Hello My name is Slim Shady!
No really my name is Mike McFadden I live in Owensboro, Kentucky and have been a resident here from the day I was born. 45 yrs. of age and balding. I will give you a brief history of how I came to be a bike builder and custom fabricator.
 
Back when I was younger I would spend endless hours out in my pops garage tinkering on my bicycles and trying to make them stand out in the group of friends I ran with. I guess the first “Custom” mod I made to a bike was taking a set of forks off of a ten speed road bike and hammering them onto the forks of my 20” Schwinn Stingray and turning the bike into the coolest chopper and wheeling riding bike around. Next came the painting part I wanted a bike with a custom yellow color so my mom told me if I prepped it and sanded it down she would paint it. I spent nearly a summer sanding the frame with emery cloth and a butter knife. Yeah Crazy I know. Well mom painted it with a brush and the bike looked horrible and I was devastated from final results. From then on it was my goal to never allow anyone to paint my work. Everything would be done in house. I have since done anything within my means to keep from taking my fabricating out of the garage.
 
Once I made it to High School I decided to go into the Auto Body technical field at our local Vocational School to understand the processes of repairing and painting. My thinking was this would be my way to get into the designing field of a car company and this would give me a leg up to start working on those clay models. I was wrong big-time. Chalk that one up to being green around the coller.
What I was taught in those days has really been a life saver for me now. During this time period the newer paint systems such as Basecoat Clearcoat had not hit the market and the schools where still teaching the old methods of metal shaping and metal repair with files and the actual use of dollies to work the metal. Growing up using various tools and hammers had actually prepped me for this type of field and I was doing really well. During local competitions held every year called V.I.C.K.A. I excelled and finished first to be able to move onto the regional competitions. The final year I was able to win regional’s and represent our area in State Competition and finish first. I never finished below second place during these competitions. 
 
After graduating High School I worked co-op at a couple of shops and ended up taking over the ownership of the last one I was at. Owning a business at 19 and having 8 employees was a challenge and the shop worked out really well. I had the shop for a couple of years before moving to the top shops in the area and becoming the main painter and shop foreman for 8 yrs. During this time I painted numerous bikes and cars for local shows and also began building my first all out true custom 67 VW Bug. The bug made it into to Print in the Magazines V.W. Trends and Hot V.W. This was the beginning of what fueled my desire to keep taking the pieces I built up a notch every time. Hell I loved the accolades of what came from the hard work. Who doesn’t right?
 
2003 to present; Now after all these years of raising two wonderful daughters and marrying my high school sweetheart I’ve been able the last 5 or so years to get back into the shop fulltime and dust off my tools and fire up the welders. I guess around 2003 when the Chopper Craze hit the Discovery Channel is the period that sparked it. Listening to the guys at the plant go on about how skilled these guys where and how insane it was that they could do those bikes. I knew very well I could do it without a Water jet or a CNC machine so I started building a custom V-Star 1100. The reason for selecting this bike was because the bike’s a metric and at the time no aftermarket parts could be bought to customize it like the Harley’s. This would allow me to show everyone what could be done on any bike with an imagination. The bike was a success and actually made it to the final 50 bikes for selection into the Yamaha Calendar. The bike began to find a following on the forums over the years and I would post how to articles with pictures. The bike has gone through many changes just because of boredom. After awhile like all things I was ready for something else and I discovered the Brat Style bikes the Japanese guys where rolling out. These bikes had attitude and tons of possibilities. I also at the time noticed the XS650 bikes had taken on their own following and the Bobber style was really picking up. I started picking up the local traders trying to find some old 70’s style bikes and thus began the builds.
 
After securing a 1972 K1 CB500 I began to build my version of a Café Brat style the end result was a bike that got my name out there and tons of sites featuring my work. The Black and Gold #8 known as the “Menace to Society” had taken off. Magazines have featured the bike and the Bike Exif  had a lot of traffic for the feature. During this time I had met a gentleman that works for the Yamaha Corporation and we discussed the #8 and how he loved it but wished I had selected a Yamaha of course. In the end he hooked me up with an 1980 XS650 that would change things for me and get my skills outside of my area. While I was building the bike I was sending out pictures of it to the gentleman and what I didn’t know was the bike was being seen by the VP’s of Yamaha and they where liking what they saw. The bike was finished in the summer of 2012 and debuted in Indianapolis , Indiana during the MotoGP Weekend. Yamaha set the bike up with its own semi and tent area for the fans to see. The bike was so well received that I was approached about loaning the bike to Yamaha for the year to take part in the Progressive International Motorcycle Show. To date the bike has traveled to all corners of the United States and is currently in talks to travel overseas to take part in the AMD World Championships of Bike Building. To have a bike in this competition is one of the highest honors a builder can obtain. I have also been asked to take part in representing the United States in a Olympic Style Build Off taking place in Milwaukee 2015 at the Harley Davidson Celebration for the AMD shows.
 
I have also built a couple of Café bikes that for the short time been out (October 10th 2012)have been stirring up the pot and getting people thinking of what’s possible with the Honda CB’s and the bikes have taken awards of Best of Show, Best Custom Café, and Best Garage Builds at shows held in Road Atlanta for the Café Racer TV Show and the Barber Vintage Days Ace Café show. The Bike’s I’m referring to are a 1973 CB350 and the 1974 CB550 known as EL Dora. Since its release in 2 weeks the El Dora has been featured on more than 15 sites or Blogs and had a 8 page feature in IRON&AIR magazine. As you can see the bikes have been good to me the past couple of years and it seems that the two wheeled variety has always taken me somewhere. If you feel that you to would love to tap into my mind and have a bike built and possibly end up in print and taking home awards. I can do the job for you. I know this has been a very long winded Bios but I truly wanted you to know what it is I’m about. I build bikes in my shop not to be art pieces but to be ridden and admired by those who cannot or do not have the skills or time to make a bike of their dreams. If you would like to reach me and possibly have a custom bike built contact me through the information provided in the contacts tab of the site. My shop M&M Customs is not a Factory type of shop pushing out 2 or 3000 bikes a year but  a shop you would look at as a boutique building 5 to 10 bikes a year. This allows me to concentrate on your build and not worrying about a mass production of bikes to pay the bills. All work will be documented through pictures sent to you as the build progresses and the work will always be done in house from fabrication to the paint work. I have over 29 yrs of experience and I know I have what it takes to build you something unique and will make you proud whenever it might take you.
 
Thank You,
Mike McFadden
Owner of M&M Customs
Owensboro, KY 42301