Regular Super Streetbike readers are no doubt familiar with Lee Shierts, a guy who seems to pop up in nearly every issue with a starring role in some tale of high-speed hijinks. Whether it's piloting Rich Yancy's turbo Hayabusa in the top-speed time trials at Maxton airfield (where Shierts holds the absolute streetbike speed record of 256.410 mph), building and tuning some of the fastest bikes in AMA/Prostar and MIROCK dragracing circuits or acting as ringleader of the off-the-hook Lee's Performance Bike Fest (featured in our March 2005 issue), Shierts' name has become synonymous with streetbike performance. After two decades of bustin' knuckles at his speed shop, Lee's Performance, Shierts has earned a much-deserved reputation as the go-to guy for go-fast motorcycle engine work. All good reasons, we figured, to pay a visit to Shierts' sportbike supercenter in Charlotte, North Carolina, to see if we could get a sneak peek inside his inner sanctum of speed.
Ace photog Scott Odell and I arrived at Lee's Performance shortly after sunrise, early enough, it appeared, to beat the unbeatable Mr. Shierts to the office. No worries-we didn't wait long. The thunderous cacophony of a big American V8 running at unnaturally high rpms soon broadcast Shierts' arrival. Screeching tires and a cloud of blue smoke (the result of a tidy doughnut) provided a properly dramatic entrance for Shierts, who rolled out of his daily driver, a supercharged, 341-cubic-inch stroker Mustang GT, with a huge smile on his face. One of the fastest men on the planet, Shierts lives life just like he rides on the racetrack-Wide Freakin' Open.
Shierts hails from Minnesota, but he fled that frozen wasteland at the tender age of 18 and headed to the Left Coast, where he could play with motorcycles year-round. By his 21st birthday he had opened Lee's Cycle Service in San Diego, which he ran for 10 years until 1995. During this time Shierts became a force to be reckoned with in the roadracing world. Building, tuning and riding his own bikes in AMA Superbike, Formula Extreme and 250 Grand Prix classes, Shierts went head-to-head with factory-funded racing efforts with incredible success (for a privateer), including one fourth-place series finish. Shierts was officially on the map as a first-class bike tuner, as well as a quick rider on the racetrack.
Shierts stuck to the roadracing game until '95, when a rough tumble in an AMA Superbike race at Pomona rang his bell, and good. In the interest of self-preservation (and now with a couple of cute kids to feed at home), Shierts stepped away from the racetrack and dedicated his energies to tuning full time. It was also around this time that he moved his business all the way across the country, relocating from sunny San Diego to sportbike-mad Charlotte, North Carolina.
Why North Carolina? Shierts liked the cost of living a whole lot better in Charlotte than San Diego, for one thing, and then there's the fact that the Carolinas are such a hotbed for speed enthusiasts. Walking around his squeaky clean, 10,000-square-foot shop located in the heart of NASCAR country, it certainly looks as if the move has been a good one for Shierts. The rear wall of his expansive showroom is lined with customer bikes waiting for surgery, while the front of the showroom is crowded with "brand new" Suzukis waiting to be sold.