WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m String, and I run Raw Steel Choppers, an up-and-coming business set in the heart of rural Essex. I aim to build quality one-off frames, and bikes – anyone can buy an off-the-peg frame and put it together, but it’s not the same as having your dream bike built exactly how you really want it. And it doesn’t just have to be a chopper, by the way, we’ll build any style.
TELL ME ABOUT RAW STEEL CHOPPERS? WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM? WHEN WAS IT SET UP?
RSC came about, kind of by accident, back in 2011. I wanted a set of wide ‘bars for my streetfighter, but couldn’t find anything suitable, so decided to make my own. I hired a tube-bender, and made a few sets with the plan of selling them on eBay to cover the hire of the ‘bender. They all sold quickly, so I repeated the process again, and then again, and that was literally the start of Raw Steel Choppers. I moved on to different styles of ‘bars, and then progressed to a frame. I’ve always had a passion for choppers, but everything I looked at I dwarfed so I set up in my garage, purchased a tube-bender and a TIG welder (which I’d never used before!), and applied to The Welding Institute (www. theweldinginstitute.com) for an intensive course on TIG welding. I came away from there a week later with a TIG welding coding, and felt confident enough to build, and weld up, my first frame.
It wasn’t an easy road to get the business going. I still had to work full-time (as a welder/ fabricator), fitting in jobs in my lunch breaks, evenings, and weekends, as I had a young family to support. Slowly the business started to grow, initially friends and local people, but then, thanks to social media, people from other parts of the UK started to call, too.
This story is from the June 2020 edition of Back Street Heroes.
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This story is from the June 2020 edition of Back Street Heroes.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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THE SLED
I’M A SEMI-PRO SHED BUILDER, WHO BUILDS UNDER THE NAME DIRTY DICK’S… I SAY ‘SEMIPRO’ BECAUSE I’VE ONLY, AT THE TIME OF WRITING, SOLD TWO BIKES (AND, USUALLY, I GET PAID IN BEER FOR ANY OTHER WORK I DO).
THE CHIEF
I BOUGHT MY ENFIELD, A 2001 350 BULLET, IN SHROPSHIRE IN JUNE 2019, WITH JUST 11,000 MILES ON THE CLOCK. IT WAS IN TRIALS TRIM, BUT I ALREADY HAD IN MY HEAD WHAT I WANTED TO DO WITH IT – MAKE IT INTO A ‘50S-STYLE CUSTOM, BASED LOOSELY AROUND AN INDIAN SCOUT THAT I’D SEEN PICTURES OF.
MADE O'GUBBINS
OVER THE LAST YEAR OR SO, MANY OF US’VE HAD TO FOREGO THE JOY OF SEARCHING FOR PARTS AT AUTO-JUMBLES, SHOWS AND BREAKER’S YARDS, RELYING ON EITHER THE HIT-AND-MISS OF INTERNET AUCTION SITES, OR TURNING TO OUR OWN STOCK OF PARTS, WHEN LOOKING AT BUILDING OR MODIFYING A BIKE.
BUDGET BOBBER
PEOPLE ALWAYS SAY CUSTOM BIKES’RE EXPENSIVE, THAT ONLY THE RICH CAN HAVE ‘EM, BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT ONE THERE’S ALWAYS A WAY…
LEAF IT OUT
THE SUZUKI LS650 IS PERHAPS BEST KNOWN FOR HAVING ONE OF THE LEAST SUITED AND MOST RANDOM MODEL NAMES IN MOTORCYCLING HISTORY – THE SAVAGE.
SIZE O
I DECIDED I NEEDED A BIKE FOR MYSELF AS A KEEPER (RATHER THAN THE USUAL BUILD IT, SELL IT, FUND THE NEXT ONE), BUT TIME AND FUNDS WERE GOING TO GET TIGHT. I WANTED A ‘60S/’70S-STYLE HARDTAIL WITH A DECENT-SIZED MOTOR, SINGLE OR TWIN, AND SOMETHING I DIDN’T HAVE TO DO ANY FRAME MODIFICATIONS TO.
LITTLE VICTORIES
SOME FOLK SAY WORK’S A NECESSARY EVIL, OTHERS MAKE THE MOST OF THEIR SITUATION. A GOOD FRIEND ONCE SAID TO ME THAT IT’S THE LITTLE VICTORIES THAT COUNT WHEN AT WORK, USING THEIR MACHINERY TO MAKE BIKE PARTS, BLAGGING FREE STATIONARY, OR JUST HAVING A POO ON THEIR TIME…
BACK TO THE EIGHTIES!
AFTER THE STYLISTIC EXCESSES OF THE 1970S, THE 1980S SAW A KIND OF DIRECTION CHANGE IN CUSTOM BIKE BUILDING – ONE WHICH RESULTED IN NO SMALL PART FROM THE ABUNDANCE OF FAST, RELIABLE FOUR-CYLINDER MOTORCYCLES FROM THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN.
APPLE
MY GOAL WAS TO CREATE A CAFÉ RACER WITH STYLING FROM THE FIFTIES – ROUND CURVES THAT’D MAKE IT POP.
3 DIRT DIGGERS
OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS DIRT DIGGERS, HELD AT THE EDDIE WRIGHT SPEEDWAY STADIUM IN SCUNTHORPE, HAS BECOME THE NUMBER ONE, ALL-COMERS-WELCOME BIKE RACE IN THE UK.
