full year after its debut right on the cover of this magazine the bike is still a head turner and crowd builder. At the Drag Specialties traveling road-show tent it’s positioned front and center more often than not, testament to the fact that the little black bike is a favorite everywhere, a guarantee to draw in riders who will then take a long look at everything else Drag Specialties has to offer. The bike we’re talking about is that jet-black Shovelhead Bobber put together by NYC Choppers of New York City, New York. A bare-bones bobber from the Mean Streets of Hell’s Kitchen, 53rd St. Manhattan, the bike has been one of the favorites commissioned by Drag Specialties showcasing FatBook offerings, and this NYC build sure does that. Nick Genender’s NYC Choppers isn’t only a Drag Specialties dealer, either, a shop more than up to the task of building sharp looking bikes like this one; most of the parts that made the bike come from NYC Choppers, as well, and most are in the FatBook because NYC Choppers is a Drag Specialties vendor, too. With an ever-growing parts list.
     Those bad-to-the-bone, stripped clean Manhattan bobbers and the parts to make them have made one heck of an impact on the biker world. Amazingly enough, Nick Genender, the man behind all the excitement, didn’t even own a motorcycle until 1993. Fresh from the “rag trade,” the garment industry in New York City, Nick bought a Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail for therapy and, with a sense of style honed by decades in cutting-edge fashion took his brand-new Harley and re-worked it into the spitting image of a 1958 Duo-Glide. All done purely on instinct, completed years before the retro look even had a name. “But I guess that’s just always been my flavor,” Nick says. “I’m a product of the ‘50s and it shows.”
     That retro-fit Heritage was the beginning of a chain of events that led to the formation of NYC Choppers and all those bobber/chopper parts in the FatBook. “Pretty soon after I put that first bike together,” Nick says, “I was full-time wrenching in the basement of the house I was renting, converting other bikes to the style of mine.” Swamped with work orders, Nick hooked up with some local shops for help. He’d bring in his conversion projects and split the fees. All this was happening back around ‘94, and from then until 1999 Nick worked, built bikes, developed a few custom parts of his own and generally learned the ropes in the motorcycle aftermarket. In 2000 a sublet space opened up on 27th Street in Manhattan and Nick made the move, officially opening the doors to NYC Choppers. Along with the bikes he was converting he sold oil coolers he’d developed and became one of the first distributors for Jesse Jurrens’ Legend Air Ride Systems. Outgrowing that 27th Street shop, Nick moved to 53rd Street in March of 2005.
     Right from the beginning and that customized ‘93 Softail, it’s amazing how Nick instinctively knew how to build what’s cool. “I guess I’ve always been just a little ahead of the trends,” he says, even going back to the sportswear years. “It might sound a little arrogant,” he goes on, “but I think our bikes are almost artwork.” Functional art, at that. NYC Choppers builds bikes meant to ride, using the streets of Manhattan as a private test track. “And it’s a team effort,” Nick says. “It’s my lead, my sense of style, but I learn something new every day from the guys working here, and you have to give credit where it’s due.” Along with Nick there’s now Mark Knowels, his brother Matt and fabricators/craftsmen Mike and Matt making it all happen on 53rd between 10th and 11th Avenues.
     Right along with more bikes for more people and a line of manufactured bikes and kits NYC’s future includes a lot more parts for a lot more people, as well. It’s all signature hardware, all with the indelible style stamp of NYC Choppers. “We’re doing our own frames now,” says Nick. “We have belt drives, and Springer front ends, handlebars, risers, grips, pegs, shifters, gas caps, oil tanks, velocity stacks, kicker pedals, breathers, mirrors, covers, seats, rolling chassis kits combining it all. It’s all good.” It was back around 2002 that the NYC/Drag Specialties connection started, today blossoming into the more than 100 part numbers carried in the FatBook, with more on the way. “My philosophy has always been to be just a little different,” says Nick. “Stay just a little out in front of what’s currently happening. It’s the only way I know to do things, and I’m amazed every day that I’ve managed to pull this off. From my background to where I am today? Doesn’t seem possible, yet here I am.” Of course there’s nothing amazing about any of this. An innate sense of style, of what’s cool, will shine through every time.
     Today’s custom-bike customer is usually a successful boomer with disposable income, a grown-up teenager who’s always thought customs are the coolest things since sliced bread and can finally afford one. Too often he winds up with a generic production machine with generic style. Nick Genender is out to change that. “Everybody’s selling something with an Iron Cross stuck on it,” says Nick. “To me it has to be more than that. It has to be the complete package.” Those NYC packages start with a $28,000 shovelhead chopper and there are do-it-yourself kits with MSO certification available. And for the real do-it-yourself crowd there’s that ever-growing supply of NYC Choppers parts in the FatBook. Mix and match them however you want, too. Every one of them is built with pure NYC style, so you’re guaranteed some cool-looking results!