Choppers=Big Loud Motorcycles

We have one business in front of our apartment and one behind. One repairs retro cycles and one makes custom choppers. Both are extremely noisy. Our building is situated between two one-way streets with a u-turn on either end, so anyone testing out a cycle by "circling the block" gives us a double whammy. We are also neighbors to a Vespa and a Stella dealer, but as I'm sure you'd believe, they don't really cause too big a ruckus.

That said, it is pretty cool being surrounded by interesting motorcycles. The guy on the backside of the building runs a shop right next to our parking garage entrance and he always has such cool old bikes. And he parks them half the time IN the inside lane, so they are hard to miss. He's got an old Indian, for example, and we've seen several old retro Harley's sitting out there. He also has a little Gorilla that I think is just awesome. And it sounds just awesome, too. 50cc motor or some shit, just a little lawn mower motor. :lol

The guy our front sits shares a store front with our front sidewalk. The way a lot of these highrises work is, they rent out store fronts on the 1st floor and everything above it is apartments. [URL="http://www.moonchoppers.com/"]Moon Choppers[/URL] is the name of the chopper business in our building. They have some really [URL="http://www.garagegirls.tv/bikes/moonchoppers/"]amazing motorcycles[/URL]. (My favorite is "Hot Sexy". It is owned by a well known Korean designer and that is his motto, apparently, but I just like the bike...)

The owner, Mr Lee, is a really great guy. He speaks really good English, and since English is my [I]only[/I] language, I really appreciate that, and is exceptionally friendly. In fact, he was my first real introduction to hospitality here because he introduced himself to us after we moved in. He is a welcome change from most of the neighbors we have, [I]outside the 18 apartments in my stairwell, everyone in our stairwell is SUPER awesome nice[/I], because directly across the street is the bus stop for the nearby subway station AND it sits just outside the senior citizen activity center. This bus stop is where my children catch their school bus to the Army post and we also have to take the dog across the street beside the senior citizen center to use the bathroom and I have to tell you that if you ever found American old people to be surly or mean, you have not lived until you've dealt with old Korean people on a daily basis.

Where was I...oh, yeah, not bitching about fucking old people, but telling you about Mr. Lee. He just loves our dog, if he's in the shop and we take her out (which we do several times a day) he has to come and say hi to her. He asks us where she is when we don't have her. :lol He laughed at my husband & I holding hands one night returning from a run to the corner store for a melon ice pop, telling us hand-holding was for newlyweds and teenagers.

He is always asking my husband if he has gotten a motorcycle yet, no, is the answer, and last month he told my husband that he has some "connections" around Seoul and wants to take my husband to get a decent motorcycle at a price he can afford. To Dh it's like having Yves Saint Laurent take you to Rodeo Drive. :lol

[URL="http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/03/21/200903210052.asp"]Here[/URL] are a few links on the business, for those interested, the bikes are pretty awesome. LOUD but awesome. (In this link, you can see my stairwell doorway, I told you we are really close...) and [URL="http://www.mongdori.com/forums/read.php?2,829"]this link[/URL] has a few videos of them in action.

One thing interesting about these motorcycles is that they are all owned by someone. The store front is crowded with the, they store them here, maintain them and the owners will either come by and take them for a spin or they will bring the bikes to the owners. And [URL="http://picasaweb.google.com/camomama/MoonChoppers?authkey=Gv1sRgCIzTpZ-3heCSzwE#"]here's a few of my own pics[/URL]. Including Hot Sexy. Meow.