Your Incredible Neighbors: Local CPA builds custom motorcycles

He’s not just a certified public accountant in a shirt and tie.

Green Valley CPA Terry B. Cogan has a bit of a wild side. What interests him as much as tax preparation, financial planning, business bookkeeping, audits and other CPA-related duties?

Cogan is motorcycle mad.

Beneath that professional CPA persona is a wilder, adventurous soul who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty for his passion—making customized motorcycles.

A longtime local business professional, Cogan, who will soon celebrate 15 years of accounting work in the area, is not only a self-confessed Harley-Davidson lover with the bike and the black chaps to prove it, but also builds custom motorcycles, using a wide variety of manufactured parts he orders from catalogues specializing in bike paraphernalia and cycle gadgets.

Cogan’s passion goes back to childhood. He got his first motorcycle, a Suzuki 80, on his 12th birthday, later getting a Suzuki 200, eventually moving on to a 1965 Harley Sportster.

Cogan has owned eight Harleys in his life so far, and remains loyal to the brand—until it comes to customizing cycles, that is.

“I customized my first Sportster one winter, taking the frame off and making some other adjustments,” Cogan recalls. “That’s back in the old days when you had to actually make your own parts.”

Cogan then helped a friend customize his Sportster, transforming it into a “chopper.”

“We took his new bike all apart and throwing most of it away, brought a new frame, new front end, and ended up with a whole new bike,” Cogan says. “Back in the early 70s, you customized your own bike, making your own statement, depending on the design and the power of the vehicle. Now, you can pay somebody else to make it.”

A chopper is a radically customized motorcycle, archetypal examples of which are the customized Harley-Davidsons seen in the 1969 film Easy Rider.

Cogan, who has studied the history of Harley-Davidson and the chopper, says it was post-World War II when servicemen returning home started removing all parts considered too big, heavy, ugly or not absolutely essential to the basic function of the motorcycle. These included fenders, turn indicators, and even front brakes.

The large, spring-suspended saddles were also removed in order to sit as low as possible on the motorcycle’s frame. Many of today’s custom motorcycles are sometimes mistakenly called choppers, he says.

A truly custom-built motorcycle has additional, usually chrome, accessories and billet parts added on to the bike for aesthetic value, while originally such modifications were purely functional in nature.

Cogan’s custom bike shop is housed on his property in Rio Rico, which is also where he resides with his wife Mayra and their six-year-old daughter Daniela.

“What I’m doing now is creating Harley-style custom bikes with a variety of parts from different manufacturer specialists,” he says. “There are probably about 15 or 20 engineer manufacturers who build Harley-type engines. That’s what most of these custom bikes have these days, if not the real thing.”

If you do your homework, Cogan says, there are hundreds of catalogues and part manufacturing experts to choose from.

He uses several, including J&P Cycles, to order frames, transmissions, fenders and all the other body parts that go into making a unique, custom cycle.

Cogan says the most frustrating thing about bout custom bike building is “making things fit.”

“Many times you have to reorder because the part isn’t quite right,” Cogan adds. “Remember, a lot of the parts are manufactured from all over the world.”

Cogan said it took him about eight months, working on it only on weekends, to customize one bike.

“Motorcycles now are like art work,” he says. “It’s like metal art that the builder, who is essentially the artist, creates a bike using his imagination and style, making it different from anything you can buy mass-produced.”

Sadly, Cogan says, he has to part with a couple of his bikes.

“I’ve got to sell two in order to make room for customizing more,” he jokes. “I have a three-car garage and we’re full. I’m anxious to start another bike and I need the space.”

One is a custom-built chopper-style motorcycle which he completed this past August. It has a handmade custom gas tank and a handmade custom rear fender.

‘The seat is handmade and sculpted from a block of upholstery foam and covered with exotic red lizard skin” Cogan explains.

It is powered by an Ultima “El Bruto” Harley-style V-twin 120-cubic-inch 130 horsepower engine and has a six speed transmission.

The other bike, one of Cogan’s favorites, is a “pro-street” style motorcycle designed for street riding and has shorter front forks than the chopper style bikes, Cogan says.

The bike is powered by a 92 cubic-inch, 95 horsepower Harley-Davidson engine and a five speed close ratio Harley-Davidson transmission.

“The close ratio transmission makes this a very fast bike in a short distance,” Cogan adds.

His love of motorcycles runs in the family, particularly with his daughter, Cogan says.

“She’s really into this custom thing too.” he said. “She’ll even help me turn wrenches and has designed the next bike. She has the paint job figured out?—?black with pink flames painted on it.”

Cogan admits he tried to discourage his daughter from the black and pink paint job until he saw a custom bike painted with those exact colors at a recent international bike show in Phoenix.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “She’s got it. Now, maybe she can teach me something.”

To contact Cogan about his custom bikes, call 648-2990 or e-mail terry@terrycogan.com.

rford@gvnews.com