Bobber..??? or a Chopper???

Just thought Id start up a discussion about what is it that makes a bike a Bobber and what makes a Chopper..
Cheers Marty

Just my opinion - a bobber is taking crap off and cutting parts down on ANY BIKE to bring the weight down and make it faster and handle better.
Choppers came out of that school but had the frames raked so they could run longer forks. At least that's how it was in the 60's when I started geting into bikes.
Also, bobbers don't have to be rigid. Choppers do. Lots of bobbed Brit bikes around in the late 50s and early 60's with shocks. So I guess that makes a lot of those cut down Sporty's bobbers eh?
And like Mexican Dave says,
And now we wait........

Irishjon wrote:

Just my opinion - a bobber is taking crap off and cutting parts down on ANY BIKE to bring the weight down and make it faster and handle better.
Choppers came out of that school but had the frames raked so they could run longer forks. At least that's how it was in the 60's when I started geting into bikes.
Also, bobbers don't have to be rigid. Choppers do. Lots of bobbed Brit bikes around in the late 50s and early 60's with shocks. So I guess that makes a lot of those cut down Sporty's bobbers eh?
And like Mexican Dave says,
And now we wait........

Sorry about the long wait, I'd have to agree with what you just said though Irish.

So do you think the guys at OCC build choppers with air ride rear ends are not really choppers? I always thought bobbers had a bit of a raw back yard look as well sort of like when hot rods were built by teens in the back yard and they took off the guards and bonnets etc

I suppose you'd have to let the OCC, fat tyre sort of bike in as a modern chopper seeing as its made up of non-stock bike parts, even if they are mass produced custom parts!
Not my personal choice though. I prefer traditional customs like 50's bobbers or 60's and 70's chops and cafe racers.
It's all personal chjoice in the end. The world would be a very boring place if everybody liked the same thing.

I agree with bobbers being a two wheeled version of hot rods. Same principle. Get rid of the weight and make it go faster. It wasn't about sticking boat lamps or bits of washine machines on though. That's more like making an art statement or a piece of sculpture. Nothing wrong with that but its not what bobbers were originaly about. They were buiolt for racing. Nodays people build a bike that might have a bitof all the old styles in it but its something new. That's a good thing.

a neverending discussion but - after reading here & there - my conclusion was that choppers tended to be more likely to have raked front ends, whereas bobbers are more likely to have a cut down rear fender. Also that choppers were more likely to have frame modifications, & that bobbers were more likely to be stock frames with stuff removed.
This is just an overall general synopsis from a lotta stuff I've read. I think the Chicago Outlaw's gang members panheads from the 50's might've been an example of the 'original' bobbers, but in actual fact their bobbers look quite different to what a lot of people call bobbers today.
And of course Captain America is probably the most well known example of a Chopper.

Said Brett... XLforum and many others all over the world have the same question posed and no one can even source a true bobber although std bike stripped to the minimum would be the best description, still running shocks if it had, but the modern bike, say like mine, where I’ve stripped it out, taken stuff off would be close to a bobber, now I hard tailed it and put different stuff on would remove it from true bobber status although keeping a bobber look rather than going chopper with a raked and extended front end.... could talk about it all night and still get pretty much nowhere..

oh, and I don’t believe bobbers had to be nasty, it probably depended on budget, I saw a photo of a bike in the 40's that had been "bobbed" on a forum somewhere and it was pretty new and in real good nick, he had just taken all the extra stuff off and cut down the guards, you could do it to a new triumph if u had the cash, I’d say the same bike 10 years later would have had a nice patina, but most now are built from second hand parts as found and that makes a bike have that patina’s look off the batt even though it’s a new build... I will do one, one day in that style, there are allot of those in GK mag; they put one together from bits lying about their shops. Cool if u can...

Just ride the dam thing and enjoy each other mutual interest and don’t get hung up by stuff that will drive you mad...

Just ride the dam thing and enjoy each other mutual interest and don’t get hung up by stuff that will drive you mad...

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yeah i like that quote jon

jon61 wrote:

I’d say the same bike 10 years later would have had a nice patina, but most now are built from second hand parts as found and that makes a bike have that patina’s look off the batt even though it’s a new build... I will do one, one day in that style, there are allot of those in GK mag

I really really like the patina look for a bike.
I think one day I will need to do one. Maybe I should pickup a peanut tank and guards and give 'em the treatment.

then theres the crocker.......a stock 30s and 40s factory bobber one might say!

rattlecan ren wrote:

then theres the crocker.......a stock 30s and 40s factory bobber one might say!

Ah yes, the Crocker, another on my dream list. Bee - yoo - tee - full

a friend of mine has a customer just out of warkworth that restores oldies, mainly indians but he has a crocker at the moment. it apparently owes the owner around 300k.

Latest cycle world has a beautiful 1936 crocker in it,gearbox case was built into the frame,cast alloy tanks yea thats a bobber and it just sold for $350k us dollars fark.

FFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKK n fark

I've met the guy that owns that Crocker. Needless to say he is very rich but he's a cool old guy. He's in his early seventies, looks like a 50 year old and gets round like he's in his 30's. The guy's shop is in Matakana and he has a stack of restored Indians.

Wow I know a guy with a 1938 crocker a beautiful blue one,lives in auck owns alot of cool machines plenty of indians too.For such a rare machine its amazing that theres more than one over here.I think they only made approx 68 of them and I believe only about 42 are known to exist.Even if ya won lotto you'd probably be shit out of luck to own one.How about the rikuo another odd rare machine.Made in Japan under license from harley,I know a guy with one of these too only ever seen one in the flesh,its also blue looks like a wlc/wla he also owns indians nice to know these cool machines are surrounded in great company.......spoken like a truly biased indian owner.

Irishjon wrote:

I've met the guy that owns that Crocker. Needless to say he is very rich but he's a cool old guy. He's in his early seventies, looks like a 50 year old and gets round like he's in his 30's. The guy's shop is in Matakana and he has a stack of restored Indians.

Yep thats the one. I may be lucky to go have a perve round his shop one of these days

I'd like to see the Rikuo. I've only seen therm in pictures.

THE TV TOLD ME THAT THE HONDA CUB 50 IS THE BEST MOTORBIKE IN THE WORLD & EVERYONE KNOWS THE TV IS RIGHT

Irishjon wrote:

He's in his early seventies, looks like a 50 year old and gets round like he's in his 30's. The guy's shop is in Matakana and he has a stack of restored Indians.

May we all be like that in our 70's

Does the guy run a courier service back and forward from northland to Auckland? because I met an old boy that picked up some parts from us to take up north to warkworth and he had a load of old bikes and knew alot about old bikes.

The old guy was Hawiian. I think the guy that builds his bikes was called Ken. I had been drinking all afternon in the back of Deus when I met them so it all gets a bit fuzzy.

wish i had hawaiian friends
sounds like a big head stuff conversation whats what. i dont know whats what, i just know what looks sweet, and its not the shit on the orange county choppers tv thingy where the dude with the sweeet moustache is always pissed

hmm

That's all that counts in the end. Do you like it? Then its good. Who gives a toss what everyone else thinks.

west end rotangs wrote:

sounds like a big head stuff conversation

yeh prob bout rite ther