Bobbers and choppers everywhere.

[ReycleBill]

I guess it's an age thing. In the 1970s the definitions were different than they seem to be today. Back then we stripped it down and called it a bobber. Only when modifications to the structure of the frame came into play did we call them choppers. Not every chopper was raked at the neck because the rake could also be achieved by the positioning of the hard tail.

And custom always meant that hand made one-off parts were employed.

Also, many choppers had swing arms with extended front ends and usually a bit of rake to get them low enough to ride again. My first bike was a new 1974 CB 550 Honda 4 with TT pipes, snuffer-nots, Weber Carbs, reground cam, impossible to use until warmed up Barnett racing clutches, hand made pods, one-off hand made sissy bar, 10" over stock tubes, rear lowering blocks and a hellacious rake. And for a time it had a spool front wheel until I became wiser. Looking back it was horrendous to ride but it was a chopper and remains the second fastest motorcycle I ever owned.

Whether a hard tail was welded on, bolted on or was a complete aftermarket frame made no difference-- in practice it was still a modified frame design and therefore still called a chopper.

Bobbers actually got their start in the old hill climbing events where full length rear fenders had to be cut off (bobbed or bob tail) to keep them from dragging the ground when climbing steep grades.

Convention is: before you can know what something is today, you must know what it was way back when. Think about it.

 

[ReycleBill]

Hence:

Hugh's HandBuilt - HotRod Motorcycles

No one fights over the term "Hot Rod" when applied to 2 wheels

We're not fighting, just learning history.

 

[srinath]

I guess it's an age thing. In the 1970s the definitions were different than they seem to be today. Back then we stripped it down and called it a bobber. Only when modifications to the structure of the frame came into play did we call them choppers. Not every chopper was raked at the neck because the rake could also be achieved by the positioning of the hard tail.
<snip>

You can acheive a different rake by putting shorter shocks too ... or even longer shocks, cos that de-rakes it ... that makes most sv650's, SV1000's, GS500's, katana's and nearly anything made that people put aftermarket shocks on a chopper. The SV's and GS'es get hand me down from the bigger GSXR family so most of those have been swapped out ... I dont know how it is on the kawi, yamaha and honda sport bikes but I know they have mods to those as well, for example a Honda Hawk is modded with cbr 600 shocks, but beyond that ... no clue.

That may be called a raker. Chopper implies something was chopped. In the past its been applied to bikes whose necks were cut and welded. Hacking the neck and welding it back up IMHO is the riskiest thing you can dream of doing on a bike. Needless to say everyone wants to be the 1% er and hence everyone wants to have a chopper. Much like soccer moms driving minivans refer to their minivan as a "truck".

Yup everyone is a 1% er (unrelated to any motorcycle connotation) Just a twist on "every one is above average".

Cool.
Srinath.

 

[littlebill31]

Reminds me of my uncle. He has be working on British bikes since the late '60's. He is a certified Triumph, Norton mechanic and was trained at the factory in England. So, if you say to him "cafe" you better hold on. He has several Triumphs, BSA, Nortons and the Triton and just sold his Vincoti, all he built during the '60's and '70's. Doing "the ton" is something he says all the time. To him everything that was made after 1972 is not a cafe racer. It's a copy. I said cafe one time and he said, "oh, you're racing the 'ton up boys'? What cafe do you hang at?" ect. His '62 pre-unit T-120 will only run at full throttle because it's an extreme top end street racer. He bought it from a pal in '68 in England.
My point is, to him, a "cafe" is an original British bike built in the 60's to street race, everything else is a copy. Just like to some a chopper or bobber is.... but to others they are...
Hell, he road cross country on a '55 Triumph hardtail in '66 and still has it.

 

[srinath]

Even in the 50's the british and even american bikes had wiring and all the bits and bobs (fuse boxes, and plug in wiring pieces etc) all hidden from view. The japanese took it 1 step further and made the bolts and nuts hidden too. I kinda like that. In a way that makes everything look "factory", no visible battery, no visible wiring and plugs and pretty much nothing visible, I know a lot of battery less minimal wiring bikes are going to be that way which makes sense atleast in my twisted world.
I am working on a GR that will only use "stock" parts. They will just we stock from a 100 different bikes.
Like I raked a savage a couple years ago. It had a 9 degree rake but only 2 parts were made by me. The upper triple and the lower triple. The rest were all "stock" parts ... just from 10 different bikes.
Cool.
Srinath.