Chops and bobs
Harley CustomDiscuss Chops and bobs in the Motorcycles forums; For the past several years, the custom chopper trend has grown exponentially. Riding the popularity wave of the Jesses James and OCC television programs, the top chop builders have enjoyed ...
For the past several years, the custom chopper trend has grown exponentially. Riding the popularity wave of the Jesses James and OCC television programs, the top chop builders have enjoyed rock star popularity, and prices for a custom chops remain high. But has the long fork craze finally peaked?
There seems to be a resurgence of the bobber's popularity over the past twelve months, evidenced by more builders offering quality bob jobs, as well as the media (namely AIM) devoting more time to bobber features. A quick bit of research shows that custom bobbers can be had for a fraction of custom choppers $-wise, and are considerably more practical to ride.
Is the bobber's appeal gaining mainstream acceptance? Is it supplanting the custom chopper as an affordable two-wheeled alternative? Is the "Easy Rider" mindset being challenged by "The Wild One"?
While I appreciate the look of long fork I just don't want to ride something with them. There's no handling, and where I'm from that's important. Between hills, potholes, and everything from deer and cattle to woodchucks and snapping turtles crossings the road at any given hour I have to be able to bob and weave and not get hung up or bottoming out. I'd much rather have a bobber or something with a bit more rake and a **slightly** longer fork that's managable in a tight situation.
As for the "Wild One" there wasn't one American Bike in the batch.
If you want to build a cool custom and prefer function over fashion, bobbers win hands down. While Chris Maida loves his choppers, I don't. They look pretty cool, but so do bobbers which are cheaper to build, more practical and are more timeless in style.
And the "Wild One" featured mostly British bikes, but I seem to remember a few Harley K models in the background. Guess I'll have to pull out the video and have another look. It's been a while.
Choppers were affordable before they became popular. Once the popularity fades away they will once again become affordable. I'm afraid that bobbers are going to become very expensive once the trend takes hold and as with the chopper it will become affordable again when the fad wears off. Aim showed a bobber this month built by Dave Perewitz, do you think that was cheap? Look at Indian Larrys bike this month, they're calling it a bobber, six months ago it would have been called a chopper! If you really look at it, it's really a combination of the two. Moral? Do your own thing!
"Chopper" referred to any bike that was "chopped" up and redone. The San Francisco choppers were actually bobbers because they had to deal with hills. A 12 foot long bike is going to get hung up, where in So Cal or the midwest, well, what hills? But everything ends up getting classified and reclassified. Even choppers have different styles, like diggers. To those that don't ride and don't know then any bike with some chrome and some paint or pinstriping is a "chopper" to them.
Larry's stuff had a nice rake on it, but they were made for NYC traffic so not all stretched out, and were about performance and looks. So he made really nice stuff that was like pro-street but with bling and ghetto-flake.
The one thing i know about "INDIAN LARRY" is that he never gave in to trends and always stayed true to what he believed in. It's sad that we lost him when we did because he was finally getting his due. I believe "PAUL COX" and the rest of the crew at "INDIAN LARRY LEGACY will stay true to that style! RIP, you will be missed.
Larry was a class act. I think that really showed through watching the Biker Build-Offs he was in. He was always talking about life's lessons and learning from mistakes. My favorite episode where he showed the man he is was when he won the competition and split the trophy with Billy saying they both had won. The world darkened a little when Larry's left us, but I'm glad to see Paul Cox, Keino, the guys at Indian Larry Legacy keeping his light shining.
Looked at OCC´s homepage, where the pricerange started around 70K USD..., sick! Who can throw up so much money for a bike just so? Not me.... Some things are VERY WRONG!!
Chops and bobs 
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