So, George has this philosophy that in bull riding, it's really you against yourself, and if you can stay focused, you can ride anything. He also told us his head was not in the game the day a bull knocked him out of the ballpark, causing him to loose a third of a kidney and some intestines and stuff. Time for a career change. And no, it wasn't building bikes right away, it was doing construction work. Maybe that's where he got his building values. When George did start building bikes, he found that he wanted things done a certain way and was having a hard time getting it. Having a vision of what you want in your mind is not always easy to translate into reality unless you do it yourself. Enter GP Designs. George sees himself as a sculptor, some have clay, others marble, but George, he's got billet aluminum. Just the open belt primary cage alone on this chopper took 80 hours in labor. It consists of a 10-piece billet design fully polished and chromed. George even designed a full outer bearing support in this unit with longevity in mind. He also took Billet Boys hubs and made his own 40 spoke wheels, not to mention creating a hidden mount on the front fender. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The five grand in Damascus we mentioned earlier is in the craftsmanship as well. Frank Gamble helped George out with this artisic element. Damascus is pattern welded steel and it's used for its exotic appearance. You see, smiths weld together a few hundred layers of hard and soft steel and then etch it in acid. The acid attacks the hard and soft steel in different rates resulting in a visible pattern in the steel. When talking with George, mixed in with the crazy stories about his life and the line of daredevils he comes from, are countless details about the bikes he builds and all the attention he dedicates to each piece he creates for each bike. While talking about the cage-mounted suicide shifter with Damascus grips we also found out George's grandfather was a racecar driver back when roadsters didn't have roll cages, and that his dad was in the roller derby. Not surprising that he rode bulls before he made motorcycles, huh?

Pro Street-style bikes are his main customer base, but the Artistry in Iron gave him the chance to focus on a chopper build, this bike being the prototype for his new chopper line. After coming up with his own GP Designs Big Tube Chopper, he continued to stuff it with quality parts and design his own one-off parts. With the help of experts like Ron Cairns of RC Cycles working with the fully polished 124ci S&S motor and Steve Pool lending his brains to the three-point, hidden-mount rear fender, it's no wonder George had to chase people out of his booth just to get a beer at the 2004 Las Vegas Bikefest. Not bad for a guy who got dumped on his head for seven years.