When Larry Manzanares died last year, he left behind a torn-apart motorcycle that he planned to rebuild.
That bike, a Confederate Hellcat, will be auctioned off and the proceeds will be split between a scholarship in his name and the Four Corners Child Advocacy Center, a non-profit that works with child abuse victims.
Former Denver city attorney Manzanares, 50, committed suicide after he was found with a stolen laptop in his possession and he was charged with theft and embezzlement.
In addition to serving as a district judge for 15 years, the Harvard-educated Manzanares was a motorcycle aficionado who loved to rebuild bikes.
“He was a pretty well-accomplished motorhead,” said Pete Montaño, his brother-in-law, who is also enamored of motorcycles.
Manzanares bought the 2001 Hellcat on e-bay from someone who put 184 miles on the odometer before wrecking it.
Manzanares took the bike apart and died before he could finish rebuilding it. His widow, Peggy Montaño, is Pete’s sister. She asked if he wanted the motorcycle and he brought it home to finish what Manzanares had started.
He and a friend worked on the bike, using paint that Manzanares had picked out for the project.
When they were finished they were impressed with the machine, Pete Montaño said.
“We were sitting around and we said, man, this is beautiful, we have to do something with it.”
The bike was made by Birmingham, Ala.-based Confederate Motor Company, which according to Popular Mechanics, produces “some of the coolest, quickest and most eye-popping bikes.”
The company has attracted some high-profile customers. Tom Cruise arrived at a promotion for the premiere of his film Mission: Impossible III on a Confederate.
New Confederates are priced in the $60,000 range.
Montaño is planning a silent auction with bids starting at $22,000 at the upcoming Colorado Motorcycle Show. The show at the National Western Complex in Denver is scheduled for Feb. 2 and 3.
The first $14,000 will go toward a scholarship, and the rest will be given to the non-profit Child Advocacy Center in Cortez. “Larry was involved with that,” Montaño said.
Tom McGhee: (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
