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Dave Cook
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Dave’s passion is an opportunity for
the rest of us to own something truly unique. If
you are the type of person who prefers to stand out in
a crowd instead of simply standing in one, perhaps
Dave should be building a bike for you. Ever
since Dave chopped his father's handmade picnic table
apart to build the frame for his first motorized
go-kart at the age of 13, he knew he was destined to
spend his life fabricating one of a kind , mechanical
devices, and damn the consequences.
As an adult Dave parlayed a stint as a
professional auto mechanic into a long and profitable,
but unfulfilling run at owning a used car lot. All the
while he continued to feed his need to create.
Settling on motorcycles as his chosen art form he
produced an uncounted string of them as a hobby over
the decade and a half that he maintained his auto sales
business.
Finally, in 2002 Dave made the
decision to make whatever changes necessary to
devote himself 100% to building the machines that
he loves, and there has been no looking back ever
since.
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JP
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John “JP” Persitza is the go to
guy for the business side of life at Cook Customs.
If he is not dealing with purchasing, event
planning, customer service, or responding to
inquiries from our website, he is probably working
on a file for one of our CNC machined components.
Though very capable at a broad range of graphic
design and painting skills, a quick tour of the
Cook bikes in this site will indicate that these
abilities are certainly not being overused. Dave’s
bikes generally stand as art in their own right,
without the need for much adornment.
With a lifetime of custom design and fabrication
experience in a number of areas, his favorite
escape from the business side of things is the
opportunity to fabricate components for one of
our, or our customers, bikes.
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Matt Drew
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If Cook Customs were a 60’s Disney
movie Matt would be the Wizard’s Apprentice.
Helping Dave with a broad range of the fabrication
that goes into producing our Cook Custom Components,
he is also a great contributor to the manpower
necessary to create some of Dave’s more whimsical
creations, such as 55 mph wheelie popping love seats.
When he is not working on helping Dave with bike (or
couch) parts there is a good chance you will find him
working with JP’s better half, Colleen Swartz,
photographing a motorcycle for publication, or any one
of the other photographic specialties they engage in,
such as pin-up photography and motorcycle event
coverage.
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Warren Heir Jr.
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The latest addition to the Cook
crew, Warren was born and bred in the bike
business. Son of Warren Heir Sr., owner of Warrens
Cycle in Round Lake Illinois, Jr. cut his teeth on
repair and service of Harley Davidsons. As his
skills grew so did his need to build his own
bikes.
While Dave continues to focus on one of a kind
builds, Warren and JP are working on a plan to
help make Dave’s style available in components
suitable for use with bikes built on a stock
foundation.
Now with numerous builds under his his belt,
publication of 2 of his bikes in Cycle Source
magazine, attention in other magazines such as
Iron Horse and Street Chopper for his sponsorship
of the El Diablo Run and others, Warren is working
to bring his style of old school components to his
brothers who share his appreciation for the 60’s
and 70’s style chops he loves to create. Look for
Warren Jr’s offering of parts in our online store.
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