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Dinah Chopper, Jesse Rooke's First Custom Build, Goes on Sale in Vegas

Having started building motorcycles in 2002, at the age of 28, Jesse Rooke was one of the promising young bloods of the custom bikes industry. Sadly, he passed away in 2019 following a motorcycle crash on Carefree Highway in Phoenix, Arizona.
Jesse Rooke Dina Chopper 21 photos
Photo: Mecum
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As with all the other big names of the industry, his work will however endure. Rooke left behind quite a number of designs, some of which will probably show up on auction lists in the months ahead.

Among the first to do so is the first bike Rooke ever built, back in 2002. Called Dinah, in honor of his childhood sweetheart, Dinah Foddrill, and also as a tribute to help her family’s business, Foddrill Fabrications, gave him in making the build a reality, the chopper is now listed as for sale during the Mecum Las Vegas motorcycle auction.

Equipped with not-so-often-seen single-sided front fork and rear wheel, the bike is one of a kind in its world, especially because of its simplicity.

The streamlined design of the frame is uninterrupted by neither necessary nor unnecessary fittings. For instance, it lacks things like gauges, while other elements needed for it to work properly, like wires, cables, oil tank and even the lights are hidden from view. What is visible inside the frame is the large V-twin engine linked to a six-speed transmission.

Other defining traits of the bikes are its wheels, which are one-of-a-kind and machined from blanks shipped all the way from Germany. With them on, the bike received the Long Beach Calendar Show award the very first year it was completed.

This particular bike, seen as one of the most important in Rooke's career, remained in his possession since it was built. Now, together with two other – the National Guard Scarlett 3-wheeler and the Red Bull IMS chopper – is going under the hammer on Saturday, January 25. No estimate on how much the bike is expected to fetch was made.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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