One thing I never really understood NGC

[kirkemon]

Yea, I had a Schwinn Stingray but never a chopper. They seem unsafe, uncomfortable, and an eyesore to me.
I always wondered, what kind of person rode 'em and why?

[travelingbyguzzi]

Listen, y'all. I love my Eldo, but it can't throw a shadow on my 1200 Sport. You just have to accept it for what it is.
Someone who doesn't have the Guzzi religion may not get it, but might still respect it for being a survivor.
As a side note, I might have got a bit of religion from old greasy Easy Rider magazines, but the bikes were not involved.
Bill Lovelady      IS
Eskimo Spy

[drdwb]

I can see JJs Scout bobber, that's cool and functional.

Now after Drums4 Money post I recall where one of  My first aversion s to modifications came.
I also lusted after one of those Stingrays,they were cool, but in my neighbor hood most of us didn't get those. Instead we modified ours with add on parts,banana seat,sissy bar, butterfly handle bars. One of my friends even raked and extended his forks by cutting forks off another bike and slipping them over his, no JB Weld than,or maybe there was but we didn't know about it. And no neighbor with a welder. So all was well for awhile until friend Roger tried to pull a wheelie, front tire fell off, forks into the pavement, Roger slipped off seat and connected groin region with the upper bar going forward. We called him Roger one nut after that, lesson learned. Fun days, good memories.

[Lannis]

BTW the young college girls, mostly bank burners, loved to be seen on the back of a  "chopper".

I'm in the same generation as you, and I knew most of the girl terms, but "bank burner" is a new one to me and Google is no help ..... ?

Lannis

[Sasquatch Jim]

  I always liked the look of bird shooters but they are vulnerable to damage as are your ears.
 The bird shooters are the only part of that "thing" I like.

 I liked the bike Dennis Hopper rode in Easy Rider.

[averb]

I was raised in a household where the bookshelf held publications by Bauhaus, Parsons School, and portfolios by Frank Lloyd Wright. I read them all, many times, and to my eye the expression of Wright's adage "Form and function are one" or (grandson) Ferdinand Porsche's "If you analyze the function of an object its form often becomes obvious."

A chopper to me is like a gargoyle on a medieval building. I understand the aesthetic, I know the history and lore, and I can (within limits) appreciate it for what it is.

But I'd never build one or even ride one, let alone own one - any more than I'd use a gargoyle as anything other than  a scarecrow.

You forgot the function of a gargoyle

In architecture, a gargoyle (/ˈɡɑːrɡɔɪl/) is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between.

Steve

[ITSec]

You forgot the function of a gargoyle

In architecture, a gargoyle (/ˈɡɑːrɡɔɪl/) is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between.

Steve

But the spout could have been a simple, elegant, and functional spout - instead of a grotesque baroque monster. One is modern, the other medieval.

I used to be a big-time participant in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and I still have a great appreciation of their motto: "The past - not as it was, but as it should have been".

[averb]

But the spout could have been a simple, elegant, and functional spout - instead of a grotesque baroque monster. One is modern, the other medieval.

I used to be a big-time participant in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and I still have a great appreciation of their motto: "The past - not as it was, but as it should have been".

But a "simple, elegant and functional spout" would look out of place on a medieval building, that is the example you used.  Yes, I agree that a gargoyle is inappropriate on a modern building.


Steve

[Sasquatch Jim]

 I always enjoyed the way monster gargoyles puke when it rains.