Anyone here ever owned/ridden a chopper?

[twowheeladdict]

Almost....never do I see a chopper on the road. 
What happened to all the OC choppers?
I do see the same ones for sale, over and over.
I see some old school shovels parked at a bar,though.
For that matter, all I see being ridden are HD's.
Or clones.
I haven't seen a Brit bike in years.

.

It really does depend where you live.

This is the closest to a chopper I have ridden.

[larrys]

Well, I drug it out out of its corner of the garage and washed ten years of crud off of it. Owned since '74, built like this in '78. Rode hard and put away wet. Front end is a '74 Trident, that I brought back from England. Has a Routt 800 kit, 9.5 to 1 pistons, Megacycle cams, belt-drive primary with a dry clutch, balanced bottom end, Amal Mk II's, battery elimininater. The last time I tried starting it, a valve must have been stuck open, the piston kissed it, now no compression on one side. I think I have a winter project...









tom brady crying gif

[Tom]

Is that the original frame modded or an aftermarket one?

[larrys]

Front of the frame is stock, the hardtail was a bolt-on, now welded AEE with a 4" drop and a 2" stretch. Back fender, rim, and sissybar were from J.C. Whitney...
Larry

[moto-uno]

 
   What do you mean a winter project ? You could have that top end off and the valves out in an easy afternoon ( without power tools ) ! Peter

[larrys]

 
   What do you mean a winter project ? You could have that top end off and the valves out in an easy afternoon ( without power tools ) ! Peter

Yeah, I could. The whole story is that it hasn't run at all in ten years, and the previous ten years to that, I rode it maybe once or twice a year to a Brit show. It really needs a full mechanical restoration. 30 year old tires, leaky forks, front brake inoperable, engine oil leaks, etc...
Larry

[bobrebos]

This is my chopper.....

[Kiwi_Roy]

Since Moto-Uno is not going to show you his I'm going to do it for him


Of course being built by Peter, what else could he call it?

[Tom]

uh......

[moto-uno]

  ^  I can tell by your response , that you're favorably impressed  ,  Peter

[cliffrod]

Yeah, I could. The whole story is that it hasn't run at all in ten years, and the previous ten years to that, I rode it maybe once or twice a year to a Brit show. It really needs a full mechanical restoration. 30 year old tires, leaky forks, front brake inoperable, engine oil leaks, etc...
Larry

Except for the cubic $$ bling builds, that sounds like the current state of many choppers in general...

[Kiwi_Roy]

  ^  I can tell by your response , that you're favorably impressed  ,  Peter

Well I for one was impressed, I like the fact that it has a soft-tail
And didn't you ride it out from Ontario to BC?

[wavedog]

Early 70's, 17 years old, a senior in high school, mostly rode dirt bikes and a 350 Honda street bike, a close friend somehow got his hands on a triumph mildly chopped -custom hardtail frame with a slightly kicked out front end- side car rig. Holy crap. We would put a keg of beer in the side car and turn the headlight off at night and take turns riding in the side car cruising the back roads of Washington state party hopping. Both of us agreed that we would rather ride in the side car than be in charge as that thing handled so badly. So we went slow. Man it was fun. One day we took the side car off and rode it. It was fun but what a steaming pile of a bike. It actually turned better with the sidecar attached and attracted more girls- especially with all the other party fixings we could carry. It was the 70's. More than once it was four of us and a midnight cruise to the beach on that rig. So, choppers, as bad as they were, back in the day they had their use.
 I rode a few other choppers in the early/mid 70's and hated them.

[moto-uno]

^^ Unfortunately not , at that time I was moving everything out here . It did get me to a rally in Oregon a couple of
years ago that ended up being about 500 miles each way , pretty much the furthest I've ridden it in a single day . And
thanks for showing the pics :) .  Peter

[Tom]

I met a guy out here in Kona, a number of years ago.  This is part of the conversation in parking lot near Safeway.

Me:  "What engine is that?"

Him:  "It's a Dodge Colt."

Me:  "Mitsubishi?"

Him:  A reluctant "Yeah."

Me:  "You must be from Iowa."

Him:  "How do you know that?"  Hawaiian plate on the bike.

Me:  "It was a guess.  Next guess would have been Wisconsin."

Him:  Puzzled look.

Me:  "You guys have a long Winter"

He had an Eldo with a Dodge Colt engine stuffed into it.  One carb.  No side covers w/a car battery.  Almost everything else was stock or chopped.  My guess from the welds and homemade brackets was that he had access to either gas or an arc welder.  I don't have any pix.  Sorry.   

[bigbikerrick]

Does a Honda Fury count as a chopper? I rode a friends the other day,and man that bike was sweet! It even had the "right" sound...I think, whats the right sound for a chopper?
Rick