Choppers

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Mar 16, 2011 | 05:45 PM

#21

LACOUNTRYHICK

Tourer

Joined: Mar 2011

Posts: 460

Likes: 5

From: Springfield, Louisiana

I have a 2008 Harley Davidson Rocker C, which is considered by many media types as a "Factory Production Inspired Chopper."

Mar 16, 2011 | 06:00 PM

#22

lucy brown

Cruiser

Joined: Jan 2009

Posts: 170

Likes: 0

Modern meaning of the word chopper is a raked out frt end. Period.

Mar 16, 2011 | 07:25 PM

#23

panz4ever

Seasoned HDF Member

Joined: Oct 2005

Posts: 7,499

Likes: 3,717

From: Santa Klaus County, Cali

From the 70s....chopped Sporty, different paint, rigid, raked, 16 rear drum x 21 spool or mini drum front, girder or springer, Mikuni carb, chrome where appropriate

Last edited by panz4ever; Mar 16, 2011 at 07:28 PM.

Mar 16, 2011 | 07:36 PM

#24

petom

Stellar HDF Member

Joined: Dec 2009

Posts: 2,747

Likes: 1,078

From: N/A

Quote:

Originally Posted by panz4ever

From the 70s....chopped Sporty, different paint, rigid, raked, 16 rear drum x 21 spool or mini drum front, girder or springer, Mikuni carb, chrome where appropriate

In the dictionary under "chopper" there's a picture of this bike in the margin, pretty sure. Panz if you did this, ya done it right.

Mar 16, 2011 | 08:09 PM

#25

expy

Road Captain

Joined: Jun 2007

Posts: 644

Likes: 5

This is Dads K9 the day he bought it. We just call it a hell alot of fun!

Mar 16, 2011 | 09:19 PM

#26

fj1200

Tourer

Joined: Nov 2009

Posts: 480

Likes: 17

From: Northern Virginia

Quote:

Originally Posted by chicanagirl

I think pro street means its meant for cruising. Rubber mounted engine and all that.

Stretched backbone, downtube stock size same as stock (+/- 1 inch), raked front end. My Big Dog Mastiff, a pro street, has a solid mounted engine.

Mar 16, 2011 | 09:58 PM

#27

warrconn

Road Master

Joined: Nov 2009

Posts: 1,243

Likes: 7

From: MN

Quote:

Originally Posted by petom

In the dictionary under "chopper" there's a picture of this bike in the margin, pretty sure. Panz if you did this, ya done it right.

Wow! What a great bike from the period...before they got overdone and excessive. Whatever became of it?

Mar 16, 2011 | 11:55 PM

#28

panz4ever

Seasoned HDF Member

Joined: Oct 2005

Posts: 7,499

Likes: 3,717

From: Santa Klaus County, Cali

petom...thanks for the compliment. It was a nice ride. Covered most of Kali, Nevada and Arizona on it. Carried a 1 gal gas can on long rides because I never mapped out destinations. Started off with a spool hub until the locals tagged me and said I needed a front brake in order to comply with the law. Switched to a Hallcraft mini-hub.

Paint was done by "Tony-The-8-Ball" (long since expired). On the tank I had a depiction of a rat about to get taken out by an eagle. Of course what the eagle does not see is that the rat has a cocked-n-locked 45 behind his back. Graphics included the pic of this and the words "The Last Great Act Of Defiance". Got some more pics some place that I need to dig out and post.

Guess for me (and others) it was like this need to separate ourselves and just be a little bit different.

warrconn, I sold it to a guy in San Francisco in order to build/finance a 51 rat-pan.

Heck today the definition of a "chopper" is blurred somewhere in terminology afforded to builders like Jesse James, Arlen Ness and OCC. But there was a time, a time when magazines like Easy Rider hadn't sold their souls to the corporate/advertising Devils and you would sit around in a 2-car garage with your best friend, late into the night, thumbing through a mag trying to figure what the next best improvement you were going to make that would make your bike the "coolest" around. And the best part was that it wasn't going to cost you your first-born child!

Somewhere we lost that and with it the true "chopper" mentality. But that is just the ramblings of an old man...

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