I know Im showing my age but most of the bikes I see nowdays that are called "choppers" don't seem like that to me. I know styles change over time (remember those strange, long, low Arlen Ness bikes?) but I think these bikes with giant back tires and tanks higher than your head are more "custom" than anything else. They are nice and have great workmanship and paint but to me they arenta chopper. To me, a real chopper is a "Dave Mann" or 60's biker moviestyle bike with a skinny back tire. No front fender, upswept fishtails, king/queen seat ect... I see some bikes nowdays called "Bobbers" (even though alot dont have "Bobbed" rear fenders) and to me they seem closer to being a real chopper style. No real point to this but just wanted to put it down for the record!

 

I hear ya! ive never liked outragelously raked front ends, or huge rear tires, or handlebars higher than your head. i like a stock look or a stripped stock look. not a stretched look haha

What i like is the stripped down rat bike look. I know a guy who has a knucklehead thats in the worst condition ever, everythings falling apart, its got the BARE minimum needed to run, evreythings rusty, and its his daily driver. I gotta get some pics.

 

I incorrectly called my rigid pan a chopper because it was on a hardtail but it was only 9 over. Thats not very much. Hardly qualifying it as a chopper. I think a pure chopper is 1)on a rigid 2) raked and stretched exageratedly. I thought a bobber was a rigid with an exremely modified "bobbed" fender and a tiny **** seat. I have seen some outstanding home garage made bobbers out there. Nice look to.

 

To me Captain America was a chopper and Billy's bike was a bobber.

 

For what I know the "bobber" was a precursory style of the chopper. Surplus bikes from the war were stripped to the bare minimum to run. The massive fenders were shortened and reduced (bobbed, hence the name) to save weight, which was, in those times, about the only way to improve performance.
After that came the chopper. The name derives from the fact that the frames were cut and lenghtened, the neck was risen and the rake increased. The purpose was, again, to improve performance. Higher neck, longer wheelbase and more rake made the bike more stable at higher speeds.
To furtherly reduce weight, the front fender was discarded altogether, with the front brake which, on bikes meant for long cruises, was deemed unnecessary (hence the saying: "if it's got a brake, it's a fake", since for a bike to be a real chopper, purists require it has no front brake).
Today, performance can be improved in a bike in a lot of ways, as we well know. The availability of powerful engines (and not only the hyper-stressed riceburners, with theri rabid power curve, but also the smooth, torquey air cooled montsers of 100 ci and over) makes obtaining better acceleration and speed very easy, and the availability of hi-tech materials like aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber makes possible to have very light bikes without needing to compromise on comfort.
Decades of evolution in the suspension department make extreme rakes and lengthened wheelbase a thing of the past. Great stability can be obtained with very modest rake and a short wheelbase.
These have remained more as a matter of style, than of technical necessity.
So, I think that, today, chopper and bobber styles are just that: styles. They have been interpreted in countless ways, from the modern to the strictest adherence to the so-called "old school" and the lack of a technical necessity for a given solution has given designers much more freedom in following their own interpretation.
I don't know if this can be called progress, or decadence. I know for sure that nowadays one can choose among many different designs, and wider freedom of choice is always good, IMHO.
It's true, as another forumite said, that "old school" at the times meant getting your parts from a wrecker for pennies, not on a shiny catalogue for hundreds of bucks, but it's still possible to follow the "old way" if one is so inclined, and has the skill.
Luckily wealth is more widespread today, so many will choose the "old way" just to test their skills, or to save some bucks, not out of desperate necessity, which is, again, good, IMHO.
As my wife says, if one stops a moment in the reveries about the past and really thinks about it, the good days gone by are good mainly because they've gone by

 

to me chopped or bobbed . it seems they make more bikes to sit and look at instead of rideing.they are getting better but do have a ways to go.like alen and cory ness bikes they may be chopped and stuff but the do have shocks so you can ride with out it beating you up.i really cant see rideing a hard tail now days enless you get the old tire . that gives little a softer compound alot of new tires would havta beat you to death if they dont give .

 

I would love to build a chop with one of these front ends http://www.sugarbearchoppers.com/index.htm

 

You're right these new ones you're seeing that are being sold off the show roomfloor aren't choppers they are customs a chopper is a stock bike thats been modified.

 

All I know is that I had a "chopper" about 30 years ago - Sportster motor, hardtail frame, 12" over front end, peanut gas tank, etc., and I will never go back. It was uncomfortable, could only ride about 75 miles with that little gas tank and, man, you couldn't do a u-turn on a four-lane road. But we sure thought we looked cool riding them.

 

Captain America was what a real chopper is supposed to look like. If you haven't seen it, check out the Gumpster's bike. That's what it's all about. Not these customs that are made just to look at. Someday, when I get my last 2 out of college and paid for, I want to build me a Captain America bike. Might me too old to ride it by then but I realy would like one. For now I have to keep my baggger, the wife won't let me leave home without her.