Chicano Roy

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Roy Suarez Garcia (1945–2003), known as Chicano Roy, was an American motorcycle builder and inventor who helped reshape bike design. He popularized molding the gas tank into the frame and designed the first pop-off gas tank, a safety improvement.

From 1977 to 1982, he became the first Hispanic chopper builder to dominate the custom-bike magazine world, with his brother David Garcia as his partner. Their work appeared in Easyrider, Big Bike, Street Chopper, Custom Bike, Chopper, Iron Horse and other magazines.

Roy’s innovations include the Molded Frame (the gas tank and frame look like one piece, with a removable tank in case of damage), the Frenched Spoon Seat (seat sits inside the frame with no visible gap), and the Frenched Axle (recessed rear axle nuts). In 1980, Custom Bike magazine featured “The Art of Molding” and credited the bolt-on/pop-off gas tank as a key feature of the molded frame.

Earlier, Roy learned from his brother Eddie “Gypsy” Garcia, who had the Garcia family’s first Harley, a 1948 Panhead. Gypsy rebuilt the bike, and in 1968 Roy molded his first frame from that Panhead. By 1970, he created his first molded pop-off gas tank frame on a Pan-Shovelhead chopper built in San Fernando, California. Johnny Garcia (“Oso”) drew many of their chopper designs.

A chopper Roy and David molded was featured in Easyrider, built at their shop “Two Broke Tramps” in San Fernando, epoxy-painted by Raja of Chopper Specialties, and assembled by Two Broke Tramps. The bike appeared in 1978 and was later cited in Harley-Davidson’s 100-year history magazine for showing a chopped look beyond the bobber style.