Paul Bunnion was a Chopper

 

I heard George Washington had wooden choppers......

 

A chopper, IMHO, is a stock bike that's been chopped (frame modified, stretched, welded, etc...) The photos on the posts after yours are merely customs. A true chop, again, IMHO, is one that is done to a stock model....

[sm=exactly.gif]IMO

 

this is a 2006 bdm chopper...mines

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back in the day a real chopper was minimal..meaning everything not needed was "chopped" off , hence the word chopper. The first thing to go was any bags ,windscreens , a lot of times front fenders. Then you moved on to removing the turn signals , using a smalll brakelight,small headlight, etc.
now it seems to be anything that has an aftermarket plate holder or led lights [:'(]

 

Up yers, ya twittlepated Moderator! I'll decide when to move back on topic!

HD7585, I worded my post poorly. As zombie said, I wasn't trying to say you were the one calling someone an idiot.

OK, choppers. Choppers be chopped. If they ain't chopped, or even if they are built from scratch, then they be customs.

But is it a chopper if you chop a custom? [8D]

 

A chopper was named for a bike that had everything was chopped off to make it go faster. That included headlights, signals, even brakes. All in the name of speed.

Next it became chopping & welding..the 60's choppers, where the frame was chopped, raked, etc. Not the safest, but definitely the coolest.

Now it is a raked, long bike or a Aped Bike.

Many meanings, depending on person..

[sm=icon_guiness.gif]

 

I am truly amazed at how many people ask me......how hard is that to ride...it's nothard at all, we have sold several choppers, or customs....to women, and they ride the hell out of them, of course, we build ours to handle, and be ridden, and be safe and handle well.Most of our bikes you can sit and be flat footedon the ground, the center of gravity is much lower, etc. Do fat tire bikes corner as well as a skinny 130, if ALL else is equal ...no.....of course neither does a Harley corner as well as a crotch rocket, but to say all choppers ride bad, or dont handle well, is WRONG! Most of the people that hate customs, either cant afford them, or have never ridden a good one. That has been my experience and I think for the most part it's true, but I am sure there are exceptions. The best handling bike, as far as cornering, and just running like a striped ape was a Suziki something that one of our customers had, it had more ablility than I had *****, and I aint shy about hitting the throttle on anything. There are some very very bad customs on the market, but there are some very good ones that are made to be ridden. And the idiot thing....who cares really, what anybody thanks about what you ride, I know I could care less.

 

I'm not sure if that's a compliment or if I should be offended

 

Aside from some of the definitions given in this thread, there are also those (primarily hardliners and old school folks) who claim, "That a chopper ain't truly a chopper unless it's an old schoolrigid/hardtail." Some guys will claim that 'today's choppers' are nothing more thancustom/stretched out softails. Hey, I'm just sayin' what I've heard. Don't kill the messenger.