Want a chopper? Build your own!
Motorcycle chopper kits are a growth industry. But what does
that mean to you and me? Well one thing that we know is that we
will have more choppers to ogle at. There is not a single day
that goes by without more and more pictures of chopper bikes
that have just been finished showing up in all the motorcycle
magazines. Then at the weekends, when we are on our “hot” rides,
we will see four or five show finish level bikes. There are more
choppers around now than there have been in the last twenty five
years.
Most of these choppers have been built from motorcycle chopper
kits, the “bike in a box” approach. But hey, don’t knock it!
Building your own chopper has never been easier. There are
rolling chassis kits, complete bike kits, and frame
manufacturers give you a multitude of choice when it comes to
take the plunge and buy a motorcycle chopper kit.
Thirty years ago, the old school chopper builders had to start
with a stock bike off-the-shelf and literally chop it to pieces.
With the modern chopper kits, there is a viable alternative to
taking the cutting torch to your favorite soft tail!
Nowadays, you have a cheap and easier way to build the bike from
the ground up. When you take the cost of buying a new bike and
the expense of chopping it, it works out much cheaper to start
from step one, and your chopper kit. Instead of tossing away the
parts that you'll never use again, you can start building your
own bike with the parts that you really need. All the parts are
included in the motorcycle chopper kit, along with comprehensive
instructions.
One of the first questions that people ask when considering
buying a kit is how will my bike stand outs from all the other
chopper kits? Well think of it this way, you are going to buy a
chopper kit. A pile of unassembled raw metal. No paint, no real
finish, just a blank canvas. Is your taste in paint jobs likely
to be the same as the next guy, who buys the very same kit? I
don't think so. What about your taste in bolt-ons, seats,
exhausts? Just because you buy the kit doesn’t mean every little
thing has to be just so. That is the whole point isn’t it? It's
very easy in this way to build your own custom chopper from a
chopper kit.
Another big question is, “How long”? The answer to that is as
long as it takes. Even on the kit bikes, which are supposed to
be designed to fit together like a glove, you are going to run
into some snags. It can’t be avoided!
If you want a more concrete guide, try this. An experienced kit
builder (though not a professional) I spoke to reckons it took
10 full days to build his last chopper from a kit. For someone
less experienced it could take a couple of days longer. Twelve 9
hour days works out at 108 hours. Over evenings and weekends,
this could drag out to three or four weeks of living in a pile
of motorcycle parts! So be prepared to literally live the
experience if you are going to take the plunge.
What about the practical side? Well, there is no substitute for
experience. The place to start building up your experience with
the mechanical side of building to kit bike is with your current
ride. Make sure all you can do the basic maintenance on your
motorcycle, and then start to do some simple disassembling. Take
off the tires, take off the exhaust, real basic stuff; all of
this will help to build a new confidence in the shop side of
things. You can also get some great videos on maintenance, and
even on building the custom bike of your dreams. Read the books,
watch the videos, and buy the t-shirt! Believe me, all the
preparation you make will stand you in good stead.
If you really are hopeless at the mechanical side of things, why
not pay someone else to help you build it, or even get them to
build the whole thing for you? The cost of the kit plus labor
could well work out cheaper than buying a chopper “off the
shelf”.
And of course, when that beautiful chopper is standing on your
driveway, and your friends are asking you “Was it worth it?” you
can turn to the chopper, drag your hand across the flames on the
tank and the polished chrome, turn back to them and say, “What
do you think?”
Copyright (c) 2004, by Michael Holmes This article may be freely
distributed as the author's information provided an active live
link to http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com is
published with the article.
A complimentary copy of any newsletter or a link to the site
where the article is posted is greatly appreciated. Please
contact me at articles@motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com
About the author:
Michael Holmes is a enthusiast for all thing motorcycle. His
website, http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com, is
a great resource of articles aimed at motorcyclists of all
levels.
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