Indian Larry

Larry DeSmedt (April 28, 1949 — August 30, 2004), better known as Indian Larry, was a noted motorcycle builder and artist, stunt rider, and biker. He first became known as Indian Larry in the 1980s when he was riding the streets of New York City on a chopped Indian motorcycle. Respected as an old school chopper builder, Larry sought greater acceptance of choppers being looked upon as an art form. He became interested in the Kustom Kulture scene of hot rods and motorcycles at an early age and was a fan of Von Dutch and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, whom he would later meet in California.

Wide acknowledgment of Indian Larry's talent only came to fruition in the last few years of his life, before his death in 2004 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident while performing at a bike show. Larry's bike, Grease Monkey, was featured in Easyriders magazine in September 1998. Then in 2001, a wider audience became aware of Indian Larry through a Discovery Channel program entitled, Motorcycle Mania II, followed by his participation in three different Biker Build-Off programs. Likewise, it was only during the last few years that Larry had the funding to bring his lifetime of ideas to fruition and show all of his mechanical artistry in a handful of notable chopper builds such as Daddy-O (known to most people as the Rat Fink bike), Wild Child, and Chain of Mystery. In addition to television, popular exposure to Indian Larry's down-to-earth personality and philosophy occurred through his many appearances at bike shows and rallies across the United States.