What is YOUR idea of a what a Street Chopper really is?

hey kids!

I was (un)lucky enough to join the staff of SC the issue before it was kicked down to 2 issues a year. back in the day when we had 12 or 6 issues a year, we had plenty of space to put in bikes of all shapes and sizes. Now with trying to shove all of what we are about into two issues we almost come to blows about just what kind of bikes should be in the magazine.

I have been both called a purist and closed minded for my views of what I think should be in the magazine, so I thought I would open it up for discussion...  

I think being a purist is a good thing! I too am narrow minded in my views of what a propper chopper is and most magazines don't have anything that comes close to one in it! More stuff like the shots of the guys from Paso last year Max and Jasin, John Edwards, Rico, and their real life bikes that are timeless no matter how big of a tire or how many skulls some guy can stick on his "chopper".
It's time to bring it all back home with stuff that Tom McMullen started Street Chopper with!  

i just want to be free. and ride. and not be governed by guys in bad suits.  

I have been reading the mag since the late 70's when I started riding.

Hot Bike sucks, don't go that route.

I think Street Chopper was on the right track when it was 12/6 issues a month. I miss "Back in the Day" for one thing, that was always fun. Remember when we rode something that was not a H-D? Great Gods!

I liked the mag when it had a bit of a retro feel to it and was different from The Horse. Sure, it can be cool to see what kind of rat junk someone is building in their garage, but I like SC's approach to chops, more skillfully built and finished, with excellent paint jobs done by all of the great local shops around the country. Feature shops and chops that are built by up and coming builders, maybe a photo contest and then go see them. Lots of TECH articles!!

Choppers are not just V-twins! SOHC/DOHC Honda chops are cool as are Triumphs, Remember when you featured those?  

Look at your roots for the answer. I don't mind scantily clad ladies, but I think it takes up space. Dump that unless it is just an excuse to hang out with hot babes and take pictures, then who can blame you?

No one can tell someone else what a chopper IS or is not. We all ride all kinds of stuff. Your magazine format is what made you. Don't give that up. I know what junk is. Just look in the Horse, then don't go there, although, to be kind, they feature some cool choppers as well.

6 issues a year would be better, I'd pay more for a bigger mag.

Just my ideas for what it's worth.

Cory  

thanks cory-

we're hoping to be able to produce more issues in '09. it's dollars and sense and not for lack of our desire to make it happen.

we'll try our best to bring more variety and brands. a cool bike is cool regardless of what motor is in it. rock and roll doesn't need to ber played on an american made guitar for it to be rocking. no?

might be tough to ban the ladies. but, we do keep it to a minimum and yes, we do like hanging out and photographing them.

thanks for the thoughts

toph  

hey folks!
the perfect street chopper???.....when you close your eyes....and you see yourself jamming down the road...totally free...loving life...nothing but you and "your" chop...that is the perfect bike...to me anyways...it has nothing to do with..make...cost...color...H.P. or any of those things that are obvious....the perfect chop is the one that lets you live that dream...a frame...motor...a couple of wheels and a throttle can make anyone's dreams a reality...the feeling i get when riding my chop is pure contentment...i get to clear my head..i get some of my best ideas...it makes it so much easier to deal with life's ups and downs...in many ways its my "attitude maintenance" session..lol.i don't know how else to put it...when i park it...all i think about is when i can get back on it...if your ride can do this for you...then you are on the "perfect street chopper"..all though i have had many great times on the road and many different bikes...the one that dose that for me now i just put in your "readers ride" block...thank you for letting me share........bobbychop  

I think I might be a purist. I think I might be closed minded. I think I need to tell you I'm building a chopper and it is hard, hard, hard, hardly a day goes bye and I wanna get this bike out of my garage. Somehow, I feel all ChartINN PressOn, "You could not take this cold hard steel..." from my hands now. I am so frustrated putting pieces together I wanna scream. I don't know what I am doing and physics is my only friend. Nothing fits and everything rubs. I must be building a chopper. I have so many questions, I don't know wear out my welcome to start. This is my love project and I have a blind date with a swap meet. I think I might be a purist and stubborn. It is more like the shivers shaking you wish there was a place to put the loc-tite, your body is quivering for another part that does not fit, people say it will not work and you keep going, it fit so well; what were they thinking. I am waiting for the next drive-thru breakfast hold the sauce, salt'n'pepper please, is I have the shaker is try to place it in my hand. I am so excited to buy a part I can't use or will change my mind on the look. No, you did not tell me that. The no fit/make it fit. The look in my head and now it looks like your bike, I have to start all over; sell wad eye bought looking at it on the floor here is a picture and description: "Never Used.' 'OK, I thought eye could use it> So, 'Never Used." This is all new to me and I am finding out, looks cost. Looks, look good on your bike, and your parts are here is I thought I was going to be a purist and now I am so stubborn, I could have used every part I bought... If it only fit. What that TV build in a month showed me my hizzy fit with V-Twin parts cat a log of dog poop; if I can say a kit will not fit. A Kit z'said' made to fit: Will Not Fit is holding up my build! If only I could get it on the street from rack to tarmac, I think I could say; WATT my Idea of a ChopPear is? Is, I am cutting up a pear to eat is this sweet is waiting around for the next swap meet. Sweet ride it ain't!  

I looked high and low, left and right. Then i found my 06 BMC. I had thought of building my own but really wanted to go out and ride....so I bought it and rode it....(20k miles on it in the first 12 months).....Now it is winter time and I have a Honda that used to have saddlebags etc.... it has been stripped to the frame and everything that dont need to be there has been cut off.......I am changing the rear fennder to attach to the swing arm and not the frame.....this gets the fender and tire closer together.....got a set of 12" apes....small solo seat.... and should have it ridable next summer.  I have an air brush and will attempt to paint flames on it too...
I consider both "Choppers"  
Since the BMC is basically stock and the honda is all chopped up....it is hard to say what i call a chopper. I guess for me, choppers have no windshields....radio's...fairings...etc....

a "Street Chopper" is a bike you have customized and ride, alot.... and not parked out front to impress the neighborhood.

Unclepsycho  

What is a "Street Chopper'? I guess the key word here is "Street" you gotta be able to ride the damn thing. Right out of the Navy in 68 I bought my first "Chopper" part from a shop in so cal . It was a small place owned by Tom and Rose McMullen.A set of 6in slugs for my 350 Honda . Yea I had me a chopper. So i thought! It took Street Chopper magazine with all its how to and tech articles for me to really understand what choppers were and the people who build them , and most importantly why they built them. Every time I bought a new bike I'd pickup  some new hacksaw blades . I just couldn't leave it stock. I'm 63 now and I still dig a pretty model next to a chopper, but please keep the *** behind the bike so I can get a good look of someones hard work okay? BACKN49  

I have my story in garage dog, that everything I believed in changed from a motorcycle accident that caused my group, formed in 1972, to better educate motorcyclist, challenge authority, involved the politicians so that authority would accept our chopper builds, and did so to this present day with my epic chopper journey.  
     My chopper is a rare one, built from the ground up, that still survives to this day.  In my state this present day, we cannot be trusted to make chopper frames/components.  This was caused by some serious/fatal accidents that these victims chose to abuse the prescribed safe parameters of building a chopper.  
     Present day chopper builds and/or out of the box, only manufactured chopper frames/components are the norm.  I am not knocking them because it keeps the chopper tradition alive for those that can afford them, and don't have the time/space/equipment/skill to do the build.  I commend them that worked hard to have a career to afford purchasing them, abd providing monetary support for those chopper building shops.
     The only way to differentiate these cookie cutters is to stick metal out in a different place and/or mix up some different paint on them.
     I didn't make my chopper into something that is unattainable.  I perceived the V-twin engine is for cruising and the mass of metal I transformed for looking good.  I removed the electric start system having faith in my skills that I can kick start the engine at my beckon call!
     I want efficient power, and knee dragging capability, I jump on one of my unmentionable sport bikes.  The organization I founded with my group, the majority are cruiser/chopper bikers to educate motorcyclist and able to build choppers, is now repeating the assault for the sport bikers to cut the loss of life and legalizing certain modifications.  Sorry, going off on a different tangent!
     Just check garage dogs only for more details of my epic chopper journey!  

I think the winter issue nailed it. Great bikes. Chops that are ridden. Homebuilt is great but not everyone has the skills or tools to do it. A bike personalized to fit the owner whether the owner does it or has it done. Brand does not matter. I'm building a CB750 chopper now. When it's done I'm tearing my Buell apart and chopping it. It's all cool.  

I hear you ratfink56 and it reminds of a run in with this guy off the street!

This one evening, I rolled in on my bike to the local drive in.  I ordered my usual and sat on this bench to wait for it.  This old guy sits down next to me, guess seen me roll in with the bike outside.  He started up this conversation, “I used to have a motorcycle!”  He then added, “Is that all you’ve got?”
I rattled off a Harley Chopper I’m working on, four other motorcycles, a dirt bike, a street machine, and a street rod.  It’s like out of nowhere, he asks, “You don’t have as many as that guy Leno!”
It’s the kind of things you hear on the forums, ask of something, explained, but they just looking to “irk you!”  I calmly ranted, “I learned how to build my own stuff, I fabricate my own stuff, I get the equipment to do my own stuff, and don’t use a night show to pay others to get my stuff!”  My order was ready and left!
I’m sure of chopper owners coming across this kind of “irk you” talk, not as deep into building as I am doing, it’s still a chopper you can say something like, “I’m no movie face, but I know where its been, I know every fastener on it, I’ve stripped it, rebuilt it, and painted it…”
Then those that bought and installed on their choppers, “I went to get a career to make the money to deserve this chopper…”  For good measure, “What have you done in your life, and where’s your chopper?”
It’s like that line I heard in the movies with a bit tweaking, “Whether its an inch or a mile of work, a chopper is a chopper!”  

I also think that you should be able to ride the damn thing, but you have to cut out anything you don't really need on the bike. The winter issue was great with all of the homebuilt or older chopped bikes, but that jeff's homebuilt chop! Give me a break! He bought the frame, he bought the frontend, he bought the fenders, come on now, anyone can buy abunch of damn parts and screw them together, he could probably get a job with OCC!! But definitely cut out what you don't need , the real bikes in your mag don't have front fenders or brakes, speedometers, who needs 'em!! Electric starters, forget about it!
I think alot of people like the bikes that were TRULY built by their owners, I'm talking frame fenders, a springer front end,etc. Just my opinion, which is not much.  

IMHO...
Cast iron cyls, foot clutch-handshift, kickstart, spool front hub, no front fender, soloseat, no oil leaks, rode hard......  

IMO,.. the over indulgent showing of store bought un-unique pop-cultured rides made a death of the magazine,. it has to be a huge task producing this book with custom only content, however filling it with boring over chromed barges of billit ness junk was doomed to bore over a short period,. the fact is,. I'd love a cut down volume of issues if the quality and the public were still there,. I hate to say it, I still read the Horse religiously and Street Chopper when I find them,. at best though? Street Chopper has cut out the squandering Colman Camp Stove Companies bike BIG DOG and that has sex appeal right there!!