"what's with the name, boosted brad??"......

a little history lesson behind brad and the shop name......

born in 1972, brad has always had a deep passion for anything with a motor and his obsession with motorcycles, especially choppers, began very soon in life. the motorcycle that really started it all was owned by a local guy nicknamed "cotton". he rode his motorcycle down brad's street almost daily. cotton's mom lived right down the road, so brad would peddle his bicycle down the road, and just sit and stare at what he thought was the coolest bike ever. it was a '78 harley davidson superglide. it had a narrowglide with 2 over tubes. painted on the tins were the grim reaper hovering over a graveyard. etched on the tombstones were the dates of some of cotton's friend who had passed on. as early as he can remember, brad's favorite toy was the evel knievel stunt cycle, which naturally, was a chopper. like most boys his age, he loved watching evel on the wide world of sports perform death defying stunts. next thing you know, brad was trying to jump a ditch on his 12" bicycle. after going through a variety of motorcycles over the years, he bought his first harley within a year of graduating out of high school. in '92 he purchased a '78 ironhead sporty for $1800 and immediately started tearing it apart. at that time, the pro street look ruled the scene. a chopper was definitely not the "in" thing. brad could care less what everyone else liked. all he cared about was making his bike lighter, faster and different. and at that time, it's definitely what he ended up with...

in the mid 90's, being a full time college student strapped for cash, he regretfully had to sell the sporty to purchase a dependable ride. that ride ended up being an 89 mustang. however, this only added fuel to his speed addiction. along with that addiction, his knowledge of engines and how to make them perform better, grew. working 2 part time jobs, brad bought performance parts as his wallet would allow. having the quickest car on the street still wasn't enough. when he became bored with filling nitrous bottles all the time, brad took it to the next level and purchased a turbo system. at a time when there wasn't very much knowledge on turbochargers, he went through a very expensive learning curve. brad pretty much lived at the dragstrip and on the 5 liter message boards for years, trying to make his car the fastest around. being one of the few "average joes" running a turbo on the street, brad was jokingly given the name "boosted brad" and the name stuck....for the none gear heads out there, turbos create "boost", which is positive intake pressure that results in more horsepower. the air is being compressed and forced into the engine. hopefully this will shed some light to the nickname.... if others didn't know brad at that time, most knew the car. he rebuilt the 5 liter engine himself and it produced a whopping 520 rear wheel horsepower at 15 pounds of boost. not too shabby for a stock short block 302.

the late 90's rolled around and so did a man named jesse james. brad was in a store one day and picked up a motorcycle magazine that had something different inside. the stripped down machine was called the "villain", and it was a far cry from the pink and yellow pro street bikes that was flooding the magazines at the time....it was a clean and simple chopper......something he hadn't seen in a long time...brad was immediately hooked. shortly after, he started working at caterpillar where he was a machinist. inspired by jesse's work, he went to school at night to get his welding certification . after seeing what jesse was doing with his bikes, brad bought a softail and wanted the same west coast flavor in his ride. brad knew what he wanted but didn't trust anyone else to get it done. so, he took on the project of painting and customizing the softail himself.... having a drawing background, brad picked up the art of painting pretty quick and before you knew it, friends started coming to him for work. he also began buying wrecked vehicles, rebuilding and selling them to make some extra money. his small garage business was called "the chop shop". during this time, jesse james' motorcycle mania came out and the motorcycle industry blew up. after that, there were numerous shops opening up around the country using the name "chop shop". since "boosted" and "chop shop" were both names associated with stealing cars and bikes, brad decided to combine both names to differentiate his business from the rest and give it a little edge. "boosted brad's chop shop" definitely stirred the curiosity of many. funny thing is, most people to this day don't really understand the name. some still think it‘s a real chop shop.... after 5 years of working at caterpillar during the day, custom painting, working on bikes and cars at night, brad was tired of burning the candle at both ends. with years of real world experience from working on cars and bikes, brad decided to pursue it full time.

then in '04, the business continued to grow and was moved from his garage to a new 3000 square foot building. everything needed to become the leader in the tri-state area was under one roof. now, he has a full service shop covering everything from engine work, parts & accessories, basic oil and tire changes, custom paint, to an all out custom built bike. you want speed, he's got that covered too. check out his personal bike. this bike has won 2 easyrider events along with many local bike shows, and can pull wheelies all day long. in the 1/8 mile it runs 7.04 at 102 mph with a 1.6 60ft on a street tire. whether you've got a stock bike or a high dollar custom, all makes and models are given the same quality service. brad works on each bike as if it were his own and always keeps your safety the number one priority. it's no surprise brad has quickly become the most recommend bike shop around. brad's parts are very competitively priced, and he can match or beat any advertised prices. however, boosted brad's will not try to beat other shops labor prices. he prides himself in his work. when your bike leaves his shop you can be confident it was done right. some shops just want to undercut and try to save you a dollar. when it comes to your life, as most know, it's not worth it. he believes in giving everyone a good deal without sacrificing quality. if you want quality work for a fair price that's guaranteed, see brad...... do you want it cheap and care more about cost than your life? take it to the other shops…....remember, good work ain't cheap, and cheap work ain't good....want quality?

Boosted Brad