The last handful of years have seen the "master builder" label tacked on to quite a few constructors, some deserving, some not. "Master" anything is quite a heady title if there ever was one, and living up to it seems a daunting task. One truly deserving of such a celebrated moniker would have to be of a consummate skill level, as well as possessing talent and knowledge combined with a perspective only time could foster. That in itself probably narrows our current crop of "master builders" down to about 30 or so, most of whom have already seen their mugs spread across the pages of this magazine, including Mr. Don Hotop.
Don doesn't fit the mold of what we have come to know as the modern bike builder. He doesn't have a website, a fan club, or a clothing line, and if you were to wander by Don's Speed and Custom in Fort Madison, IA, it'd likely be Don who changed your oil. Why no TV crew, attached bar stocked with the requisite hotties, or pony-tailed business manager booking him on the next Biker Builder Bonanza? Because that's how Don likes it. He builds not to impress or to attain some sort of rock star-like fame, but for the pure pleasure gained from turning raw steel into an actual ridable motorcycle.
Although Don has been turning wrenches for more than 30 years, a good portion of the notoriety he has seen has stemmed from a series of bikes built for Drag Specialties' Fat Books. One of the standouts is the vintage-styled and Sporty-powered sidecar rig used in a prominent line of Drag marketing and featured in the April '05 issue of HOT BIKE. He's also responsible for 30 or so items within the catalog itself and, on top of that, does his duty as Drag's covert R&D department. These are just the latest in a long list of accomplishments that, oddly enough, began with a game of Eight Ball in the early '70s
Like any true craftsman, Hotop began his climb to master status long ago. Born and raised in Fort Madison, IA, Don spent his early years doing maintenance in a Chevron chemical plant and searching for interesting things to do with his free time. That all changed three-plus decades ago, when the aforementioned game of Eight Ball resulted in a very ratty '45 Harley coming into his possession. The bike promptly grenaded, and its subsequent resurrection became the catalyst for Don's V-Twin passion. A few years later, he had moved on to a custom Sportster, and by 1974 Don's Speed and Custom was born. Innovative ground-up customs soon followed, the first of which was based on a '64 pan with a shovel top end bolted into a rigid frame and covered in popular (for the period) psychedelic paint. By the late '70s Hotop had graduated to journeyman status and had begun to draw local notoriety as a cutting-edge bike builder.