A Shared Passion Sixteen-year-old Emmi Cupp’s Tiger Cub custom grabs a third-place trophy — and reignites her father’s passion for custom bike building By Joy Burgess
“S
ometimes in life there’s a special moment that surprises you,” said long-time AMA member, well-known bike builder and owner of LC Fabrications, Jeremy Cupp, “and this was one.” “My then-15-year-old daughter Emmi has been a Beatles fan for years and took a shine to the British bikes I have,” he told American Motorcyclist, “so for Christmas in 2019 I bought her a little 1958 Triumph Tiger Cub basket case, hoping we’d get it running together and tear it up in the fields around our home. Frankly, I wasn’t sure she’d be interested.” “But a day or two later,” he added, “Emmi brought me a sketch book full of ideas for how she wanted to build this bike. It was an eye-opener for me. I didn’t realize what I’d done in giving her that bike, but looking back, I’m sure glad I did.” Prior to the Christmas Cub basket case, Emmi had encountered some bumps in her young road, as preteens and teens are bound to do. “I decided it was time to pull her close,” Jeremy said, “and that’s tough to do when you’re running a business, so I started taking her to the shop with me. At first, we’d just be one another’s company, but then she started asking questions. Eventually, I’d take a few hours a day to teach her how to weld, run a mill and lathe…and frankly, she’s a natural. I’ve taught others, but no one who was able to grasp it so quickly.” Little did Jeremy know that the basket case would turn into a full-fledged build, end up entered in Roland Sands’ 2020 Coronavirus Bike Build-Off, bring home a third-place trophy that now sits proudly in a trophy case among his own many bike-building awards, and rekindle his own passion for building, leading to a surprising father-daughter partnership.
Emmi and her father Jeremy in the family’s LC Fabrications shop. The 1958 Triumph Tiger Cub in the foreground was Emmi’s first build, which won third place in Roland Sands’ Coronavirus Bike Build-Off. Now, father and daughter are working together on the Big Chief Indian in the background.
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AmericanMotorcyclist.com
