Custom Chopper Motorcycles - Riding the Dream

There comes a time in everyone's life when motorcycles become not only interesting but accessible, for me this was aged 15, and at 16 I had my first motorbike.

chopper frames

The bike in question was a Suzuki ZR50 which was built like an old school chopper, with the seat, and handlebars to match, despite its blistering 28mph top speed! But unlike my friends who took an interest in the sports style motorcycles, I was hooked on the custom chopper and Harley Davidson scene.

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My ZR50 spent quite a lot of time in bits, I painted it up by myself, tricked up the engine to a new top speed if 48mph and I even painted a design of Eddy from Iron Maiden on one of the plastic farings.

That was 1987 and since then the custom motorcycle bug is an itch that I still enjoy scratching.

But the custom chopper & motorcycle scene is bigger today than it has ever been with the popularity of TV programmes such as American Chopper highlighting Orange County Choppers, and buying and selling custom built motorcycles is big business.

Finding the right market value for a motorcycle with a specific specification is difficult enough, but determining the value of a custom built motorcycle is a bit of an art, and you need to know what you are doing, so you're buying or selling a custom made motorcycle, then you need to see what other custom motorcycles are selling for, and get a heads up on the true market value.

Purchasing a custom motorcycle at the right price is an excellent investment IF you know what you are looking for, and you will be the envy of your friends.

If you are in the market for a custom chopper or Harley Davidson then you need to know your numbers and market value. Use our unique software algorithm to search for the best deals on the internet including eBay.

In these economic times people are selling their custom motorcycles at unheard of prices which means you can pick up a real quality custom motorcycle bargain.

Custom Chopper Motorcycles - Riding the Dream

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Custom Built Chopper Motorcycles

"Whose motorcycle is this?"

chopper bike

"Its not a motorcycle baby, it's a chopper."

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"Whose chopper is this"

"Its Zeds chopper baby."

"Who is Zed?"

"Zeds dead baby, Zeds dead."

Now, most of us who were alive during the Nineties remember this scene from the classic American film, Pulp Fiction. I remember watching this movie for the first time and then wondering to myself, "What the hell is a difference between a chopper and a motorcycle?" This was before shows like American Chopper and Monster Garage came on to the scene and helped educate the public on the difference between a motorcycle and a custom built chopper.

A chopper is pretty much a motorcycle that had been customized, or "chopped" to give it individuality. The practice of building custom motorcycle choppers started sometime after World War Two when the biker culture began. Veterans came back from Europe, and found the big clunky motorcycles built by Harley Davidson and Indian unsatisfactory when compared to the lighter, faster European bikes. They decided to change the bikes by removing anything and everything that was unnecessary. They began to shorten, or remove the fenders to give the bike a sleeker look and the term "chopper" was born.

The custom-built chopper motorcycle evolved further during the sixties and seventies. Bikers began removing everything that was deemed unnecessary and replacing everything that seemed too big. Out went the windshield, the big blinkers and the big seats. The began raking the front wheel, so that it extended further out from the bike, giving the motorcycle a "cool" look and raising the handle bars higher. These customized motorcycles began to morph away from anything that was factory standard and became unique as each owner tailored their individual bike to what they deemed necessary.

The chopper took on an American Iconic status after the release of "Easy Rider" in 1969. Soon thereafter, the idea of a custom built motorcycle left the realm of the outlaw biker and entered the domain of the typical American. Soon, talented designers opened their own customizing shops replacing the guy in the backyard who put together bikes for fun. People started going to these shops to get their customized choppers instead of building it themselves.

As the baby boomer generation began to age, the demand for these nostalgic symbols of individuality began to rise. Soon, custom-built motorcycles were being produced and sold for exorbitant prices. Choppers were no longer the vehicles for the outlaw biker. They had instead become the status symbol for the weekend hobbyist with expendable income. Still, when I see one of these bankers going through a midlife crises flying down the freeway on a Chopper I cannot help but feel a shiver of danger and rebellion.

Custom Built Chopper Motorcycles

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