Western-Star

It started 28 years ago, on Upper Valley Road, Dayton, just a few blocks from the current workshop. Pat Patterson's father brought home a mini-bike for Pat to ride. He's still riding today, only now he's riding custom Harleys that he builds from the ground up.

"It started on the mini-bike, then a dirt bike and then the Harley Sportster," Patterson said, while taking a break from spinning a fender. "I was working on my own bikes, then people started asking me to make something for them. My garage was too small, and I had a full-time job, but the work kept coming, so five years ago, I moved here," he said.

The home of Led Sled Customs is a former five & dime store and gas station. It's pretty cramped, but still provides all the amenities for Patterson and his crew of three to build anything customers wants.

"We sort of got stuck working on the Sportsters, and now we're sort of well-known for it. We fabricate everything here, by hand, from custom frames, oil tanks, fuel tanks, fenders, handlebars — you name it, we'll make it. We do custom painting, engine mods, whatever the customer wants."

Word of mouth isn't the only way to spread the word. Patterson's motorcycles have been featured in nearly every Harley-Davidson-based magazine in the country" Iron Horse, Easy Rider, and, just last month, Patterson was named builder of the year by Cycle Source magazine.

"That's a really cool honor; it's voted on by the public, not just the editors. What's really wild: I beat out Bill Dodge, who works for Jesse James," Patterson said. "We all know each other from going to big events, but this is quite an honor for our little shop."

In the cramped lower-level workshop, Cole Rogers is fabricating a frame on a jig, cutting each piece of metal tubing to an exact fit. Patterson is finishing work on an oil tank, while Kevin Koeppe is polishing pieces for a customer's bike that's nearly finished.

Behind the shop, in an old semi-trailer, Shane Masters is spinning a fender, using a spinning lathe to perfectly form the 13-gauge steel. A minor glitch has Patterson coming out to the trailer for some advice.

"We all just love to work with metal. We love motorcycles, and now we all get paid to do it. Can't ask for much more than that," Patterson said.

"I guess we're getting to be known around the world. Just today I shipped fenders to Australia, and we have a customer in Sweden. But we also love to have people drop by the shop. We want our customers to feel like a friend, not just a customer. We're pretty unconventional, but that makes it fun," Patterson said.

For more information about Led Sled Customs, go to www.ledsledcustoms.com.