Questions
What is a chopper motorcycle?
A chopper motorcycle is a heavily customised bike with raked-out, extended front forks and a long, stretched stance built for maximum visual impact.
The chopper takes its name from chopping a standard motorcycle down to only what its builder wanted to keep, then rebuilding the rest around a new, more dramatic geometry. The front forks are extended and angled further out than standard, stretching the wheelbase and pushing the front wheel well ahead of the rider. The frame is often reshaped to match, the seat dropped low, and a tall sissy bar sometimes added behind it. Unlike a bobber, which trims a stock frame, a chopper usually alters the frame's actual geometry, which is why the two styles look so different despite both starting from a stripped-down idea. The style grew out of American custom garages from the late 1960s onward and remains the most personal, one-off statement in custom motorcycling.
Our chopper art page draws your own build in ink, blueprint or oil-painting style from a single photo. Its stripped-down ancestor, the bobber, is worth reading too.
Written by Craig Fearn, Throttlefolio.
Transmissions
Questions, answered
Are choppers legal to ride on the road?+
Extended forks and altered frames can affect a bike's registration and insurance category, so builds need to meet the relevant construction and use rules to be road legal.
Why are chopper forks extended?+
Mainly for the look and stance - a longer, more raked front end changes the bike's proportions dramatically, though it also alters handling.
From the journal