chopper trends

kevo and i were having a discussion about choppers and the trends that haunt them the other nite. we were kicking back and forth with different ideas and the more we kicked them around, the more we'd stop and say "nah, i seen so-and-so put a 41mm set-up in narrow trees before" or " nah, this one guy already runs an FXR oil tank in his rigid".... blah blah blah, you know. you've bench raced with your buddies before.

We got talking about trends, and how they go full circle. How flat black bikes with red rims and white walls used to be considered the coolest thing going. How devil tails and beer logos used to adorn EVERY chopper out there. how wide tires on long bikes were all the rage and nobody wanted anything different.

Now look around. All those guys that bought 70s survivor bikes are kicking themselves for selling off their square headlamps and king/queen seats, all wishing they would have kept those tanks with the chipped wacky paintjobs. Long bikes are back in, tall sissybars are all the rage, and heaven forbid you paint your bike one solid color. the more you step back and look at it, the more you realize it's all been done before.... it just takes a while to come full circle. at one point in time you couldn't GIVE away a square stock sissybar. now people are paying an arm and leg for em. and don't get me started on bates seats - I swear, if i find one, i don't care how much some goon is willing to pay for it, i will light it on fire in front of him out of principle. my buddy peter sold one on ebay to some idiot in japan for silly money. so stupid.

lately i feel like the more you look around, the less originality there is out there. its not about who builds a better bike than the last guy, it's about who finds the best parts at the swap meet, and whos bike looks like it just stepped out of last months DicE issue. i see a bike in a magazine, and two weeks later i see it again on someones blog with a for sale sign on it. Don't get me wrong, i've thought about selling mine too, but not until after i've thoroughly beaten the crap out of it and gotten bored of it, or needed the extra money to get another project.

and now it seems like there's this overwhelming wave of people that have this nose in the air attitude that if it isn't period correct, its lame. in other words, if it stops efficiently, it sucks. if it shifts nice, it's trash. if its not an original frame, its garbage. Whatever. I'm with Fab Kevin on this one- if theres better technology out there, and it's cheaper than the old crap that never worked well in the first place, I'm using it.

now, before you go getting your panties in a bunch, don't think i'm bashing everyones bike out there and telling everyone how they're bikes should be built. Each bike is built by one person, for one person - the rider. i dig the hell out of drum brakes, and nothing screams cool like a VL springer. There's alot of really cool stuff going on out there and theres alot of really cool people out there doin' it, and thats awesome. but this "more punk than you" attitude was lame as shit before, and its still lame as shit. I constantly meet all kinds of really cool people out there on bikes of all different sorts done all kinds of different ways. the fact of the matter is half the time the guy that can't afford the trendy cool stuff, are the guy that are putting on more miles than the guys on the totally period correct stuff. to me, riding the wheels off your bike is way more period correct than sitting in your garage for days on end pondering the exact angle of your six-bend bars.

i recently obtained a shovelhead motor in a basket and decided i was hell bent for a period perfect long-bike. mechanical drum, wishbone frame, early stretched springer... all these ideas were swirling in my head. the more and more i looked around, the more and more i realized thats not what i want. i want something that does what i do, how i do it, whenever i want it to do it. i want something i can jump on, ride to the east coast for some clam chowder, then turn around and head to california to pick up some cute little beach-blanket-bingo girl. i wanna sit in that seat and see all sorts of different places i've never seen before, smell all sorts of different cultures  ive never smelt before, and feel all sorts of different feelings that can only be felt on a bike. stranger in a strange land, thats what i'm after. and i intend to do it on a bike for me, by me.

thanks for listening. if you're on the same page as me, then you should be on this page.

and to those whos bike is on this post, don't take offense. I put them up here cause they're bikes that make me smile.

and feel free to leave comments. I'm removing the comment moderation option, so let the mud fly if you feel so inclined.