DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Phillipo At Fenway Park

Q: Hot bike. What can you tell us about your chopper?

A: It is the third time I've had the same exact bike. I pretty much rode that bike for over 20 years. It's kind of a weird dichotomy of a bike that really isn't made anymore. It looks like a cruiser, but it actually has a sports bike platform underneath. It is four-cylinder, chain driven and the fastest cruiser out there. I was going to get rid of it, but decided I was just going to start doing everything I wanted to do it.

Q: What are the different things you have done to the bike?

A: I cut the fenders off, put 22 inch ape hangers on, removed all the hardware and mirrors, changed out all the lights to smaller lights, put a light bar on the front, bored out the engine, gave it a custom paint job, added highway pegs and did all the internal wiring on the handlebars so it has a nice clean look. Then I lowered it about four inches and put a curved license plate on it.

Q: What's left of the original bike!?

A: The engine and gas tank.

Q: Why change the mirrors?

A: It had giant mirrors, kind of goofy and legal. I just put a little tiny disc mirror, in case I have to look behind you. It's not so easy to see when the cops are behind you.

Q: Do you get pulled over a lot?

A: I've actually been pulled over multiple times during bike weeks. They always point out the handle bars. "Oh, those are too high." In most states your handle bars can't be above your shoulders. Ironically enough, the only two places that ever give me a problem are Maine and New Hampshire. In New Hampshire, you don't need a helmet and with a driver's license you can buy a tank, bazooka or AK47, but you can't have your handle bars too high.

Q: Do you have a favorite cop story?

A: My favorite is when I was at Laconia bike week. I got pulled over by seven mountain bike cops because I didn't have my glasses on. You don't have to wear a helmet, but you have to wear your glasses.

Q: Do you have special biker glasses?

A: I do. They have a foam insert and they're transitional glasses, so when you go through a tunnel they go instantly back and forth.

Q: Do you have a favorite trip or trip story?

A: Myrtle Beach is definitely one of my favorites. It's like half biker, a lot of hill billy, and Myrtle Beach every other time of the year is golf.

Q: Sounds like you ride a lot. How many miles have you put on that bike?

A: Before I opened the Salon and Spa, I did annual trips to Montreal and then went down to Myrtle Beach for bike week. I've flipped over a 100,000 miles on that bike, but I haven't had a working odometer in a very long time. I flipped it to 38,000, so a 138,000 miles when it stopped working.

Q: What's the heaviest thing you've put on this bike?

A: <laughs> My buddy Big Mike. I'm 250. He's 350. The bike only weighs 600 pounds wet, meaning with gas in it.

Q: Did it actually move?

A: It moved. I think I blew a rear tire out.