Garage Builder Rick Winter's Shovelhead

not many people can say at 74 years old that they’re still riding and building motorcycles, but Rick Winters is one of a kind. Hailing from Middleport, New York this month’s Dennis Kirk Garage Builder has spent almost his entire life dedicated to building and riding motorcycles. Not for fame, or money, but simply for the love of two wheeled machines.

As a retired machinist, Rick has been around moto parts and pieces for as long as he can remember, but his family wasn’t too keen on him riding them when he was a kid. However, one of his friends just so happened to ride and offered to let him take it out for a spin. Like a kid in a candy shop, Rick hopped on and ended up crashing not too long into the ride. Luckily that didn’t turn him away and he ended up hooked on motorcycles.

The first bike he ever owned was a 1975 Bridgestone 2 stroke but the first one he ever built was a 1941 Harley WLA, and he’s built bikes everywhere. 6’x8’ utility sheds, 2 car garages, old barns, you name it. The only place he’s never been able to build is the living room, which he says would be the best because you could watch TV while you worked on your bikes!

Now, on to the real reason you’re here, the bike gracing these pages, Rick’s 82 Super Glide. It started simply as a 78 Super Glide that was having some engine work done. At the time, Rick had just started drag racing and had really taken a liking to it, when one day he was puttering around and thought about how well the bike would run if it was lighter weight. He had it in his head as a rigid frame with the rest being Superglide components, wheels, front end and the like with a stripped-down lightweight Sportster tank type of frame. That idea stayed where it came from until a few years later when he came across a friend of his who had a three-wheeler conversion with a Shovelhead engine.

For some backstory on that, the original owner of the Shovelhead was hit by a car and ended up losing his leg in the aftermath. Once he recovered from his injuries, he took what was left of the bike, got hold of another, chopped up bit and attached it to the dresser frame. He figured with a three-wheeler he’d still be able to ride with his missing

Owner: Rick Winters City/State: Middleport NY Builder: Rick Winters Year: 1982 Model: Superglide Value: Priceless Time: 10+Years

ENGINE Year: 1974 model: Harley Shovelhead Builder: Harley Ignition: Crane Electronic Displacement: Stock Pistons: Stock Heads: Stock Carb: Cam: Andrews Air Cleaner: Exhaust: Custom Primary: TRANSMISSION Year: Make: Harley Davidson Shifting: 4-Speed

FRAME Year: Model: Paughco Rake: Stretch: Forks Builder: Type: Triple Trees: Extension: WHEELS Front Wheel: Spoke Size: Tire: Front Brake: Rear Wheel: Spoke Size: Tire: Rear Brake: PAINT Painter: Bobby Reynolds Color: Gloss Black Type: Graphics: None Chroming: ACCESSORIES Bars: Paughco Risers: Paughco Hand Controls: Foot Controls: Gas Tank(s): Paughco Oil Tank: Paughco Front fender: None Rear Fender: Paughco Seat: Headlight: Paughco Tail light: Speedo: None leg. The problem was once he got to the controls portion of the build; he wasn’t able to machine any of the parts himself. It also became apparent at that time that he would need any money he might spend on parts to be put towards his medical expenses, so the bike was put up for sale. This is where Rick comes in. He got it for cheap and took it to a friend of his who owned a shop and had a Paughco Shovel rigid frame that a guy had ordered from him and just never picked up. His friend wanted to get his money from it, so Rick offered to buy it off him for a fair price. For the front and rear wheels, he went to one of his friends who was chopping a bike and wanted to get rid of the stock parts. Those were the last pieces he needed to put the whole thing together and that’s exactly what he did. He was finally able to build the bike of his dreams.

The hardest part of his build, and what seems to be the hardest for a lot of people now, was money. Even though he was a machinist and able to make his own parts, he could only make so much before he had to purchase certain things. Time was also something he struggled with. In the early days of his build, Rick was working overtime to make extra money, so he had little time to himself. In the end, it took about 10 years of accumulating parts to have everything he needed to finish the build.

Before y’all even ask it, yes, this bike is a daily rider, just within the first week of having it completed he put just over a thousand miles on it!! That for sure says something about both him and the quality of his build.

When I asked him if there were any people, he would like to thank that may have helped him during his build it took him a moment. Not because he couldn’t think of anyone but because there were so many people he wanted to include. First are Bob and Linda Peterson from Liberty Cycle who he says were the single most helpful people during the project. Then Jim Ditullio, aka Puppet, who anyone in the sport of motorcycle drag racing should know. Puppet passed away a few years ago but was absolutely influential in the world of moto drag and changed the industry forever. In the end there were so many people that helped, Drag Specialties, Twisted Cycles, names you see in our pages all the time. But when you spend your life working on motorcycles, they become a part of your everyday life, and they begin to have meaning to them.

NO THERE ISN’T ANY REAL PRIZE, JUST SOMETHING TO DO WHILE YOU’RE IN THE CAN.

1. Missing Stitches On The Seat. 2. Extra Bolt On Rear Rocker Box Cover. 3. Extra Flange On Air Cleaner Cover. 4. Extra Heat Shield On Front Pipe. 5. Missing Tread On Front Tire. 6. Extra Exxuast Tip On Front Pipe. 7. Missing Hole On Front Brake Rotor. 8. Different Color Brake Fluid In Tube. 9. Extra Caps On Rear Brake Master Cylinder. 10. Different Foot Peg.

’m Chip Parisi, and I am a land speed racer!” Those are the words Bonneville racing veteran and motorcycle legend, Jay

Allen, coaxed me into telling his camera shortly after my second run down that storied lake bed in 2019. It wasn’t so much the fading adrenaline that made it seem unreal, but more the fact that I made this a true statement while atop my 150,000+ mile, 1,000 pound, ‘Ridden All the Time’ Harley-Davidson Winnebago! How did this dream come to be?

It all started in 2018, which is best recalled via my own words, written then: “On Thursday, after Mike McHone got his new rear tube installed in Jackson, Wyoming, we headed west into Idaho, then made camp just over the border, in Utah. This shady little National Forest site was on a babbling brook, cutting through an open range. We camped just past the cattle guard in the road but still had some huge heffers graze through our backyard. After being on the lookout for grizzlies for the past week, it was slightly startling to catch that first black bovine in camp out of the corner of my eye.

Friday morning, after packing up, we decided to go see the Bonneville Salt Flats, as neither of us had been before. Along the way, on the rarely used Interstate, we saw an old hippie-looking guy trying to thumb a ride. With a quick nod to each other, Mike and I pulled to the shoulder and waved him over.

IAs I was about to start making room for this weary traveler, I saw the

look in Mike’s eye and asked, “You want him?” The smile and nod were enough, but Mike took away all doubt with an enthusiastic, “Hell yea!” Well, what could I say? I took the last one, a 17-year-old Czechoslovakian lad, so it was his turn. After loading half of Mike’s gear onto my bike, and the wrinkled leather tramp onto his, we were on our way into the setting sun.

Some 80 miles later, we learned that the exit we were taking was also where he wanted to be dropped. Nice! After I gave this gristled old-timer a few granola bars, Mike handed him a freshly acquired can of Dinty Moore beef stew and a sleeping pad that he had just upgraded from. We said goodbye and wished this caricature of a California bum good luck.

Minutes later, while gassing up and getting ready to go camp on the salt flats, we saw a large ‘Cycle Source Magazine’ truck and trailer. I excitedly told the driver and passenger that I love their rag. I was even mentioned and pictured in a Scooter Tramp Scotty article back in May. Within a minute, I realized the operator was wearing a Hoka Hey Challenge shirt and asked, “you too?” With a raised brow and knowing smirk. He explained that he completed the notoriously difficult first event, when it was a race and had a half-million-dollar purse but did not have his HHC coin with him...so I gladly collected the beer that tradition said he now owed me.

Unbeknownst to me, this was Chris Callen, Founder and Editor in Chief, and his wife Heather, Managing Editor. Aside from the beer and a couple of stickers for Gloria, he also gave me some great news; it was the eve of motorcycle speed week (BMST). If we stuck around, we’d see some of the fastest bikes and riders

in the world. Sweet!

With a tip from them, we headed to the speedway gate to camp under the sky and spent the rest of the night meeting and BSing with some racers and teams. These folks are a breed apart and ooze speed from every pore.

Flash forward to the morning, and after sleeping under an almost full moon, we were in a slide-in camper, bouncing down to the pits, as honorary members of the world record-breaking Edwards Racing Team. Simon and his team, including his dear mother, Mai, treated us like family and were more than happy to share their stories, food, beer, shade, and rolling leather couch. After inspections were complete, the day was closed out with them, and a bunch of other race teams and enthusiasts, at a small bar, one exit down. After another night under the brilliant moonlight outside the gate, we are back in the pits, ready to see Simon try to break 228mph and others shoot for well over 300!! A week ago, I had no idea we’d be going to a wedding in the woods, spending a night in strangers’ garage loft, or playing pit crew for a worldclass race team on the salt flats in Bonneville, but here I am. I love waking up every morning and having no idea what the day will bring or what adventures are in store. I’m notoriously terrible at making plans, but a big reason for that has got to be that the best things always seem to be unplanned.”

That first year in Bonneville, when the goal was to simply see, feel, and taste “The Salt,” still lingers as one of my favorite weeks of my newfound way of life. At the beginning of my

second year in the saddle, I was tramping around this endlessly diverse American landmass and was really firing on all cylinders. In late July, I had earned the title of Hoka Hey Challenge Finisher, quieting all my unspoken inner doubts and making me feel like I could do just about anything! I was fresh off my first ‘motorcycle industry’ rally job, installing Rekluse Clutches in Sturgis. Mike and I had recently burned through a weekend as lastminute guests at a beautiful wedding in the woods, at the base of Beartooth Pass. We had just conquered a minor breakdown by making friends with a local couple and spending a soul-quenching night with family dinner at their mountainside retreat in Wyoming. Everything was coming up, Milhouse!

Back then, our job in the pits was to make the beer coolers lighter and eat all the food generously offered. We had a great time with our newly made friends, including Edwards Racing and many others, but the desire to pitch in never faded. In 2019, we got our chance! The team’s primary race bike blew a piston, and we were put to work. I initially reached for my ever-present stash of zip ties and JB Weld but was happy to learn they had a spare motor at the ready. With a bunch of cooks in the kitchen, each adding their own little touches, we had the motors swapped in no time, and lead tech, James, had the bike dialedin, shortly after. The following day, Simon went on to beat his personal best. I can’t describe how good it felt to be a part of that, rather than just an enthusiastic spectator.

Afterward, at Carmen’s Black &

White Bar in Wendover, surrounded by racing legends, stubborn newbies, and dream-chasers from around the globe, it happened. My friend, Peter Manning, son of BUB Racing Founder, and Mr. Bonneville himself, Denis Manning, handed me a beer and asked me if I’d like to run ole Gloria on the Mountain Course! “What?!?” is about all I could muster at first, but as the chat morphed into a serious conversation, I knew there was no way I could say anything but, “HELL YES!”.

Pete explained that he, Simon, and a few others had conspired to sponsor me in the “Run Whatcha Brung” class and that all I had to do was get my old bagger through safety inspection, suit up in approved race gear, and go as fast as I could, through the measured mile. Sounded easy enough, but I didn’t sleep much that night, fairly convinced I’d either kill my bike or myself. The following morning was spent prepping my battle-tested touring bike for pre-race scrutiny. This included removing mirrors, tourpack, and anything that could fall off (easier said than done!). I was drilling and safety wiring all drain plugs and axle bolts, taping all the lights, zip-tying the kickstand up, and adding my newly acquired AMA Number, #943, the same as my Hoka Hey Rider number. By the time those chores were done, I was drenched in sweat and fighting off the butterflies in my gut. After I wriggled into a borrowed one-piece leather race suit (for the first time) and slid on Simon’s super-duper race helmet, I no longer felt like I might die

out there. That purpose-built gear made me feel invincible, especially compared to the t-shirt and cadet cap I’m usually donning (while flying past 18 wheelers, unforgiving signposts, and tensioned cable highway barriers). I also reconciled my fear of killing my bike by convincing myself that I’d be okay with blowing my beleaguered motor while racing at Bonneville. I mean, the memory and story would surely be worth it!

With some words of encouragement from my friend volunteering at the starting gate, I lined her up, watched the flag drop, and ripped through all 5 gears on my clapped-out 95 incher. The course was very firm that year, but I had no point of reference, so I just held on loosely, tucked as best I could with 14-inch apes and forward controls, and tried my best to keep her at max speed through the measured mile. Of my 2 passes, each separated by only 0.15 MPH, my top average speed, through the only mile that counts, was 103.450 MPH. After having touched 122 MPH on I-90 just the week

before, completely loaded down, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t faster, but that’s when I learned first-hand just how much power is lost to that unpredictable surface of sodium and understood why people get so addicted to chasing records at Bonneville.

To this day, I carry my 100 MPH Bonneville coin in my pocket, right next to my Hoka Hey Challenge coin and the St. Christopher prayer coin that my girl Laura gave me. These three little tokens each mean something different to me. Still, they are all united by happy memories and lessons about just letting go and believing in myself. ~In loving memory of my Father, Joseph Parisi Jr. 5/14/1948 – 8/14/2021 Rest in Peace, Dad. Thank you for EVERYTHING. We love you. Always.~