Celebrity host · Denver’s Choppers
Mondo. Godfather of Choppers.
Denver’s Choppers: San Bernardino, California to Henderson, Nevada — now Lake Tahoe country. Armondo Porras helped ROCK REISS pioneer HWETV Productions. Host of MILES with MONDO.
1967
San Bernardino, CA — Berdoo. Denver Mullins. Denver’s Choppers.
1997
Henderson, NV — shop re-opens just outside Las Vegas.
Now
Lake Tahoe / Reno country. Still building. Host of MILES with MONDO.
Original HWETV promo
MILES with MONDO · Sturgis
HELLS ANGELS SIGN UP. The first commercial that put the series in the world. Shot for Sturgis. Produced by HWETV Productions.
HWETV Productions trailer
ROT Rally BUILD-OFF
Republic of Texas Biker Rally, Austin, 2006. Mondo on the mic — Godfather of Choppers as MC. The Big Texas Chop Off: builders judged by master builders. HWETV gave the winning bike to a United States military veteran. Forty thousand motorcycles. Fifty blocks rolled up downtown. Produced by HeyWhatEverTV.
20 year archive · HD remix
House remix of the twenty-year archive makeover — ident, Mondo, the long bike, the rally.
The record
Fifty years of the long, low bike
Revered as the Godfather of Choppers by his peers, Mondo’s career is the custom-bike story itself. In the sixties he walked into Denver’s Choppers in San Bernardino — Berdoo — with Denver Mullins. Barely out of high school. They bought Harleys, hated how they looked, and started stretching frames.
He was called Bondo Mondo for the work on those sleek, long custom frames. There were no catalogs. Denver’s became the shop the world ordered from. The long down-tube stretch — what people later named Swedish — was Denver’s. There is a motorcycle club in Sweden called Denver’s Choppers because of it. They invented the gooseneck.
“You couldn’t pick up a custom bike magazine without seeing a Denver bike in it.” The look is Southern California: long and low. Extended springer front ends. Aftermarket parts for an industry that did not exist until they built it.
June 30, 1997: Mondo re-opens Denver’s Choppers in Henderson, Nevada — just outside Las Vegas. Later the shop life moves toward Reno and Lake Tahoe country, near family, still a one-man bench that the culture has not outgrown.
Timeline
1967
Starts with Denver Mullins at Denver’s Choppers in San Bernardino — Berdoo. Known as Bondo Mondo for the long, sleek frames.
Style
First long down-tube stretch frames. What people now call a Swedish chopper is Denver’s style. Gooseneck frames. Extended springer front ends.
1992
October 4. Denver Mullins dies in a Top Fuel hydro at Puddingstone Lake. Mondo had promised on a plane: keep the shop going.
1997
Denver’s Choppers moves the line from San Bernardino, California to Henderson, Nevada — just outside Las Vegas. Mondo re-opens the shop June 30, 1997.
2004
Discovery Channel Biker Build-Off against Indian Larry (Larry Desmedt), Concord, N.C. Larry died that taping. Blood, Sweat and Gears with Billy Lane. ESPN. SPEED. Motorcycle Mania.
2006
ROT Rally, Austin. Mondo MCs the Big Texas Chop Off. HWETV Productions gives the winning bike to a United States military veteran.
Print
Easyriders cover four times. Dave Mann painting for the 30th anniversary of Easyriders. The Art of the Chopper 2. Magazines worldwide for decades.
Honors
Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Class of 2018. Best Custom Fabricated Bike Builder of the Year, 2001. First David Mann Kind Award. Cycle Source Man of the Year.
Now
Shop life moved from Henderson to the Reno / Lake Tahoe country. Still building. Celebrity host of MILES with MONDO for HWETV Productions.
Television
Discovery. ESPN. SPEED.
Mondo stood on Discovery Channel’s Biker Build-Off against Indian Larry — a taping that ended in the loss of Larry. The full record of that week, and of Denver Mullins in 1992, is its own page. He rode the Blood, Sweat and Gears Tour with Billy Lane, building bikes on stage for veterans. Motorcycle Mania. SPEED Channel, A&E, ESPN, Discovery Channel. Easyriders cover, four times. A Dave Mann painting of Mondo for the magazine’s 30th. The Art of the Chopper 2. Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame, Class of 2018.
Dave Nichols, Easyriders, June 2001: “Only one builder could do this with us, a man with a passion for the lifestyle and a lifelong dedication to making the best choppers on the planet.”
HWETV
The host who helped build the house
Mondo did not just sit in a chair for HWETV. He helped ROCK REISS pioneer the company. From that partnership: MILES with MONDO, ROCK on the ROAD, and scrYbe on the shoulder. The motorcycle industry — ROT Rally twenty years back, Sturgis, Bike Week — is the training ground the cameras still use.
The look
