Discovery Channel · Biker Build-Off
Mondo vs Indian Larry
Concord, North Carolina. August 2004. The third Build-Off. Two builders. Two deaths Mondo had to walk through — Denver Mullins in 1992, Larry Desmedt in 2004 — and the shop that is still open because he kept the promise.
1992
Denver Mullins · 48
October 4. Puddingstone Lake, San Dimas. Top Fuel hydro Public Enemy. The man who taught Mondo the long bike.
2004
Indian Larry · 55
August 28–30. Cabarrus Arena, Concord, N.C. Discovery cameras rolling. Larry Desmedt. Mondo’s opponent that week.
The story on tape
Indian Larry & Mondo — Discovery Channel
Twenty years later Billy Lane sits with Mondo, Paul Cox, and Bobby Seeger Jr. East Coast vs West Coast. The last Build-Off. The people who were in the shop and on the road.
The shop brother
Denver Mullins
Denver Marvin Mullins opened the Berdoo shop in 1967. Body shop first — chop tops, custom paint, Model A Fords. Mondo was still in high school, hanging around with a hot rod. Denver took him in. They bought Harleys, hated how they looked, and stretched the frames. That is Denver’s Choppers.
They also built drag boats. Capsules by Denver Inc. made the safety pods that saved boat racers — the same kind of capsule Denver was sitting in when it did not break away. Practice run at the International Hot Boat Association Fall Nationals. The hydro nosed in. Mondo was there. Rescue took about twelve minutes. Pronounced at 6:33 p.m.
On a plane to a race, Denver made Mondo look him in the eye: if I die, keep the shop going. Mondo said you’re not going to die. Then the night it happened, Denver’s wife said: you know what you have to do. Mondo bought out the shop, settled the books, and on June 30, 1997 re-opened Denver’s Choppers in Henderson, Nevada. He still has pictures of Denver on the wall. “He’s the reason I’m doing this.” Thirty-plus years on the promise.
August 2004
The Great Biker Build-Off
Discovery Channel. Larry’s third Build-Off. Opponent: Mondo Porras, Denver’s Choppers. They had met on Motorcycle Mania II in 2001 and hung out at a Hawaii bike show two months before this taping. Larry built Chain of Mystery — a chain frame, question-mark paint, “something that’s just mind-bending.” Mondo built the long, low Southern California line.
They met in Pittsburgh and rode three days through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina to the Liquid Steel Classic at Cabarrus Arena in Concord — north of Charlotte. The crowd voted. Then Larry went out to do the stunt he always did to wind down: stand on the seat.
He had told Mondo that day he did not have a good feeling about it. He felt pressure to do it anyway. The front end wobbled. He could not get back in the seat. He fell and hit his head. Airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center. He died Monday, August 30, 2004, at 3:30 a.m. He was 55. Last words, to his wife Bambi: “Sweetie, sweetie.”
What Mondo did with it
Carry the name. Keep the bench hot.
After Larry died, Mondo flew to New York for the block-party memorial at the Williamsburg shop. They handed him a microphone. He had spent the whole Build-Off talking about Denver — how you carry a brother’s shop. He turned to Bambi and the crew: you know what you have to do. Keep Indian Larry’s name on. That shop is Indian Larry Legacy because of that same pact.
Larry had left Mondo a sealed box. Inside: a piston, names engraved, “win lose or draw — Biker Build-Off 2004 — thanks Mondo.” Larry’s question-mark logo was on it. When they opened the box, the question mark had wings. Mondo still keeps it in the shop.
Mondo’s line on Larry: “I think he humbled a lot of people because he was so real and genuine.” Adversity, for this house, is not a speech. It is showing up at the bench the next morning. Denver’s Choppers did not fade. Henderson, then Tahoe / Reno country. Hall of Fame. Host of MILES with MONDO. The long bike is still the look.
“He’s missed every day. He’s the reason I’m doing this — his legacy. I wanted to keep his name alive. We didn’t let it fade away. I kept my promise.”
HWETV Productions · ROT Rally
Our Build-Off. Bike to a vet.
Discovery’s tape ended in loss. HWETV’s own ROT Rally BUILD-OFF put Mondo on the mic in Austin and gave the winning bike to a United States military veteran. The Big Texas Chop Off. Forty thousand motorcycles. This is the house trailer.
The work
Motorcycles & hot rods
Long down-tube. Gooseneck. Extended springer. The Denver’s line — and the car shop it grew out of.
