Want a Chopper? Build Your Own!

Motorcycle chopper kits are a growth industry. But what does that mean to you and me? Well one thing that we know is that we will have more choppers to ogle at. There is not a singular day that goes by without more and more pictures of chopper bikes that have just been accomplished showing up in all the bike magazines. Then at the weekends, when we are on our "hot" rides, we will see four or five show quit level bikes. There are more choppers nearby now than there have been in the last twenty five years.

Most of these choppers have been built from bike chopper kits, the "bike in a box" approach. But hey, don't knock it! building your own chopper has never been easier. There are rolling chassis kits, unblemished bike kits, and frame manufacturers give you a multitude of option when it comes to take the plunge and buy a bike chopper kit.

Maintenance Hand Kit

Thirty years ago, the old school chopper builders had to start with a stock bike off-the-shelf and well chop it to pieces. With the modern chopper kits, there is a viable alternative to taking the cutting torch to your popular soft tail!

Nowadays, you have a cheap and easier way to build the bike from the ground up. When you take the cost of buying a new bike and the expense of chopping it, it works out much cheaper to start from step one, and your chopper kit. Instead of tossing away the parts that you'll never use again, you can start building your own bike with the parts that you well need. All the parts are included in the bike chopper kit, along with comprehensive instructions.

One of the first questions that people ask when considering buying a kit is how will my bike stand outs from all the other chopper kits? Well think of it this way, you are going to buy a chopper kit. A pile of unassembled raw metal. No paint, no real finish, just a blank canvas. Is your taste in paint jobs likely to be the same as the next guy, who buys the very same kit? I don't think so. What about your taste in bolt-ons, seats, exhausts? Just because you buy the kit doesn't mean every small thing has to be just so. That is the whole point isn't it? It's very easy in this way to build your own convention chopper from a chopper kit.

Another big inquire is, "How long"? The retort to that is as long as it takes. Even on the kit bikes, which are supposed to be designed to fit together like a glove, you are going to run into some snags. It can't be avoided!

If you want a more concrete guide, try this. An experienced kit maker (though not a professional) I spoke to reckons it took 10 full days to build his last chopper from a kit. For person less experienced it could take a concentrate of days longer. Twelve 9 hour days works out at 108 hours. Over evenings and weekends, this could drag out to three or four weeks of living in a pile of bike parts! So be ready to well live the palpate if you are going to take the plunge.

What about the practical side? Well, there is no substitute for experience. The place to start building up your palpate with the mechanical side of building to kit bike is with your current ride. Make sure all you can do the basic maintenance on your motorcycle, and then start to do some straightforward disassembling. Take off the tires, take off the exhaust, real basic stuff; all of this will help to build a new trust in the shop side of things. You can also get some great videos on maintenance, and even on building the convention bike of your dreams. Read the books, watch the videos, and buy the t-shirt! Believe me, all the making ready you make will stand you in good stead.

If you well are hopeless at the mechanical side of things, why not pay person else to help you build it, or even get them to build the whole thing for you? The cost of the kit plus labor could well work out cheaper than buying a chopper "off the shelf".

And of course, when that beautiful chopper is standing on your driveway, and your friends are request you "Was it worth it?" you can turn to the chopper, drag your hand over the flames on the tank and the polished chrome, turn back to them and say, "What do you think?"

Want a Chopper? Build Your Own!

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