa home and killed.

Another specialty created by the shop is She Choppers, which are made with smaller frames.

'I told Alan he needed to come up with something for people like me with short legs,' Christine Bernard said.

Many of the bikes are inspired by customers' ideas, which Bernard and fabricator Mike Lima create out of metal.

The shop has been featured in more than 100 magazines worldwide.

Because the shop is so well known in bike circles, many people just drop in to see what is on the showroom floor, which is decorated with mannequins of '50s and '60s idols James Dean, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.

Alan Bernard said that era was what drew him to America. When he got here, he found that the America of the 1990s was different.

But he has stayed, he said, because the country gives him the freedom to create his choppers. In France, for example, the paperwork to get the choppers licensed for the street would be considerable.

'I'm still here because of three things,' he said. 'That's rock 'n' roll, motorcycles and cars. For me, this is America.'

In a corner of the shop are the many trophies the shop has won at shows across the country.

But for Bernard, the reward isn't just the towering trophies.

'For me, it's about doing what I like. In my life, I get to do that. A lot of people don't like their job. I enjoy what I do.'

EASY RIDERS

WHAT: Santiago Chopper

WHERE: 9879 U.S. 41, Gibsonton

WHAT: Custom choppers and trikes

WHEN: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays

CONTACT: (813) 671-9097 or visit www.santiagochopper .com for more Bernard family photos, photos of specialty creations and more.

Reporter Liz Bleau can be reached at (813) 865-1557 or lbleau@tampatrib.com.

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