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Your Location: Home, Cool Customs, The Master Builder The Master Builder
-- story by Kai R. ) MASTER BUILDER JASON KANGAS OF TWISTED CHOPPERSJason Kangas Is Truly Twisted Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is known for many things. There's Falls Park, the city's historic birthplace, for instance. Or the famous Sertoma Butterfly House. But even most Sioux Fall residents seem to be com¬pletely unaware that their beautiful city also is a stronghold of custom bike building with a true twist. Situated on the south side of town, Twisted Choppers is the brainchild of Jason Kangas and Kai Morrison and it is there that some of the coolest old-school choppers west of the Hudson River are being born. Jason and Kai grew up in Watertown, about 100 miles north of Sioux Falls. They each bought a Sportster after graduating high school and soon started tearing them apart, according to Jason. "And shortly after that, we tore both of them down completely and made choppers out of them," Jason adds. "That's how Kai and I got started." Soon they started working on their friends' bikes. In 1997, Jason moved to Sioux Falls to attend college, while Kai stayed in Watertown and apprenticed as a welder. Barely two years later, the dynamic duo reunited and began to pursue their dream of opening a custom bike shop. "We got the name Twisted Choppers in December of '99," Jason says, "and in 2000, we were officially open." From then on, things happened pretty quickly. By 2002, they quit their day jobs to concentrate on Twisted Choppers full-time and by 2004, they joined forces with Chad
) Basically, we grew our parts line out of necessity. We're not in a major metropolitan area, so there's not 12 guys at any given time who'd want to do a custom build. For one thing, we've only got a six-month riding season." Accordingly, their customer circle has stretched as far as the East Coast and even to Hawaii. Customers, Jason says, seek them out for their end product. "Our style of bikes is definitely choppers, but we try to keep things simple and detailed. I'm not really into putting full-bodied metal work on bikes like Eddie Trotta and those guys build. We stick to choppers and bobbers and vintage stuff that's got a real simple, old-school feel to it, but something that's different, too." Much of the custom creativity is rooted in Twisted Chopper's own frame produc¬tion, because there's no need to buy a frame from someone else and then try to make it different. "We can actually design the bike around a new frame," Jason explains. "So we'll start off with a frame idea. Kai and I decide if we're doing a Big Twin or a Sportster, and if it's a big twin, we'll take into consideration if it's a shovel or an Evo or a panhead, just because we can hold a little tighter clearances with our frames, if we're not using a big-inch S&S engine, for example." The bike is created as it's being built. "A lot of guys will draw up the complete bike on paper before they even touch a piece of metal," Jason knows, "but I feel that kind of limits us, so we try not to do that. We might have some rough sketches of what we want the lines of the bike to look like, but we never limit ourselves to a drawing.
) Basically, we grew our parts line out of necessity. We're not in a major metropolitan area, so there's not 12 guys at any given time who'd want to do a custom build. For one thing, we've only got a six-month riding season." Accordingly, their customer circle has stretched as far as the East Coast and even to Hawaii. Customers, Jason says, seek them out for their end product. "Our style of bikes is definitely choppers, but we try to keep things simple and detailed. I'm not really into putting full-bodied metal work on bikes like Eddie Trotta and those guys build. We stick to choppers and bobbers and vintage stuff that's got a real simple, old-school feel to it, but something that's different, too." Much of the custom creativity is rooted in Twisted Chopper's own frame produc¬tion, because there's no need to buy a frame from someone else and then try to make it different. "We can actually design the bike around a new frame," Jason explains. "So we'll start off with a frame idea. Kai and I decide if we're doing a Big Twin or a Sportster, and if it's a big twin, we'll take into consideration if it's a shovel or an Evo or a panhead, just because we can hold a little tighter clearances with our frames, if we're not using a big-inch S&S engine, for example." The bike is created as it's being built. "A lot of guys will draw up the complete bike on paper before they even touch a piece of metal," Jason knows, "but I feel that kind of limits us, so we try not to do that. We might have some rough sketches of what we want the lines of the bike to look like, but we never limit ourselves to a drawing. A lot of times you won't know what really compliments the features until you physically have something in front of you that you can start working around." Jason and Kai don't discourage input from anybody in the shop and listen to what anyone has to say, although in the end, he says, "we'll build the bike to what it desires to be built like. It kind of talks to you after a certain point." The most critical part of building any motorcycle, no matter what style, is the sheet metal, according to Jason, "and that is really one area of our shop that we do and not a lot of shops are able to do. I went to train with Fay Butler in Massachusetts and I learned how to run power hammers and such and really gained a wealth of knowledge from him. That has really expanded my skill level and taken our metal work and the design of our bikes to the next level, because now we don't have the limitations we had before." Accordingly, Jason and Kai build as much as of the bikes as they can themselves, such as gas and oil tanks, bars, exhaust, forward controls, and more.
A lot of times you won't know what really compliments the features until you physically have something in front of you that you can start working around." Jason and Kai don't discourage input from anybody in the shop and listen to what anyone has to say, although in the end, he says, "we'll build the bike to what it desires to be built like. It kind of talks to you after a certain point." The most critical part of building any motorcycle, no matter what style, is the sheet metal, according to Jason, "and that is really one area of our shop that we do and not a lot of shops are able to do. I went to train with Fay Butler in Massachusetts and I learned how to run power hammers and such and really gained a wealth of knowledge from him. That has really expanded my skill level and taken our metal work and the design of our bikes to the next level, because now we don't have the limitations we had before." Accordingly, Jason and Kai build as much as of the bikes as they can themselves, such as gas and oil tanks, bars, exhaust, forward controls, and more.
-- Kai R.
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