I watched those shows all day yesterday. Makes me want to build one. They make it look so easy.

 

Whats this about--its not custom becuase he has 40 tanks on his shelf.Becuase the guy has top of the line equipment and builds everything in his shop--everything--its even painted there---thats all custom and no outside help.Billys bike last year was a heap compared to the other bike.Did you see the thing shaking so bad while he was driving it.

 

No I didn't see that. But when a dude has a shop of 40+ employees and is computer building the bikes its not custom anymore. Its mass produced and I am by no means knocking it those guys are making mad money and were smart enough to find a good nitch. They were smart businessmen that took a good thing and got rich from it. Did you see the one guy had like 3 offshore racing boats??



When a camera pans past 2 dozen bikes in the plant that are exactly the same where is the custom in that?? I thought it was funny too because every guy that pulled stuff off of a shelf w/ 50 of the same part on it, would justify it by calling it "custom".



The big part of Choppers in the old days is that they were built by hand and there was only one. Was it dependable?? Hell no! Are our highly modded RX-7's dependable maybe I know mine makes me nervous sometimes that it will take a dump on me. But that is what makes it so cool. If I never had to roll up my sleeves and get under the hood to fix a quirk the car would not have any character. I feel the same goes for bikes.



Different people have different opinions on most everything. I have seen your car in pictures. Not my style but I am aware that car shows are a big deal and that there is money to be made at it if your good. You car appears to be a show stopper so your good at it. I prefer sleeper and fast but I want it to be fast in turns too. So I opted for a smaller turbo that spools up real fast but does not make immense HP. My style other would want a giant turbo and giant HP. See what I mean. I personally have more appreciation for a Chopper that is hand built and is 1 of a kind but realize the mass produced choppers are probably better quality and more reliable.

 

I like custom bikes, but I'm just not crazy about that classic "chopper" shape. With the upward angle of the bike, and the huge gaping hole above the engine...I just don't like it. I love the low-slung, hotrod-type bikes. That's why I liked the guys with the 40+ employees (can't remember the name), because of the style. They also had that super-cool idea of the oil being circulated through the frame for cooling, allowing a lower seat/center of gravity. Me likey!

 

The reason they have all those exact same parts around is that the majority of their income comes from selling these parts to other bike manufacturers and not the manufacturing of custom bikes themselves. This was said twice on Monday, once by Jesse James and once by I think is name is Paul Yaffe. They sell these parts to make their money.



On another note, I love the old school style of Indian Larry's bikes. All these bikes are beautiful but his are something else. I like the fact that Jesse James manufactures a custom frame (bends the frame and puts it together himself). the other guys are using stock frames that are lined up one after the other once again because they sell them.



A custom bike should be just that... custom. Custom to me means unique, no other like it, whether it is in the shape, size, color, paint scheme, whatever.

 

Most shop's, like West Coast Chopper's as well as Yaffe's shop, fabricate their own fenders/tank's etc. mass produce them, then sell them to other shop's where they either use them the way they are, or they take that custom tank/fender and customize it the way they want it. If any of you saw the first time they showed Chopper's Inc. Billy took a W.C.C rear fender, cut it down the middle, and made it wider. There's building it from scratch, and modifying it, both take work, both should be appreciated.



After seeing all the attention these smaller shop's are getting, I hope they don't let the money blind them, and start building assembly line ****. I gotta say, the Choppers Inc. no hub is lookin' tough.

 

I should rephrase my statement above it sounds harsh and was not intended to be so. Its not that I have no respect for those shops. They actually build awsome choppers and trust me I would not blink to buy one of theirs either. But the spirit of the competition was to build an outragous chopper one of a kind. It just seemed like some of these shops forgot how to do that. They just built slightly different versions of the standard production version.



OC Choppers has built some really trick choppers I like their stuff too. I am just blown away by the hubless rear wheel it freaks me out every time I see it.



I LOVED every bike I saw on the contest. Period.

 

Isn't there some sort of inherent flaw with the hubless design? I thought I remember researching this awhile back. I think it had something to do with the fact that the bearing is moving much faster, lie at-road speed, and is much larger, and that it doesn't take much to damage the rear assembly.



but it looks badass!

 

That wheel is dope. A year ago, if someone said to me a rear wheel could make a bike like that, I would of told him to go **** himself.

Yep.