Spotlight - Steady Rolling Motorcycles

Some of the best motorcycle shops began in a garage, and Steady Rolling Motorcycles Shop in Oakland, California is no exception. Daniel Bryan, 36, and Chad Mooney, 34, grew up in Brentwood. Each of them inherited their father's passion for fixing up cars, but eventually they decided it was time to try something new.

"...Motorcycles were a cheaper way to get into something that both gave freedom to go where we wanted and the ability to customize them to our liking on a young dirtbag's budget," Bryan and Mooney explain. "From there we started a small shop out of a 1-car garage in Oakland, CA, and built a large customer base that gave us the ability to quit our jobs and open a real shop."

An important figure who helped launch Steady Rolling Motorcycles is Hawaiian John, whom Bryan and Mooney would like to personally thank. A former Oakland member with an unyielding love for "choppas" and storytelling, John is responsible helping Steady find their first shop space. John connected the two founders with the keepers of Cisco's old shop, vouching for Steady so they could rent out the old space.

"Without John, our shop wouldn't be what it is today and we are grateful to have met him and to call him a friend," say the Steady founders.

Pictured above is Mooney's 2000 FXR4. He acquired it when a customer had an FXR4 for sale. Mooney jumped on the oppurtunity and was pleased to find the bike came with a fairing and bags. He took this as a sign from the motorcycle gods to keep them and use them in the frame-up build. Mooney points out that although most FXR's are bolt-on part-and-go, just about nothing would fit without major modification.

"While building choppers has been the main priority for most of my time owning bikes, I've always had or wanted another FXR," Mooney admits. "I had the idea to build something I could ride to the limit and not have to deal with all the wobbling bullshit that rubber mounted bikes are known for. I parted out my chopper guys' frame FXR to fund it, and with the help of my friend and painter Jake Crawley (@crawlincreep), we took my original idea based around a 1970 Cuda and made it work for an FXR."

Mooney states the narrow 49mm didn't quite fit the neck circumference, so he had to lengthen the GP suspension cartridges to ensure the bike had the proper ground clearance. The brackets are custom, and the swingarm is a bagger swingarm which was modified to fit the shocks and frame. "The finished bike is a fucking blast to ride!" Mooney exclaims.

Here we have a shot of Bryan's 1981 FXE Vibratory Master. Bryan transformed this bike from an 80-inch with a 4-speed to a 93-inch big bore stroker with a 5-speed and open belt drive. Bryan says it took five years to fix everything this once rigid mounted stroker broke, and it is now completely dialed.

"It runs an Andrews "M" cam, so it's not geared for the highway," Bryan points out. "This bike makes 'scary fast' a reality when the motor just keeps pulling and your eyeballs start to vibrate so much that you can hardly see. The high and tight build of this bike really is for ripping the twistys without scraping or any bullshit you deal with on low bikes."

Bryan admits it's been a huge challenge to keep his bike running, riding and in one piece. The bike rattled, snapped, twisted and broke anything that wasn't reinforced. Addressing these issues while maintaining the look and feel of the bike very much heightened Bryan and Mooney's skill levels.

"I think the best part of the build process is the exchange of ideas from an aspiration to a reality," Bryan states. "Usually bouncing ideas around with buddies and customers brings about some good direction that then can be built and really makes the end product that much better and personal...also when that bike makes it to a roller it really starts getting exciting."

Steady Rolling Motorcycles is located in Oakland, California, and specializes in Harley Davidson Motorcycles of all years. They do service, repair, customization, fabrication, motor bulding and complete motorcycle builds. Follow them on Instagram at @steady_rolling_motorcycles .