Greg's Bio

A LITTLE ABOUT GREG KLOPP

I started my career at the age of 10, thats when I got my first dirt bike. I began
building and tuning my bikes, and from that time on they had to be the fastest,
strongest, best handling bikes around. When I was 16 I knew exactly what I wanted to
do with my life, so I dropped out of high school and enrolled in a Vo-Tech school for
small engine repair. It wasn't A.M.I. or M.M.I., but it taught me a good, basic,
common sense approach to troubleshooting and repair of many different types of
engines.

After graduating from school it was hard to find a job I wanted or liked. I wanted to
work on motorcycles, not outboards or snowmobiles. Not having much experience
didn't help, so I decided to join the U.S. Navy. During my naval tour I learned a lot
about discipline, hard work, long hours and team work. I attended Petty Officer
Training School and was eventually put in charge of the #2 engine room on board a
Navy cruiser. I used my sea time to build "choppers" in the ships machine shop. After
being honorably discharged, I returned to Minnesota and took a position as a Tool
and Die makers apprentice.

In the meantime I was still looking for a Harley shop to hire me, after convincing the
service manager at Twin City Harley Davidson to hire me, I worked at learning
everything I could about Harley's. In 2 years I went from changing tires and oil to
complete engine and transmission rebuilds. When an opportunity to move to Texas
arose, I took it.

The first day in El Paso, I rode into Barnett Harley Davidson and introduced myself to
the service manager. I told him to call Twin City H-D for a reference and started work
the next day. After working for Barnett for awhile, I grew tired of working in a service
department that had minimal equipment so I quit my job and tried to open my own
small shop. Things went well for the first 5 months, then the worst winter in Texas
history hit. I learned a big lesson in business, always have some capital to carry you
through the hard times. Not wanting to go back to Barnett, I decided to take a
position at M&M Honda.

While I was there I had the opportunity to have a secure job with a good company,
and still be able to work on custom and high performance Harley's at home. At that
time the economy was taking a turn for the worse, and I saw the writing on the wall. I
knew the shop would be closing soon. I read an ad in Cycle News and called Champion
Motorcycles in Costa Mesa, California. After a phone conversation, they flew me out
there to check things out. They moved my family out to meet up with me two weeks
later.

Working for Champion was very exciting. They were very much into racing and high
performance, mainly road racing. They sold three brands of bikes, so I had many
opportunities to meet people in the industry. When I was offered a position at White
Brothers, I had to take it. While I was there I worked on race suspensions and minor
R&D. I had my hands in on a few of the White Brothers H-D products on the market
today. I loved working for them, but my dream job came along when I was offered a
position at Carl's Speed Shop. A real high performance Harley shop!
After Carl learned of my love for Hot Rod Harley's and seeing what I rode up on, he
took me under his wing. I learned a lot from Carl, always asking questions, never
missing a chance to tap into his vast experience and knowledge. My stay with Carl
wasn't as long as I would have liked, in fact, I believe I would still be with him now if I
could. My wife didn't like Southern California from the start, so with my son soon to
start school, I agreed to move back to the Midwest for a better place to raise our
family.

Once back in the Twin Cities, I went back to work at Twin City Harley and after 10
years I was put in charge of the machine shop and started an in house performance
department. As time passed, my reputation for building fast, reliable Evo's spread.
Pat Matter, owner of Minneapolis Custom Cycle, ordered a 89" Big Twin for a custom
he was building. He liked the way the motor ran, and soon after he approached me
about a position. He wanted to open a complete in house engine building and
machine shop, along with bringing all aspects of the race team in house as well. In 3
months we were up and running. Building high performance motors for shop customs
and for sale to other shops, along with taking care of performance modifications to
customers bikes.

My biggest challenge was the race team. I was handed two boxes of broken parts from
a Top Gas Nitrous motor. A month and a half later we fired up my first pro motor, a
114" Pro Stock. It was #1 qualifier and won the first two races. We went on to win
Sturgis and the Western Championship. We went on to win Sturgis three more times,
three Western Division Championships, #2 National PS Plate, and one MPH record. It
was a challenge staying on top of all the motors in Pro Sock. I built a 114", 120" and
two 140" in three different chassis'. After the finals in 1998, I was asked to be a part of
a team of six Pro Stock builders, to help the NHRA come up with a formula so the
Harley's could compete with the Jap bikes. We developed a 160" motor and a new
chassis to compete. Most of us knew it couldn't be done without fuel injection, but the
NHRA would not allow it at that time. We struggled with that program for three years
before having to give it up. We realized it would not be possible to do without some
"big money" sponsors. I was so happy to see the Screaming Eagle Harley's of Vance
and Hines setting records and winning races with Andrew Hines winning the
championship!

After selling the Pro Stock bike, Pat decided to go to a Top Fuel bike. I built a new
bike from the ground up with two new motors. This was a big challenge as I had never
done anything with Nitro before. It was quite the learning experience. I built a
beautiful bike with state of the art equipment. We did a lot of testing, trying to get a
handle on that 800+ hp bike. The first race we entered we qualified 14th for a 16 bike
field with 34 bikes trying to get into the show. We never won any of the races, or even
got into the semi-finals, but we had fun and I learned a lot. In the spring of 2003 this
at MMC were looking grim. Pat was going away, the race team was dissolved and the
bike and everything was for sale. I had made up my mind to move on, but after so
many years of working for other people I wasn't about to work for someone else again.

I wanted my own shop. I wanted a true Speed Shop along the lines of Zipper's and
Carl's Speed Shop. We had to have the best equipment to do this, and that meant
money. It took ten months of hard work and sacrifice to get our doors open. I can't
say that it has been smooth sailing, far from it, but I am doing what I love.

Right now I am building a new Pro-modified gas motor for Doug Check. I have built
numerous Hot-Rod motors for Electra Glides, Road Kings, Tour Glides and Road
Glides and have become known as the " Home of the Hot-Rod Bagger". I am
constantly adding new equipment to the shop, striving to make it the best and most
complete motor and fabrication shop in the Mid-west. Our goal is to provide our
customers with the most bang for their buck, to give them the best product for their
money. We don't want to be the cheapest, just the best.

In December 2005 I went to California, to meet Kevin Alsop. CEO and founder
of BIG BEAR CHOPPERS. I was so impressed with the quality of his motorcycles,
his personnel and factory, that I signed on as the first BBC dealer in the Mid-west.

In over 30 years I have owned, raced, built and was crew chief for bikes for Indoor
Short Track (anyone remember the races at the Armory??), Motocross, Desert, Road
Racing Super Sport and Super Bike, Formula Extreme, Drag Racing Street, Pro Mod,
Pro Stock, Top Gas and Top Fuel and we can't forget my favorite, Street Racing!!