Though the decades since the accident have been so difficult it would have destroyed a lesser man Lenny has flourished. His injuries were substantial and long lasting, casuing him problems to this day. Later on he worked for Rose's motorcycle magazine and unfortunately was injured in a motorcycle accident during what was called the Three Flags Run (he was parked on the shoulder of the road and got hit by a guy on a bike with sidecar). He was a friend to Tom and Rose (he has a blog dedicated to Tom). Along the way he and his bike were featured in some articles including a couple of runs that AEE participated in. He devoted a lot of time and effort to the company and was there until the very end when it was just he and Rose. He was the parts manager and worked the front counter nearly all the time. Other than Tom and Rose he worked at AEE longer than anyone. I rode 600 miles from Napa to Needles earlier this year on my Road Star (work in progress) to see my long time friend and fellow AEE Choppers work mate, Lenny Cenotti. One of the clone, another of my paint and finally one of the originally Molly job. Most Choppers were hard tails but Franks wasn't and at 60 I can't ride a hardtail. It's really a nice bike to ride and I was surprised how well the springer works. His paint jobs were epoxy but I used House Of Kolors urethane. I spent days tapeing out the designs that he probably did in hours. I copied the Molly paint job from the pictures I had. The rest of the parts were purchased at Cheatah Choppers in Santa Ana. It was in great shape but was ugly ! He bought most of the parts at AEE including the springer. The bike made the March 72 cover of Cycle World's Special Choppers Magazine. The guy finished it and hardly ever rode it.
I found a 60 Panhead in the Cycle Trader that had been chopped in 1970. I had taken a lot of pictures of his bike so I made enlargements to use as a guide. Well a few years ago I decided to build a clone of Frank's Panhead. I helped Frank assemble the bike and he let me borrow it whenever I wanted. When He brought everything home I thought that paint job was the coolest thing I had ever seen.
#Harman girder front end crack#
That crack was there for the life of the bike. There was a small crack in the Bondo at the tip of the fender and he told my friend that he wasn't going to fix it. After Molly threw us out of the shop he brought out the fender which just had silver flake on it. The fumes in the drum ignited and blew the fender across the shop. After lighting his pipe he threw the match into the drum. The fender was sitting on a 55 gallon drum. On one trip another friend of mine decided to light his pipe in the shop. I went with him several times to check out the progress on the paint. He tore the bike down and sent the tank,fender and frame to Molly for paint. He wasn't hurt but the bike didn't fair to well. Shortly after he laid it down on the 57 freeway. My neighbor, Frank, traded a Triumph 650 for a really nice 59 Panhead Chopper. In the early 70's a lot of my friends built or bought Choppers. Turns out she new more about Chopper parts than we did. I remember being a little freaked out when Rose came to the counter. All the other trips were to the Placentia Location.
I don't believe it was finished when I saw it. It was the most radical thing I had ever seen. The first time I went to AEE it was still in Anaheim and I remember seeing Big Twin with those tires all the way across the rear.
AEE was just down the street and I went there many times with friends that were building Choppers. I've really enjoyed reading your AEE & Molly histories. Dave Brackett our talented designer/engineer/fabricator received this recently from a fan of AEE and Molly:
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