doug keim | HOUSE OF CHOPPERS NATION by Jack McIntyre

Post & Pics by Jack McIntyre.

This post is brought to you by NAMZ Custom Cycle Products

Face it-what good is going to a motorcycle event if you can’t find a place to blow off a little steam? After a long day or night of riding, sightseeing, or just checking out all the cool new stuff the vendors have for sale, it’s great to have a place where you can let your hair down, have a cold beer, and enjoy yourself. There’s no one out there who understands this concept better than the folks at the Seminole Hard Rock Roadhouse. The Hard Rock has been setting up shop in 2005 at some of the major motorcycle events, namely Daytona Bikeweek, Sturgis, Daytona’s Biketoberfest, and (the final stop for ’05) Hollywood, Florida’s, own Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The words above are from the Hot Bike article from that time which I was shooting for. Very well said.

So this was / is Hollywood Florida during Christmas… yes please!

If you haven’t had the opportunity to experience the Hard Rock for yourselves, we’ll try to paint a picture through images. The Hard Rock brings in everything needed to have a full-on party. In no time, the guys have the place ready to rock, complete with a huge stage, sound system, lighting, and plenty of custom motorcycles. Once the doors open, the Hard Rock is filled with partygoers enjoying live music, dancers, motorcycles, and some of the most beautiful women anywhere. Oh, and did we mention burnouts and beer?

As you may remember if you had the Hot bike issue on this from January 2006, I’m relying on the article’s words because I couldn’t have re-written it better. “Without a doubt the highlight for ’05 was the outstanding display of custom bike building put on by some of the best in the business, specifically Johnny Chop, Doug Keim, Jesse Rooke, and Roland Sands. Each of the four builders had the task of building one motorcycle prior to the first event at Bikeweek. All four bikes were then displayed at each event where the Roadhouse made a stop. Visitors were encouraged to register to win a chance to actually take home one of the customs-not a bad deal! (See the sidebar for all the details.) Registration was easy and took only a few moments and could be done at the event or from a computer with internet access”. OH and at the bottom of the post, we can’t forget when Dennis Rodman rolled in for his book signing.

Once you took your eyes off the bikes, you didn’t have to look very far to find plenty of stunning women to hold your gaze. In addition to beautiful emcee Candy, who kept the crowds grooving, there was lots of talent on stage in the form of the Purrfect Angelz Dancers; the reigning Miss Hawaiian Tropic, Ashley Smith; and lots of suntanned lovelies vying for this year’s Hawaiian Tropic crown.

As an added attraction at the Hollywood, FL, event, Hooters sponsored the final (as well as the entire series of qualifying events) of Florida’s Next Top Builder Contest. The competition was designed to showcase the talents of some of Florida’s lesser-known custom builders. Over the summer and into the fall, there were seven preliminary events in which the winners qualified to compete in the final. When all was said and done, Eric Warren of Eric Warren Designs walked away with the crown and a check for $10,000-not bad at all. Keep your eyes open for Eric’s creation in an upcoming issue of HOT BIKE.

And the Winner Is…

The culmination of the Seminole Hard Rock Tour was the drawing of the winner of the 2005 contest. One very lucky person was chosen in a drawing of the five finalists assembled at the Hard Rock on the evening of December 3, 2005. The winner would then have to choose which one of the four bikes built by Johnny Chop, Doug Keim, Jesse Rooke, and Roland Sands he would have as his own. Yes, you heard it right-the winner would get to take home one of four custom bikes. After a few moments of some very frazzled nerves, the winner was drawn and announced by none other than Ashley Smith. When it was all over, a jubilant Ron Kogan emerged as the winner. His bike of choice was built by Creative Cycle’s Doug Keim. If you missed it, get a hold of the Jan. ’06 HOT BIKE and check it out on p. 24. A big thanks to Hot bike for writing such a great article way back then. No one is around to thank anymore, but they were great guys to work with!

At this point, the party began and went on, as biker parties once did, all night long.

As promised, Dennis Rodman rode in for his book signing. Yes, pictures don’t lie.

Once again, Carrie Repp throws a party like no one else & props to my friend & publisher Steve from Hot Bike back in those glory days.

Post by Jack McIntyre, Images by Jack McIntyre, Doug Keim, and Dino Petrocelli.

This post is brought to you by Iron Trader News.

Have you ever taken a walk with someone and discussed, oh I don’t know, motorcycle engineering? Well I did… I had known Doug Keim from being at motorcycle events for a few years starting in the early 2000’s, but while at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida back in December of 2005, he and I took a stroll through the outdoor bike show and in that short period of time, I learned more about the engineering of a motorcycle and its frame, than I ever knew before. Doug was one of those gifted motorcycle builders that didn’t build motorcycles just to make it look crazy because he could, he built motorcycles that were based on engineering first, then the creative design fell into place after.

I decided to post this image first because it’s always been one of my favorite Doug Keim builds. It was build for the Hard Rock Roadhouse tour, and a luck winner was chosen at the Casino on Saturday evening. The bikes name, “Rock Hard”.

I’ll do a separate post on this bike in the near future. For this post, I want to focus on two other motorcycles that Doug created. “The Rising” as seen below, and “Agnes” the dark red beauty to follow.

The Rising was a 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 at one point. Doug then began to hand create the exhaust, frame, front end, bars, mirrors, and the seat.

As viewed above, you can see the amount of care and precision it took to turn this bike into a masterpiece, remember that word “engineering”, well there you go.

The final product. Have you ever seen anything quite like this? You won’t, believe me. Scan through the images below, take in each portion of the bike, the flow of it is incredible.

I had created a calendar back in the day, and you can understand why “The Rising” had to have it’s own month. I brought with me a pretty young gal from New Jersey for the photo shoot of which we did out front of the Atlantic City Convention Center.

Now, on to “Agnes”. Talk about another engineering masterpiece, this build is simply first class. Smooth from front to back, Doug and Jim Miller did all of the fabrication and assembly. Built in under 90 days, the long list of components used are the best of the best, Chip at APW did the gorgeous deep dark red paint work and there are so many great companies involved, I can’t even name them all.

Below are a few pics of the bikes early fabrication.

And the finished product. Again, look over the images for the details Doug added, the creativity, and more.

Last, I’ll leave you with a few videos taken at the time, of Agnes being built. These have been on YouTube for many years, so keep that in mind with today’s hi-res displays. Creative Cycles in no longer in New Jersey, Umatilla Florida is & has been for many years now, where Doug is located. He’s still doing amazing work on motorcycles, and some very high end bikes I must say. Go to Creative Cycles (https://creativecycles.com/) for much more.