Nevada inmates making real ‘outlaw’ bikes

updated 4:56 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2005

CARSON CITY, Nev. - If you’re looking for an “outlaw” motorcycle, Nevada prison officials have a deal for you: a custom, high-powered chopper that costs $40,000 or more and is built by real outlaws.

The prison system’s “Big House Choppers” venture is expanding from a small wooden shed involving a few motorcycle-savvy convicts to a larger prison shop in southern Nevada that will employ as many as 30 inmates.

“We are producing the only true outlaw motorcycles being produced by outlaws in the United States,” Howard Skolnik, head of the state’s prison industries program, said Monday.

Skolnik boasts that buyers also will receive a certificate that confirms pieces of scrapped prison cell bars went into their bikes — in the form of 5-inch-long fender supports.

“Little things like that make these bikes look desirable,” he said.

Skolnik told a legislative oversight panel that payment of a $15,000 licensing fee to the state Department of Motor Vehicles will clear the way for sale of the custom choppers.

“You know, there’s no accounting for bad taste, senator,” Skolnik said to state Sen. Bob Beers, who asked for details on the program and its market appeal. “People want these bikes. They really do.”

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