Monday, April 15, 2013
Gatto Springers
Story as told by the old biker I bought the springer from: The super narrow Gatto Springers were made in Chicago by two brothers one ran a plating shop and one was a biker type bro. The biker brother would build the front end and plating brother would chrome them. In the 80s when Springers were going out of fashion the plating brother changed over to industrial plating. The old biker I bought it from ran a cycle shop in town and would take runs to Chicago to pick up the springers. He also said they were super well built and only had one ever break
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I believe Irish Rich once told that story in a Greasy Kulture mag. I'll look it up if I find the time.
ReplyDeletei live in chicago and run my shop in chicago. ill have to look more into this, this sounds super super cool.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Gatto did the machining, polishing, and sent the springer's out to be plated.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Arlington Plating.
He assemebled them, and shipped them.
As the chopper fad dropped off, he bought a waining zinc plating operation in the city, and now is the largest in the country.
His machine shop for the springer's at the time was in Villa Park.IL.
It was the nicest springer available at the time, and I sold a bunch of them when I was working for Triumph / BSA in the Burbs'.