Chopper (motorcycle)

A chopper is a type of custom motorcycle which emerged in California in the late 1950s. A chopper employs modified steering angles and lengthened forks for a stretched-out appearance. It can be built from an original motorcycle which is modified ("chopped") or built from scratch. Some of the characteristic features of choppers are long front ends with extended forks often coupled with an increased rake angle, hardtail frames (frames without rear suspension), very tall "ape hanger" or very short "drag" handlebars, lengthened or stretched frames, and larger than stock front wheel. To be considered a chopper a motorcycle frame must be cut and welded at some point, hence the name. The "sissy bar," a set of tubes that connect the rear fender with the frame, is a signature feature on choppers when extended several feet high.

Two famous examples of the chopper are customised Harley-Davidsons, the "Captain America" and "Billy Bike," built by Benjamin F.Hardy and seen in the 1969 film Easy Rider.

Before there were choppers, there was the bobber, a motorcycle that had been "bobbed", or relieved of excess weight by removing parts. With the intent of making the bike lighter and faster, the fenders would often be removed, or at least to make it look better in the eyes of a rider seeking a more minimalist ride. There are many common features between bobbers and the later choppers, with choppers differentiated by more radical modifications, especially frame tube and geometry modifications intended to make the bike longer.

An early example of a bobber is the 1940 Indian Sport Scout "Bob-Job" which toured in the 1998 The Art of the Motorcycle exhibition. Indian Scouts and Chiefs of the time came with large, heavily valanced fenders, nearly reaching the center of the wheel on the 1941 Indian Series 441, while racing bikes had tiny fenders or none at all. The large bikes exemplified the "dresser" motorcycle aesthetic and provided a counterpoint to both the minimalist bobber and the café racer.

In the post–World War II United States, returning servicemen began the bobber trend by removing all parts deemed too big, heavy, ugly, or not essential to the basic function of the motorcycle, such as fenders, turn indicators, and even front brakes. The large, spring-suspended saddles were also removed to allow the riders to sit as low as possible on the motorcycles' frames. These machines were lightened to improve performance for dirt-track racing and mud racing. In California, dry lake beds were used for long top speed runs, as were similar desolate spaces such as unused airstrips in other parts of the country, as well as public streets in illicit street racing. Motorcycles and automobiles ran at the same meets, and bobbers were an important part of the hot rod culture that developed in this era.

The earliest choppers tended to be based on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, many of which could be found in surplus military and police motorcycles bought cheaply at auction, and to use and modify their stock flathead, knucklehead, and panhead engines. British bikes, particularly Triumphs, were also a popular motor for choppers early on. As the Japanese manufacturers began offering larger engines in the late 1960s, these motors, in particular the Honda 750-4, were also quickly put to use by chopper builders. Choppers have been created using almost every available engine, but builders have always shown a preference for older air-cooled designs; very few have radiators.

Over time choppers became built more to achieve a certain look than to enhance their performance, and their modifications evolved in an artistic, aesthetic direction. By the mid-1970s, stock Japanese and European performance motorcycles would outperform most bobbers and choppers, except in drag racing, which places a premium on pure engine power rather than handling over curvy courses. Chopper styling continued to be influenced by drag-bike modifications through the 1960s and 1970s. Enough trends have taken hold over time that a given chopper's build may be dated to a specific period or type, and some contemporary builders specialize in building choppers to match these "old school" styles.

As the popularity of choppers grew, in part through exposure in movies such as the 1969 classic Easy Rider, several manufacturers took note and began to include chopper-influenced styling in their factory offerings—although none, for example, abandoned rear suspension to achieve the classic chopper look. Such bikes were given the name "factory customs" and are not considered choppers. Not even all highly customized or built-from-scratch motorbikes are choppers. In Europe at roughly the same time that choppers were invented and popularized in the U.S., bikers modified their bikes (primarily English makes like Triumph, BSA, Norton, and Matchless) in a different way, to achieve different looks, performance goals, and riding position. The resulting "café racers" look very different from choppers.