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There's a Honda Dealer in my town, and I don't believe I've ever run across a Honda Fury on the road, and they don't go to the same bars that I do either.....
I have only seen a few myself but someone is buying them They have been in production for 10 years now.
I admit Harley riders are not going to buy a Honda Chopper, especially only 1300 CC's, But if Harley made something that looked great with a 114 engine for under 25K, it would be a success.
Okay, I don't think I was overly harsh, but I was pretty quick to denounce the concept.
Plain and simple. Choppers or other custom bikes very simply are art. When YOU choose parts for a motorcycle for aesthetic reasons rather than functional ones (yes, they can be both!) that's a personal expression of YOUR taste and ideas on what the bike should look like. That individual concept is art! You're a freaking artist!!! It doesn't matter if you make the parts in your own garage or pick them out of a catalog and pay the dealer to bolt them on, it's still your concept of what the finished product should look like. You can buy home decor at WalMart, or you can create a painting. Hang either on your walls and they have the same effect of decorating your crib. Most people can discern the difference in this analogy though. It is the same analogy some are trying to convey in the "built not bought" thing.
When you go to some gallery and buy an expensive painting, it may have the same impact on visitors to your house vs. a WalMart Elvis on velvet picture, but it is not the same as your own painting! That make any sense?
If you choose to pay someone else to create your own style for you, there's nothing wrong with that. ...if that's what you're about. A chopper though is something individual. A reflection of the builder not the buyer. You can pay someone to write a song for you, even if you're tone deaf. That makes you the song's owner, it does not make you a songwriter. No two choppers are alike, or at least shouldn't be. When that happens, the unique factor has been diluted to nothing more than another production bike. It is no longer art, it is a product, just as prints, even limited edition ones, are not paintings!
Who'd a thought this would be so difficult to explain? I think it was Antonio Scalese who said of pronography; "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." This is kinda the same thing.
Nothing wrong with buying a chopper; some people dodn't have the incination, time, or ability to build one. I am one of them...no desire to build a bike, but I love old skool chops.
But if the MoCo made one, I guarantee it would look like ***, again with that stupid looking bobbed rear fender I'm always bitching about.
If I were in charge of design, I would bring back the NightTrain, WITH the original ducktail, gloss black engine covers, & a 117". I wouldn't be able to get to the dealer fast enough to plunk down my cabbage.
That could be a problem. I vote to put you on the design team!! That would look sweat.
You don't buy a chopper. You have to build it. Building is the journey you have to make in order to have that one of a kind something that a chopper is. Nobody can build it for you. Riding a chopper you didn't build is the ultimate example of a fraud, dell' impostore, of being a poser. And it's a fact that a majority of riders don't even know what a chopper is.
I have to applaud your Forrest Gump addition. Good One!!
Okay, I don't think I was overly harsh, but I was pretty quick to denounce the concept.
Plain and simple. Choppers or other custom bikes very simply are art. When YOU choose parts for a motorcycle for aesthetic reasons rather than functional ones (yes, they can be both!) that's a personal expression of YOUR taste and ideas on what the bike should look like. That individual concept is art! You're a freaking artist!!! It doesn't matter if you make the parts in your own garage or pick them out of a catalog and pay the dealer to bolt them on, it's still your concept of what the finished product should look like. You can buy home decor at WalMart, or you can create a painting. Hang either on your walls and they have the same effect of decorating your crib. Most people can discern the difference in this analogy though. It is the same analogy some are trying to convey in the "built not bought" thing.
When you go to some gallery and buy an expensive painting, it may have the same impact on visitors to your house vs. a WalMart Elvis on velvet picture, but it is not the same as your own painting! That make any sense?
If you choose to pay someone else to create your own style for you, there's nothing wrong with that. ...if that's what you're about. A chopper though is something individual. A reflection of the builder not the buyer. You can pay someone to write a song for you, even if you're tone deaf. That makes you the song's owner, it does not make you a songwriter. No two choppers are alike, or at least shouldn't be. When that happens, the unique factor has been diluted to nothing more than another production bike. It is no longer art, it is a product, just as prints, even limited edition ones, are not paintings!
Who'd a thought this would be so difficult to explain? I think it was Antonio Scalese who said of pronography; "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it." This is kinda the same thing.
I understand your point of view and it makes sense, but that doesn't mean Harley couldn't be successful marketing one.
Damn, you guys are harsh on this one. How many of you that commented have built a custom bike, Chopper or otherwise? I know a few of you have, anyone still have pics of past projects?
My '88 rigid was built by me, I know every nut, bolt and busted knuckle.
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It doesn't matter if you make the parts in your own garage or pick them out of a catalog and pay the dealer to bolt them on, it's still your concept of what the finished product should look like. You can buy home decor at WalMart, or you can create a painting. Hang either on your walls and they have the same effect of decorating your crib. Most people can discern the difference in this analogy though. It is the same analogy some are trying to convey in the "built not bought" thing.
