Motorhead Mike 
written by leon rivers  -  photos by lance  -  edited by nix

Not knowing what I was truly getting myself into I agreed to help my business partner Lance do a news column for our website. Lance had set up an interview with our old V-Rod instructor Mike Meredith aka. Motorhead.
We met up with Mike Sunday evening at his home where we were first greeted by Mike and his two huge dogs, then his brother and his lovely wife. Mike and his wife are expecting twins soon,”Good luck Mike.”  The interview took place in his shop (the garage) from which Mike has been running his own business on the side called Motorhead Mike’s Mechanics where he specializes in V-twin service and repair. His shop was a bit crowded from several projects he had going on at the time so he opened the garage door and we rolled an old shovelhead out to make room for us to sit and chat.  Mike grabbed an old school mini bike frame with the seat attached while Lance grabbed a stool and I got the good old mechanics chair with wheels.  Lance and I settled in with our notepad, tape recorder and camera.

 Once the interview started Mike took over. I think it was the easiest interview Lance and I had ever done, it was great. Mike started from the beginning where as a child he was inspired by a few old school bikers back in the 70’s, when rat bikes were the high end customs of the time. He remembered living in a small town called laceName w:st="on">MojavelaceName> laceType w:st="on">ValleylaceType> between Needles, CA. and laceName w:st="on">BullheadlaceName> laceType w:st="on">CitylaceType>, AZ. where they do the bike runs across the river from Laughlin, NV. As Mike recalled his first memories of how he came to love Harley Davidson’s I could not help but get lost into his story. It triggered quite a few fond memories for me of how I came to love bikes.  Here is how his tale began: “There was a bike club that had a party house two or three blocks from the river. The whole community was mostly weekenders that once or twice a year would have a party down by the river. I was about 10 or 11 years old and was at the marina with picnic benches and a covered awning where all the bikes were lined up. I was looking at some of the bikes with all of the chrome and gadgets. One bike had two revolvers strapped to the front end as in Arizona you can carry fire arms. I was starring at it and this old guy came walking up and said ‘hey boy!’ I kinda got freaked out. He was the guy your parents always warned you about with the tattoos, long ragged beard, greasy from working on his bike and smelling heavily of alcohol. He was partying a little. I backed off a bit and he said “hey you like them motorcycles huh?” I said “yeah those are cool.” He asked me what kind of bike I had. “I got me a taco mini bike with a straight pipe on it.” He said “right on man you just keep on working on that.” I told him I had a Briggs and Stratton kind of like the one I’m sitting on now.

 Mike’s first street bike was a Honda 350 Scrambler which he road two miles to the school bus stop. Mike said “you always hear people in the mountains saying I walked two miles uphill to get to school. Well I walked two miles on a pretty straight road but in the summer sometimes it would be in 115 degree weather so that bike helped.” Mike road the bike around for a few years. He later decided to go to school Texas at Automotive Technology which lasted all of two months before he got kicked out. Around the same time he bought a 1977 Ironhead Sportster.  He could not afford to drive his truck because like now gas prices back in the 80’s were going up and down.

 In 1990 Mike started at a small mom and pop shop in Needles, CA where he worked for 5 years. “The best thing about mom and pop shops where that they were small. Not the big corporate machines they are now.” Back in the day his boss worked for the rail roads which gave him 3 days out of the week to work at the shop. He would give Mike a manual and say “now make it run.” His boss’ lead mechanic old man Jack or “Moose” started training Mike on high performance and Evo’s. Mike was used to working on Ironhead Sportsters, Panheads, and Shovelheads because that’s what people had. Old man Jack said since Mike was there he’d never have to kick over a motor again. Mike was the guy that the kick only bikes went to, which was cool. Mike learned how to port heads, lighten fly wheels, and do balancing and truing. When someone wanted a bigger cubic engine and more horse power you couldn’t just order the engine. You either had to piece it together or make it. So Mike learned how to bore out cases for big bore cylinders and cut the inside of the cases to have clearance for the different stroke of the fly wheels. Truing and balancing at that time were all done in shop where now a lot of places farm it back out. During the time he worked there you could buy regular basket cases for about $1500 and build it so that a guy could ride home on it. Two years later you would see those same basket cases sell for $2500-$3000 as is. In 1996-1997 Mike noticed a lot of Germans would buy bikes take them apart and ship them back in crates. Before he left the shop he was the lead mechanic making 60% commission when the average shop rate of the time was $40 an hour. It was around this time he ran into a little trouble.

  A few years later he was hired on at another mom and pop shop in Bullhead City, AZ.
By now instead of machining the engines you could order a completed big inch engine. In 1998 the biggest engine you could find was a 113 cubic inch, which at the time was huge. Later on 120 cubic inch motors came out which was about the time when the market was fresh and started to get saturated with aftermarket companies like Titan, Big Dog, and American Iron horse to name a few. Later on Mike got the opportunity to work at an Easy Rider franchise in Las Vegas for about a year and a half. The franchise did not last long, they found out it was too expensive to run. Mike was fortunate throughout his career to have had the top mechanics to show him tricks of the trade.

 Later Mike was in an accident during an interview process for Easy Rider ltd. who contracted riders/mechanics to test ride and service motorcycles for Harley Davidson. Mike was laid up for 2 months after a car pulled out in front of his Roadking. He was fortunate, the contracting company held the position for him while he recovered. Mike was able to work research and development for Harley Davidson, one of the best learning experiences in getting to know how Harley Davidson works. There he learned about demographics and the process and procedures a bike goes through from prototype to production. Harley Davidson would have 2 million dollars invested into 2 bikes and  have those bikes run for a short time (a year or two) before they start preparing for production and are put into full production. After production they would test the durability of the motorcycle over a period of 50,000 miles. Mike had worked at the facility for over two and a half years. During that time he was able to see the development of the new Dyna’s that were just released in 2006 along with the Buell Firebolt, Lightning, the new Ulysses, the V-rod Street Rod, as well as their parts and accessories.
The test facility at the time was located in Yucca, AZ. between Kingman and laceType w:st="on">LakelaceType> laceName w:st="on">HavasulaceName>.  Later it was moved to Mesa. They serviced every bike at least once a week. In a normal situation the bikes got 2500 miles put on them a week between 2 shifts. The Buell’s were ridden 350 miles a shift. Onsite the bikes were run in accelerated testing for example WOT testing, basically they would hold the bike at wide open throttle through 2-3 tanks of gas on an 5 mile banked oval track. Every 10,000 accelerated miles that were put on the bike were equivalent to 20-25,000 real world miles.

 Later Mike had the opportunity to teach at MMI (Motorcycle Mechanics Institute) in Phoenix, AZ. Even through the bad Mike was fortunate enough to have achieved four life time goals. One was to work on Harley Davidson’s, two was the chance to work at Harley Davidson’s research and development facility (a dream realized through opportunity), three was to own a custom shop (Motorhead Mike’s), and four was to pass on his knowledge to others at MMI. Mike has also been inspired by if not the style then the passion that today’s bike builders put into their art of fabrication. Builders such as Indian Larry, Jesse James, Matt Hotch, and more. They all started with their own vision of what kind of motorcycle they wanted to build and found a way to build it. The passion that drove them is what inspires people like Mike today. With tools like the internet, magazines, and TV shows the home bike builder has more tools available to him or her today.

 To close we asked Mike what words of wisdom he would like to pass on to our readers. Mike answered with this “Try to stay out of trouble; it takes you away from your dreams. Try and live your dreams, be passionate with what you do. Whether it is the love of life or love of the job, be true to your self. If you love your job and love working at it your one of 5-6% of people that actually love their jobs. I love my job. I love working at it and found passion in 2 careers: building bikes and teaching. If I were to die tomorrow I know I would die a happy man achieving what I did in such a short amount of time.”

  It was hard to believe that the interview was over. I was so caught up and inspired that I did not want to call it a night. I’ve been fortunate to have met people like Mike, Lance and others like me. Thank you for your stories.  Live the dream and keep on wrenching. Until next time…..