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| THE HISTORY OF CCB |
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The
Beginning
Russ Hess was born in 1945 into a family that owned
and operated horse riding stables on the Los Angeles,
California River Bottom. By the Mid-50's Russ started
purchasing piles of surplus bicycle parts from local auctions,
painting and assembling them and selling them to other
neighborhood friends. Creating One of a Kind bicycles
from nothing but surplus, Russ ended up on the front page
of the local newspaper in Downey, CA. In August 6, 1959
at the age of 14 with a 2 story 2 wheel bicycle. Russ
did not have the means to do any welding so on his way
home from the welding shop a newspaper photographer wanted
to photograph the one of a kind creation. |
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Jumping into 1960, before Russ
had his drivers permit He started painting cars as a Sophmore
and continued all through high school. At that time Candy's,
Pearls, and Metal Flakes were fresh on the market and
Russ was shooting them all. He was lace stenciling, cobwebbing,
and putting Puzzle patterns on everything. He must have
installed Hydraulic lifts, on over 100 cars. Back then
they were created from searching Surplus Salvage Yards
for stainless lines, hydraulic cylinders and dump valves
from aircraft landing gear. Up and down was the range
of motion for the birth of low rider hydraulic suspension.
Nothing like the systems that evolved into todays market.
Southern California was HOT and on top of all the latest
and newest in the Hot Rod and Low Rider Industry. George
Barris,and Big Daddy Ed Roth were Superstars to Russ and
helped to unleash his creative abilities. By the Mid-
60's he was showing Street Rods and winning top honors.
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Enter
the Chopper
His first house was purchased from the sale and show winnings
from his 1941 Willy's Coup which graced the cover of Rod
& Custom August 1967 and the centerfold of Hod Rod
Magazine in July 1967. Russ began at that point building
Race Car and Street Rod Parts and Chassis for others while
working as a plumber in the daytime and burning the midnight
oil on his real passion. A passion the led Russ to shoot
a Buick Rivera lime gold metal flake after frenching the
headlights and taillights and removing all the chrome
door handles and trunk latch plus molding both front and
back bumpers. All of this could not be complete without
hydraulic lifts on all 4.
Then something happened, Russ lost a good friend to Lung
Cancer and he hopped a plane, spending the next 8 months
in Hawaii installing fire protection in high rise buildings.
When he came home his direction changed course. Russ spotted
and purchased a 1968 used Harley Davidson Sportster. It
didn’t take long for his sleep to be interrupted
with visions on that old Harley and its transformation
to be. Lo and behold, transformation complete, it took
1st Place in its first showing in |
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Riverside California and graced the Centerfold of Street Chopper
Magazine and the cover of AEE Choppers Parts Catalog Summer
1971 which was owned by Tom McMullan who happened to be the
Founder of Street Chopper Magazine. Back then there wasn't any
money in framework and customizing. Russ built foot pegs, sissy
bars, handlebars, and numerous other parts for others that were
putting together custom bikes in their garages but never pushed
to promote himself.
Russ and the rest of the big names form the old days; Indian
Larry, Mondo, Arlen, were all poor and struggling to make ends
meet. The passion of creation is what kept them going. In the
early 70's Russ packed up and left Ca. in his Volkswagon Bug
and ended up in Colorado. Soon to follow was a High School Buddy,
before he could realize it, he was back in business, just outside
of Colorado Springs with a shop he named Blacksmith Vans and
Cycles. At that time Van Conversions were on the rise and all
the GI's based in Colorado Springs were into bikes. About the
time Russ got settled in, his partner was faced with divorce
and wanted out. Struggling to survive in the early 70's was
tough. By the Mid-70's they were out of the business and relocated
to the Western Slopes of Co. At that time Russ's boys were old
enough and they wanted to start rodeoing. They owned a band
of Brood Mares that they raised colts off of. They liked to
rope and ride broncs and bulls. So they signed up with Little
Britches Rodeo Association and Russ joined The National Old
Timers Rodeo Association. They traveled on weekends riding Broncs
and Bulls all summer and into winter for quite a few years,
clear up til their High School Senior Graduations. Falling back
onto his base career which always kept food in his family's
mouths, he ran a crew of just over 50 men for a plumbing and
heating company in Grand Junction, Co. and sat dormant with
his creative ambitions until the Mid-80's when one day a 1937
Ford 2 Door Sedan was spotted. |
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All the kids in their High School
Years, Russ had to do something that would drive him from the
doldrums. It didn't work, halfway through the project, Russ,
self-employed as a building contractor and an antique dealer,
found himself running 2 businesses and building a Streetrod
and facing divorce in 1991.
For the next 8 years Russ was in limbo, trying numerous entrepreneur
gigs, all of which seemed to be successful but not satisfying.
Just when he thought he would spend the rest of his life here
on earth remembering what he had accomplished, figuring he would
never return to his roots of creativity, Russ met someone. Someone
who didn't care what he had or had'nt been, but solely cared
about him being happy. Over the next 7 years they've built their
retirement from nothing but pure will and togetherness. She
kept on Russ, saying and telling him that "you are too
talented and too creative to not leave all of your knowledge
and talent with someone to carry on". Not wanting to take
the chance of another divorce he stayed away from any desire
to build and create Custom Motorcycles but that desire burned
through when one day he was sitting and watching TV and the
Discovery Channel had a program showing called The Biker Build-Off.
The Birth of CCB
Russ sat there and all he could say was "I've done that,
I did that, I can still do that." And it ate and chewed
on him month after month. One day Russ's stepson, who was over
in Iraq at the time as a Private Contractor and former Army
Ranger, asked him, "Will you build me a bike?" His
reply was, "No, if I'm going to build one, we are going
to build 3, and what the heck, if we are going to build 3 we
might as well start a new venture together." That was the
birth of CCB - COWBOY CUSTOM BIKES and the return of Russ Hess
to the Custom Bike Building Industry. Turns out his bride is
the biggest fan and promoter with 100% of push. "It feels
good to be back and its great to have a young, ambitious and
talented partner that I can teach and pass on to all of what
I am".
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