Johnny Galvan

Johnny’s first groundwork in turning wrenches came from a 1976 Iron Sportster Harley Davidson that was purchased in basket-case condition back in Oconomowoc WI. By his early 20s, Johnny was working for his father in Milwaukee, at a neighborhood dance-hall bar. That’s where several veteran Harley riders took him under their wing and gave him the fundamentals of the V-Twin design, information that was vital in building his first motorcycle.

Johnny saw an add in a motorcycle magazine for a Harley Davidson endorsed school in Phoenix Az called Motorcycle Mechanics Institute, and decided to leave Milwaukee behind for the desert in 1997. MMI is a division of Universal Technical Institute (mainly focused around car and truck technology), which offers factory-authorized training at campuses in Chicago, Houston, Dallas Boston and several other cities. MMI offered specialties in each make of motorcycle; Johnny, of course, went for the Harley-Davidson Early- and Late-Model elective programs. That’s where he developed skills and knowledge on core technologies like fuel and electrical systems, power and drivability, and had access to a fully-equipped shop and lab to get the hands-on experience. In ’99, Johnny had graduated from the H-D courses, with specialties in Engine Rebuild and Performance, as well as all the prerequisites leading up to the H-D elective.

The following years had him working at an aftermarket V-Twin shop in Phoenix AZ, a Harley-Davidson dealership in College Station TX and finally at Central TX Harley-Davidson on Braker Lane in Austin.

By 2002, his next logical move was a home-based sole proprietorship business called Kool Daddy Motorcicle Repair. The business grew and evolved over the next 5-6 years, and has now moved to 513 Thompson Lane (under the new name of Kool Daddy Motorcicles LLC). In winter 2008, renovations were under way and the doors opened at the new Kool Daddy shop in January 2009. Johnny Galvan was then firmly established in the V-Twin motorcycle industry.

The department he leads in the shop is available for the owners of V-Twin designs dating from 1936-1984 1/2, which he believes is much needed in our city. So if you have an 'ol Iron Sporty, or even a Shovelhead that you want to redesign a chassis around, Kool Daddy Motorcicles won't turn you away for being a scoot of yesteryear…

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