Bobbers and Street fighters

zed1015 wrote: It is the skill of the builder that determines the success of a project NOT the tools he works with.

I have been saying this for years!

davido wrote: Dont know what bobbers are about but beards seem to be involved!

This is too true, lots of beards. I think the basic premise of a rat rod/ bobber is to make something from nothing. You take a bunch of rusty crappy parts and build something simple and cheap. i have a friend that has a XS650 bobber that he has all of $400 into. it was a total basket case when he picked it up and headed for the scrap yard. Now its back on the road. and he has a front brake!

You guys are being overly critical. That green engine paint job, alone, probably was the bulk of the 150 man-hours.

Ooo I'm joining the debate! Heres my take on a "streetfighter" ... don't worry, I didn't hack up a perfectly good bike, the previous owner had already started doing a bobber project that I turned around.

Lots of good parts on that machine. :dry:
Steve

Street fight hell ya I'm in what ya'll bringin
Don't mind the time on the tank I slow it down to run that number.

My bike is the best...............

davido wrote: Streetfighters were born in the 80s when most bikes were fully faired,high speed race replicas.People tended to crash them (or drop them off the side stand) and smash the plastics which cost a fortune to replace. It was cheaper and easier to just strip them back,whack an aftermarket headlight on and get back on the road.The look caught on,performance upgrades followed,and a whole culture (and aftermarket parts industry) was born.
Dont know what bobbers are about but beards seem to be involved!

Since you brought it up, yes "Street Fighters" came out of the full fairing sport bikes that were damaged from crashing by the hooligans running them. Plastics are expensive and didn't matter so these bikes ran with out giving them "Street Fighter" creds.

As far as the bobbers, this came out of the soldiers returning home from WWII and the action and European influence such as fast little sports cars and European bikes. They came home to their old Hendersons, HD's, and Indians that were heavy and laden with gear. So they started lopping off parts and "bobbing" them to reduce weight and make them faster much as what the Cafe Racers did. The connection to the cruisers most make is because they stemmed from American iron that are by today's standards, cruiser like.

Cory

I was under the impression the returning WW2 vets started the Chopper craze by chopping off parts they wanted to remove, shorten or lighten to make their bikes faster and sleeker

Choppers were a mid to late 60's trend about simply highly modifying a motorcycle.

Bobbers: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobber_(motorcycle)

Chopper:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopper_(motorcycle)

Cory

Street Fighter LTD wrote: I was under the impression the returning WW2 vets started the Chopper craze by chopping off parts they wanted to remove, shorten or lighten to make their bikes faster and sleeker

Correct. They wanted their Hd's and Indians etc to be competitive against the influx of the british Triumphs ,Bsa's and Nortons. which were much nimbler and lighter.
Choppers and bobbers were different names circulating at the same time which meant the same thing and depending on where you read there is dispute as to which term came first,
Bobbed was the term for chopping or removing the mudguards and Chopped was the term for lightening /altering the frame.
Chops and the name became more prevalent/public in the 60's when the form moved from simple performance and handling mods to the more cosmetic /artistic approach which veered towards impractical appearance rather than improving practical performance.

Right U are Zed...right U are.

les holt wrote: Thanks for the compliment floivanus.

As a warning, I have a bobber coming down the pipe that the customer wants the build put up for people to see so we chose here as it's truly going to be a rule breaker in many respects, even for my taste it's out there but I'm betting it's going to be a well received bike.

Les

Les, I have followed many of your builds ripe with envy. I have no doubt that it is going to be a fantastic build.