You aren't getting the point friend, the Moco can't build a one fits all chopper that would sell. The whole point behind choppers is individuality, a clone off the floor in a few color choices kills that deader than my first wife's love life. You be all proud of your ride then pull into a big event and there's a dozen just like it sitting there already, kinda lets the air of your ballon doesn't it....

 

I find its funny that people think motorcycles, or choppers began when the bought their first bike. The chopper fad started right after wwII, Gi's returning home were bored with their stock bikes and started stripping them down. Mostly for speed, but it also made them look different from everybody else's bike. They went in and out of style. custom parts makers o hey didn't have to be skilled at making every part on the bike. The '60's and '70's were big times for choppers. Extended forks and ridged frames were the rage. Pull back bars and long exhausts were pretty common. Then stock bikes that were more trouble free seemed to win over the masses. Reliability with a cool factor is what people wanted. Harley in the early 2000's ld cover all the bases with stock and custom bikes , and rolled out heir Thunder mountain line of chopped factory made motorcycles. It had a more aggressive chopped look to it, but maintained the stock motor and trans . Wild (for them) paint jobs and alot of chrome were thrown at them. I really only saw them in Texas while visiting there, I don't think all dealerships had or wanted them. So after a few years they were dropped from the lineup. Just like Harley's V-Rod "Destroyer". Their ready to race motorcycle complete with wheelie bars. It could run in the 9's with the right experienced rider on it. I believe they only made it for 2 years, '06 and '07. While not a chopper, it was a bike most new to the sport riders never knew about.,,

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/shove...per-build.html

 

People would customize them as much or more than most Harleys. New paint, front wheel, handle bars, seats, etc. Look at the softail slim page and the many different looks people have come up with.

They would still be proud of their ride just like the millions of black street glide owners.

 

Yes, I'm quite sure they could be successful selling one! That's part of my point. There is a market for store bought choppers.
That is also what I think has some riled. There is a market for one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter "choppers" just as customer demand is why WalMart still sell's Elvis on velvet prints.

Very simply, Harley-Davidson nor any other major manufacturer can put the individual effort into building a TRUE individual, unique, each-one-is-different chopper and sell it for less than $50,000. And that'd be the low end! What they'd sell would more correctly be a "customized bike." They been doing that for years! You can specify choices and they'll happily bolt them on whatever base model you specify, but a thousand other people are going to have a very close copy and some will have the same thing. That is what happens with off-the-shelf parts.

One must remember what a chopper really is! It's not simply a style or look, while actually being exactly that. Several have recently done considerable research and produced good documentation on the origins of the genre. Jesse James and Paul d'Orleans being two of the more notable ones. Choppers originally were the anti-factory bike! Parts like fenders, lights, seats and tanks were removed or altered - "chopped." Long bikes are the typical perception of "a chopper" but guys were building true choppers before that began. Such "short chops" are today often called bobbers. It really is kinda complicated despite the whole concept of choppers being decidedly uncomplicating a machine. Like I said before, it's art, plain and simple and you just can't mass produce art. You can produce something mimicking art and there is a ready market for that, but it's just not the same.

More importantly to H-D selling something that could be called a chopper is safety. Some of the stuff we do to motorcycles would never be condoned by corporate attorneys!

 

Very Nice indeed!! Thanks for sharing.

 

It's all very well saying you have to 'build it to deserve it', but what about us guys who don't have the skills or tools or money to do this ? We don't get to have one ? You guys get so steamed up about any ideas that differ from your own, relax and enjoy the mix we have here !...b.

 

I think the old early 2000s Harley Wide Glide was Harleys attempt at the 70s chopper, and the Rocker was there attempt at the modern day chopper, and both are Gone, but the Wide Glide sure lasted longer than the Rocker did.

 

You have someone build it to your vision, may be others hands but it's still your dream not what a room full corporate squids think will be the next big thing. 3/4 the bikes I built where for someone else, besides the skills my only input was guiding them on parts and a few style suggestions to meet their vision.

Clone box choppers came and went of the 40 odd companies that made them they are all with few exceptions out of business now.

 

Oh one last thing buying a chopper ain't gonna make you a biker.......