Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/776310
28 nFebruary 2017n www.thunderpress.net THUNDER PRESS by Felicia Morgan VENTURA, CALIF., DEC. 11— Every once in awhile you run across a bike that catches your eye and draws you in, grabbing your complete atten- tion. You instinctively know there's some cool-ass story behind the build and we stumbled upon just such a fi nd while cruising the lawn at the David Mann Chopperfest… which is how we came to meet Martin Cottrell. From the intriguing paint, intricate details and perfectly-placed fabrications, Marty's Panhead is an incredible work of art to be sure, but the backstory is equally interesting, as is the man behind the masterpiece. We found Marty cruising the bike show, quietly checking out the com- petition. He was wearing a Marines baseball cap so we asked about this service. Turns out Martin served with the 1st Battalion 9th Marines, an infantry battalion, in 1967–'68. The 1/9 sustained the highest casualty rate in the Marine Corps history during the Vietnam War, earning them the nickname "The Walking Dead." Marty was with Charlie Company; wounded twice, he is one of the few remaining members of that battalion. "A lot of guys didn't make it back," he shared. "And those of us who did, still didn't, really. I'm 35 years sober now but I was going down fast." Through it all, however, Marty was into bikes. At 16 he had a Montgomery Ward Benelli two-stroke but when he returned from overseas he got into dirt biking. "I got a Honda 500 that I eventually turned into a chopper. But you know, I had an uncle who rode a Vincent so riding was in my blood, but there was this little blonde woman who came to visit my parents when I was little. She rode a Panhead. Man, I was hooked! But I really like build- ing bikes." And, it must be noted, he's really good at it, too. For the bike he calls the "Mean Old Bitch," Marty shared the story of friend Joe Raley, who the bike is dedicated to. Years after Marty, who currently lives in Colorado, moved away from the Redondo Beach area, he ran into an old friend at a car show in 2009. The two started sharing build ideas and set a plan to each build a bike and monitor each other's prog- ress via Internet exchanges. Marty got busy on his bike in 2010 but after a few months, stopped hearing from his California friend. Come to fi nd out his buddy was suffering with ongoing health problems. Doctors eventually fi gured out that he had lung cancer and with two weeks of their last conversation, Joe died. Marty com- pleted his project on Thanksgiving of 2015 and promptly hit the show circuit, winning awards every time it's shown. "I entered that show in Denver, you know, with the shoot out? People ask if I won anything there and I always tell them yeah, I got the door prize." He chuckles. "I made it to the door and got out with my life. That's a pretty good prize!" As for the Chopperfest, he decided on a whim to drive the Panhead out and enter the show he'd always heard about but had never attended. The 1958 Panhead has a stylized 1948 Indian girder front end, a goose- neck 4130 frame with a 1930 Ford radius rod, 4 ½" Truett & Osborn fl ywheels, Baisley rocker arms and Shovelhead rods. Add in some engrav- ing, pin striping, and silver leaf details topped off by a seriously bad-ass paint job and you have the aforementioned "attention grabbing" bike that started this whole adventure. "You know, the one mistake I made with this bike is the paint job," Marty told us. "I mean, it's cool and all, people love it, but it's so mesmerizing that it sucks people in and they completely forget about the whole rest of the bike!" And he is right. We were so intrigued with the tank that we missed shooting all the little details like the bottom of the tank (that has lots of little touches) and the space invaders, stars and rockets scattered around the bike. The master cylin- der is engraved with a dedication to Joe and we never even noticed the jockey shift. Last summer, after the Born Free show, Marty drove over to visit with Joe's family and show them the bike, an afternoon that helped him deal with the loss of his friend. "He was a really great guy," Martin shared. "He was a character, a good friend. I genuinely loved the guy. Everybody did." And now, it turns out, everybody loves the bike built in his name, as well. Cottrell took sec- ond place in the Special Construction category and the Best Panhead fi rst-place award, which ain't too shabby for a fi rst-time entry at the Chopperfest. When we asked Marty what was next, he laughed. "I'm not really sure because I really love this bike, and showing it is cool, but the best part is that is actually rides great. I mean, a lot of bikes look cool but you can't ride 'em. This one? It's better than my newer bikes. I'd rather ride this than my Road Glide any day, so I'm getting anxious to rack up some miles, but they look at your pipes and engine and all and take off for that when it's in a show. I built this with service in mind, too; I can do an oil change in two minutes. One of the hardest things to do when build- ing a bike is to make it simple, but I did that with this one. So not sure what's next, but I'm antsy to get in the wind with it." Marty has another project in the works so whether he keeps on the circuit with his Mean Old Bitch or shows up with another build, it's certain that we've not seen the last of Martin Cottrell. He is, after all, a survivor. 4 MARTIN COTTRELL'S PICTURE-PERFECT PANHEAD Mean Old Bitch First-time entry takes two prizes Martin Cottrell took 5 1/2 years to build his eye-catching "Mean ol' Bitch." His attention to detail is obvious in every meaningfully placed accent. Martin hadn't realized that he'd won two prizes and was packing up to head back to Colorado when he heard the announcement. He almost missed being called to the stage to accept the "Best Panhead" award.