Drag Specialties is proud of its vendors. Only the highest quality, best fitting superior designed products and companies can become part of Drag Specialties. What follows are stories about three companies that Drag Specialties is proud to call part of their family. Some have been with Drag Specialties for a long time, others are relatively new, but all three are top notch and quite frankly, they just want to brag about them.



Johnny C. of L.A. Choppers officially opened his own business in 1996, but he’s been working on, and building bikes since he was a kid.

ohnny C. at L.A. Choppers isn’t one of those new young guys who just decided there was money in customs and named himself a “Master Builder” like some other arbitrarily decide to do. Nope, Johnny C. learned his craft the old school way, spinning wrenches in his father’s garage while he was practically still in diapers.
     “Back in the day,” says Johnny C. “As soon as I was old enough to turn a wrench, my dad put one in my hand and started giving me work to do. He worked on bikes in our garage as a favor to friends and as a kind of side business. He was always fixing and customizing pieces of junk for people who didn’t have the money to go to an upscale shop. I was just a kid and he’d hand me a carburetor and say, ‘Take this apart, figure out what’s wrong with it and fix it.’ And by trial and error I would. I watched him make those bikes sing and I had to figure out how to do it too. When I wasn’t working on motorcycles I was always customizing my bicycles and my friends bicycles.
     “Then, when I was in the 5th grade my dad started drag racing and I learned a lot about motor work. We built a bike for me and I started racing too. We only lived about five miles from Irwindale Raceway and I was the youngest racer on a motorcycle drag bike. At only 12 years old I learned to go160-mph on a turbo drag bike. So, I started by learning by doing on junk and then advanced to super hi-performance machinery and I wasn’t even a teenager yet.”
Johnny C. kept building bikes and drag racing until most of the local drag strips closed down. Then, after high school he went into the military, did his service to the country, got out and started making a living as a truck driver. But, he still loved to work on bikes.
     “I started by working on my father-in-law’s Harley-Davidson,” says Johnny. “Then, some of his friends brought their bikes over and before I knew it my garage was stuffed with other people’s bikes. I’d drive a truck all week, get home and work on bikes all night and all weekend. From 1986-1996 I was doing repair and motor work and fixing problems on Harley-Davidsons. People liked my work because I knew how to make their bikes look and run better. I enjoyed doing it, repainting, boring, headwork, and valve work. Every kind of project on a bike is fun for me.”

     But, Johnny C.’s garage couldn’t hold his expanding customer base. So in 1996 he rented a building and it immediately overflowed with project bikes. So, he upgraded to a 4,000 square foot place and officially opened his own business. Soon, he needed to expand again.
“In 2000 we started making parts when we couldn’t find what we wanted,” says Johnny. “We came up with products like the Z-bar. Our stuff is a mix of the old school and the new school, the best of old mixed with the tech of new.”
     Then, in 2002, Johnny C. and his company, L.A. Choppers, joined Drag Specialties. “Drag has been outstanding,” says Johnny. “They’re the best company to work for because Drag takes care of its vendors as well as its customers. They have integrity–Drag Specialties protects its vendors, no rip offs.”
     And the products from L.A. Choppers are outstanding. “We make extreme stuff for choppers,” says Johnny. “We’re coming out with a line of exhaust and bars for stock bikes very soon as well as our product line for customs. My experience is being in the trenches, riding and making parts. After 20 years of repairs, you see what works and doesn’t work. I try to make what other people would like and some of our new products are made to appeal to people with stock bikes; guys with new bikes who want a quality part that will actually work and fit. And I mean that because customer service is real important to me. If there is a problem with a part I get on the phone myself. The fit and quality of our products is what it’s all about. Attention to detail and doing things right the first time because there is no substitute quality for quantity. I take a lot of pride in our stuff. I want people to love it and I take it personally when someone doesn’t like it and I fix it now!”

     And, Johnny is back into drag racing. “Yes, we’re racing again because we love it,” he says. “Racing is like an addiction that drains your wallet like drugs, but it’s a lot more fun. I’m the pilot and for me going from 0-180 mph is the best part. Plus, I still love to build drag bikes.” Johnny is currently building a dual engine drag bike, with two-152-inch motors!
     Johnny’s greatest respect goes to real “Master Builders” like Arlen Ness. “Arlen has been building bikes for a long time and he learned every aspect of custom work by doing it himself. He’s done his time. That’s what I recommend to everybody, do your time and really learn everything you can about every inch of the machine. That will make you a better builder and maybe someday you’ll earn the right to call yourself a Master Builder and really mean it.”
     L.A. Choppers offers their Pro-Series exhaust systems to target stock Harley-Davidsons. These pipes will produce 10-15% HP gain with re-jetting. A heat shield anti-bluing system prevents showing bluing. This is an awesome exhaust for guys with a stock bike available for Road Kings, Dyna’s, Softails and Sportsters. Also from L.A. Choppers are the BFL bar and the Super BFL bar with an additional 5 inches of pull back for a great look and comfortable ride.
For more information, contact your Drag Specialties rep today to check out all the great products offered by L.A. Choppers.

Johnny started drag racing at 12 years old, and has recently gotten back into the motorcycle drag racing world. He is currently building a dual-engine drag bike with two 152-inch motors!

he big dogs of custom-bike building have several advantages over the rest of us, not the least of which is a huge inventory of parts and accessories, as well as the ability to make whatever they don’t have or can’t get. But when you’re building a custom bike at home, and something doesn’t fit, you don’t have the luxury of a shop full of parts to rummage through looking for one that does. Instead, you have to box it up, take it back to the dealer, and oftentimes wait for a replacement part. That’s why it’s important for things like exhaust pipes to fit correctly right out of the box, because, as Jason Martin of Martin Bros. Bikes says, “You don’t want to buy a product five times.”
     Jason and his brother Joe started out building hot rods and gradually edged over into the bike world about 10 years ago. “We always had a love for bikes but never had access to them,” Jason says. “Harleys were a little too expensive for us back then. Joe bought a panhead, I bought a shovelhead, and we started tearing into them, stripping them down, and rebuilding them, making them our own.”
     What started out as fun soon turned into a business when people started noticing the brothers’ bikes. “We started out doing paint—Joe’s always been an excellent painter and graphics guy—and began doing more and more of the bike.” Next, the brothers tried their hand at metal fabrication, eventually building and selling complete bikes.
     When Joe first focused his design talents toward exhaust pipes, it was with mixed success. The pipes looked great, but, as Jason recalls, subcontracting their manufacture was a mistake. “The quality was poor, so we ended up buying our own equipment and making them ourselves. We got a couple of big manual benders and a ring roller, and we made these real crude jigs that held things in place, then did more research and started getting better and better at it.”
     Long story short, they got really good at it, which you already know if you’ve seen the Great Biker Build-Off on the Discovery Channel. “We’ve done five hours on Discovery, and have two more to do,” Jason says. “Right now we’re doing a pilot for a new show.” But while pleasing a TV audience is one thing, pleasing Drag Specialties is quite another. Rest assured, however, that Martin Bros. pipes rated high enough with Drag Specialties to be added to the product line.
     While the TV exposure helped earn Martin Bros. additional name recognition, “You still have to do your job,” Jason says. “The designs and the quality are what we pride ourselves on. We make all of our products in-house, and we stand behind them. If you’re not happy with the product we’re happy to take it back.”
     Jason and Joe haven’t forgotten who got them where they are today. While you might see them at some of the big shows, you’re more likely to find them chatting with riders at smaller events across the country. “We’ll go to the smaller shows instead of the big monster shows, because we get to talk to people and connect to the customers who maybe can’t travel so much. You get to talk about your products to the people who are buying them.”
     Jason and Joe especially like talking to garage builders who are building ground-up customs at home. “They’re the ones that think about it the same way we do,” Jason says. “They’re real particular about what they want on their bike. Not to say that a Harley owner isn’t, but there’s something about a guy who’s building his own bike who says, ‘I’m gonna have exactly what I really want, without any compromise.’”
     Look for Jason and Joe at a show near you, or on your TV. And check out Martin Bros. pipes in Drag Specialties’ Midyear Catalog due out in May.

Jason (standing) and Joe Martin started building custom bikes about 10 years ago. Martin Bros. Bikes was recently featured on the Great Biker Build-Off on the Discovery Channel.

Medustas pipes. Look for more Martin Bros. pipes in the Drag Specialties Mid-Year Catalog due out this May.

ave you seen the Pingel All-Electric Shift Kit yet? It’s brand-new, and while an electric shifter like this will obviously be pretty high on the wish list of performance riders, cruiser and touring guys will want to know all about this clutchless-shift conversion, too. Wayne Pingel, the guy responsible for the kit, feels it’s the neatest thing he and his wife, Donna, have come up with in a long time, definitely something the average rider can really enjoy. That’s saying a lot, because Wayne and Donna Pingel have been around for awhile, longer than most in the business today. They placed their first bike-parts ad in Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s “Choppers” magazine way back in the early 1970s. Remember that one? Count yourself a real veteran if you do.
     The Pingel All-Electric Shift Kit is a state-of-the-art system, a direct result of Wayne’s decades-long addiction to drag racing. He developed wheelie bars for motorcycles as early as 1976. This all-electric shift kit is an every-bike friendly variation on the Pingel racebike air shifter. It offers lightning-fast gearshifts at the touch of a button. That’s both upshifts and downshifts, and bolt-on kits are available for all the popular Harleys. There are even All-Electric Shift Kits for the V-Rod, and there are a couple universal-fit kits, too, one for 7/8-inch handlebars and another for 1-inch handlebars. Whatever the application, though, every Pingel All-Electric Shift Kit does the same thing: It eliminates the need to shift with your foot or use the clutch, while still retaining the OE shift functionality when you want it.
     The Pingel All-Electric Shift kit is an easy bolt-on. Everything’s included. There’s a dual-button handlebar control for the upshifts and downshifts, there’s a chrome-plated electronic shift cylinder that makes it all happen, there are model-specific bolt-on shift cylinder support brackets and there’s a state-of-the-art electronic control module that sends a quick signal from the button controls to the shift cylinder and the ignition system, momentarily interrupting the ignition coils while simultaneously making the shift, up or down. Complete step-by-step instructions, with photos, assure an easy installation.

Pingel’s universal-fit All-Electric Shift Kit.


The new Cycle Jaws from Pingel make stabilizing the front end of a motorcycle during transport or in the shop or garage a breeze. The Cycle Jaws are versatile, adjusting to various tire sizes, and built tough with thick-wall yellow zinc plated steel.

     For the record, here are all the Part Numbers and applications. Kit 1601-0080 fits 2000-2005 Softails without floorboards, #1601-0083 is for the 2000-2005 Softails with floorboards. Kit 1601-0082 is for earlier 1990-1999 Softails with floorboards, kit 1601-0079 fits 1982-2005 FLT, FLHR, FLHT and FLTR models. For the Sportsters, kit 1601-0077 fits 1994-2003 XLs and #1601-0078 is for those new-design rubber mount bikes, the 2004s and 2005s. The V-Rod kit is #1601-0081, and those two Universal Shift Kits carry #1601-0070 for bikes with 7/8-inch handlebars and #1601-0073 for standard Harley 1-inch handlebars. Both Universal Kits can use an optional Frame Mount Pingel has available, too, #0502-0016 for 1-inch diameter frame tubes, #0502-0017 for 1 1/8-inch frame tubes, #0502-0018 for 1 1/4-inch tubes and #0502-0019 for frame tubes measuring 1 3/8-inch diameter. Kit prices range from $681.95 to $947.95 retail.
     Wayne and Donna Pingel started in business with a custom hot-rod and Harley shop, specializing in rebuilding engines, building choppers and street rods. By the early 1980s they were totally concentrating on performance, drag racing and fuel valves, the product Pingel Enterprise is most known for today. Those high-flow petcocks were a product of necessity, too. Originally, the Pingels were selling surplus aircraft fuel valves they’d convert to motorcycle use, but aesthetically those valves weren’t the prettiest things around. They sure did flow the fuel, though. The replacement petcock Pingel came up with in 1975, however, matched, and even exceeded, the flow-rate of those aircraft pieces, it looked a lot better and even incorporated a reserve feature, something lacking on the aircraft valves. Today there are almost 100 different part numbers for those Pingel fuel valves. They cover every mounting application and fitting configuration imaginable. The Pingel fuel valves flow a whopping 85-ounces per minute, too, a huge improvement over the paltry 28-ounces per minute allowed by a stock Harley petcock. “We pass more gas,” is how Wayne Pingel puts it. Of course those fuel valves are in the FatBook, and have been for years.
     The new Pingel “Cycle Jaws” are in there, too. This is something just introduced and available through Drag Specialties, and it’s another Pingel Enterprise product of necessity. Roaming the racetracks, Wayne noted the various ways racers were hauling their bikes to and from the track, and what he saw worried him. Too often the tie-down methods were unsafe, to put it mildly. Pingel came up with a better plan. The Cycle Jaws allow motorcycles to be loaded in and removed from trailers or trucks without having to ride or push the bike over any cumbersome hardware, something that’s a real chore with heavier machines. With the Pingel Cycle Jaws loading and unloading a bike becomes a one-man operation. The Cycle Jaws mimic the adjustable wheel chock regularly seen on professional motorcycle-shop work tables, but it’s smaller, easier to use and it’s adaptable to pickup truck beds, trailers and even garage floors. Pingel offers neat little mounting brackets to make the installation easy, and the Cycle Jaws adjust to the height and depth of the tire, protecting the rim from any potential damage. The Jaws adjust to tire sizes from 3- to 6 1/2-inches wide and it’s all constructed with heavy-duty, thick-wall, yellow-zinc-plated steel so it’s built to stay around. The Pingel Cycle Jaws, Part #4101-0059, retails for $349.95.

     Pingel Enterprise started in a two-car garage. Today Wayne, Donna and their 34 employees work out of a new, 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Adams, Wisconsin. Offering products like these, especially that new All-Electric Shift Kit, that growth is totally understandable. Make that inevitable. Call your Drag Specialties rep for more details.