CHOPPER,,
Def,. CHOP---PER. UP and peice it together with other peices to make a one of a kind...
Anyone herer remember the "HARLEY-DAVIDSON COOKBOOK"
by Mike Geokan and Mike Arman.
still have an original issue..
ape hangers dont by themselves cause a bike to become a chopper. was at one time a common practice to cut the frame and weld in a rigid rear and raking the fork w/ longer forks..but then again look at "easy riders" no raking there, just longer forks. And Dennis Hoppers bike had a complete diff set of lines.
Custom was the game ,,chrome was the thing to do. more the better.. more radical the better. built by your hands in you garage with an idea and inspiration of a kind of look you wanted...not bought.
On a personal note "these new chopper show.(american choppers) are customizers not chopper creators or
builders. I feel ARLEN NESS was an original chopper builder with many, many other solo builders who's bikes were in Easyriders BEFORE it became wrapped in plastics and black squares covering those beauty shots of the girls.
I remember Cory Ness's First custom long low,black and gold-leaf ( another type of customize not seen much today, ) sportster in an Easyrider mag .And Iron horse was a new magand on the shelf and J & P cycles catalog was barely 100 pages......thay were the cheapest prices around,( bought a nice set of drag pipes for my Trumpet 750 )
Now ,sorry for the rant, there a some BEAUTIFUL SCOOTERS FACTORY MADE AND CUSTOME MADE BY MANY MANY FOLKS.. but the days of actually choppin and cutting is a lost art (remember Indian Larry)..most everything can be bought and bolted together with minimal work if thought out properly.... now the most difficult time seems to be a paint job. And though many people i am sure still CHOP there bikes and paint too.
There is no real def. of a chopper ..IMO..but a def, of a time...
.
I look at it as an art and STYLES define the time.and ALL of a chopper heritage
yeah TONYJ..id agree that is a good visual def. of a chopper....Ride -On.
Linear Mode
