Custom Motorcycles: Choppers Bobbers Baggers (Idea Book) - Softcover

Kelly, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0760336075 ISBN 13: 9780760336076

Publisher: Motorbooks, 2009

Synopsis

Whether you're building a chopper, a bobber, or a customized bagger--or simply adding personality to a stock cruiser--you want your bike to stand out.It is, after all, an original.For inspiration or direction, from the big idea to the finest detail, look no further than this book.With hundreds of examples of what builders and painters and passionate owners have done with their bikes, Custom Motorcycles is a great way to get started--or to fine-tune a concept.Custom front ends, tanks, paint, frames, wheels, and more--every inch of a motorcycle can be customized, and every step of the process is covered in this book.Packed with over 700 photos and detailed information on any problem you might encounter, the book is the first and most valuable tool that anyone customizing a bike should have.

About this title

About the Author

Since the early 1980s, Michael Lichter has been photographing custom motorcycles for the pages of Easyriders magazine--often hanging from the beds of pickup trucks during rainstorms or photographing packs of bikers in such places as Daytona Beach, Florida, and Sturgis, South Dakota. He has written and provided photography for a number of books, and he lives and works in Boulder, Colorado.Howard Kelly is the Communications Manager for S&S Cycle, the leader in V-twin performance engines and components. He was editor at Hot Bike magazine for over eight years and at Street Chopper magazine for five years. Kelly lives in Onalaska, Wisconsin with his wife Marcia, their two dogs, one cat, his customized Dyna, and a Honda super-moto bike.

From the Back Cover

A custom motorcycle, by definition, is a one-of-a-kind creation. Whether it s a chopper, bobber, or bagger, it will share its most fundamental elements with other motorcycles, but all similarity ends there. From that basic starting point, a custom motorcycle then becomes a reflection of the rider designing and building it. From a custom seat and paint job to unique handlebars and controls to hidden wiring and vintage accessories, the choices and possibilities are limitless. So, where do you start?

Building a motorcycle or having one built can be an expensive and time-consuming process. You ll spend hours and hours of your own time, or you ll pay for someone else s. And the parts, tools, and paint can add up to thousands of dollars. You want your investment to pay off in a motorcycle that reflects your style and one that you re proud to show off. Starting with a complete vision is the key to a great custom bike.

In the Custom Motorcycle Idea Book, custom-bike expert Howard Kelly employs Michael Lichter s award-winning photos, detailing the work of famous builders from around the world to illustrate the variety of choices available. Whether it s frames, fenders, engines, or paint, each chapter illustrates the variety of choices available to a builder and how to make the right choice for your ride.

If you re building or customizing a chopper, bobber, or bagger, the Custom Motorcycle Idea Book will help ensure you achieve your goals.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction Bike Styles There are some basic names for bike styles that bring instant recognition to the biker crowd. For example, say "pro-street" to anyone who understands bikes and they picture a low-to-the-ground, modest-length bike with a big engine and a riding position that allows the rider to be ready for a drag race at any stoplight. There are always variations on the theme, but as a rule the names of different styles will hold up in a garage debate with your friends. We covered pro-street, so let's talk about the most debated bike-style name in the world, "chopper." Originally, choppers were bikes that had as many of the stock parts "chopped" off as possible. This was an effort to lighten the bike and provide better performance, not necessarily style. But somehow, as custom bikes came into prominence, the term transferred to the long, lean custom bikes of the 1960s. These bikes were also "chopped" in the sense that they had only as many parts as it took to get the bike down the road: no front fender--and often no front brake--certainly no turn signals, no extra luggage or body panels. Just wheels, tires, gas and oil tanks, and enough of a rear fender to hold a seat. "Chopper" became a generic term for a custom bike--and for any motorcycle to the uninformed--and debates sparked. How can a bike be a chopper when it is built from the ground up? How can a bike with extra body panels, lights, and unnecessary components be a chopper? There are no answers, but the debates are lively and fun. "Bobber" is a term for a bike that wasn't quite chopped, but had parts cut down, or bobbed. It provided a different look and stood out in comparison. Somehow the term evolved into describing a really short chopper--typically with a rigid frame, next to no additional rake or length in the frame assembly, a small gas tank mounted high on the backbone, and handlebars with a bit of lift to them. Again, open for debate, this term is used for a lot of bike descriptions. A "trike" is, well, a bike with three wheels that doesn't have a sidecar. Not too much to that term. "Body bike" is a term used to describe bikes that seem to have all-encompassing body panels--very much the opposite of a chopper. Last for our discussion is another term that is becoming controversial: "bagger." Originally a term used to describe a Harley-Davidson touring bike, as the custom world grew the name stuck to all custom bikes with saddlebags. Soon enough, a rigid bobber with saddlebags and a windshield could be called a bagger by some. There are a multitude of custom bikes that fall into the bagger category these days, but for the most part we like to believe it's a term for touring bikes. There are plenty of other bike terms for plenty of other bike styles. Space prevents a description of each, but armed with just these basic terms you should be ready to take on the rest of this book. Once you decide what style of bike is right for you, the smaller details will follow. This book is designed to show you the multitude of looks and appearances a custom bike build can take. Divided into chapters by discrete parts and systems, the idea is that you might find inspiration from one bike's fenders, another's seat, the paint, the tanks, and on and on. Custom motorcycles should always be about the individual and never about copying someone else's look. However, taking something you admire and building on it, changing it, or improving on it . . . well, that's been the engine driving custom motorcycling since its beginning. Before you spend thousands of dollars creating a motorcycle of your own, take some time with the book that follows and plan your perfect custom build.

Edition details

• Publisher: Motorbooks
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0760336075
• ISBN 13: 9780760336076
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160