Saturday, October 31, 2009

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.

18 comments:

Super71 said...

You are absolutely 110% right!

mindpill said...

remember, the more things change , the more they stay the same. the key is ride your fuckin bikes....... hey tony......

lifeisfuct-diekruzen HEAVY KLOTHING said...

RIDE OR DIE.

Stone said...

Haha... I'm feelin' this so much. I actually wrote a rant on the ChopClit about this same thing this week... except I was drunk, and I didn't word it so eloquently. Instead I just hurt a friends feelings, felt bad, and deleted my diatribe.
But I know exactly what you're sayin', and I'm backin' it fully.
The other trend that's driving me nuts is the "I spent less than 3 grand on my bike and so I'm cooler than you" attitude...
If you only spent 3 grand on your bike, then it's slow and it's built with shitty parts, most likely.
Anyway...
After a decade of riding Harley's, I feel I'm finally able to see past the bullshit.
That's why I finally broke down and bought an FXR. So stoked on it... built for one purpose, and that ain't bein' pretty.

Kevin "TEACH" Baas said...

Right on Tony..don't forget us vintage iron riders who beat the hell out of there vintage bikes and ride them farther than most who have the newer high tech stuff..HAHAHAH Love ya man

B Harlow said...

so what your saying is that you hate my bike. Great.

Super71 said...

I just came in from a night of candy with the kids and read this again and it still put a smile on my face.Ride your bike and then go ride some more.

pockets said...

could not have said it better

slaytanic said...

bout time someone said this!

P-nut said...

Couldn't agree more, just get out there and ride the son of a bitch till the wheels fall off!

Keith said...

sure why not

Nick said...

Let it out bro!

CHVRCH said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Doug said...

Yeah...Ride what ya got whether it be a 1969 CL90 or Sportster or SR500..don't matta just ride
D

Kid Kurpius said...

Fuck You...... I'll ride my long bike right beside you to get clam chowder then to cali for the girls.

Na.... I'm 100 percent with you on this one. Believe you me.... I love period bikes but I also love bikes that perform. I don't understand why people pay so much money for stupid things just because so many other people want the same thing. My bike is not complete yet bike I feel it's pretty period. I don't have three pennies to rub together. So I started with pieces of shit and turned them into period looking parts. It's feels better to make something that is different but just as cool as the one thing that seems to find itself on every bike out there right now. And you know that shit is gonna go out of style and all the kids will be riding fat tire bikes 30 years anyway. Then we'll wish we had bought all that shit up at all the swaps and stored it in a storage unit somewhere.

I don't care what you build as long as you ride the piss out of it no matter how un-logical it may seem to others.

Jason McElroy said...

Doing whatever the fuck you want never goes out of style.

Glorydays said...

i've turned off my computer that deal with choppers and i don't really visit any message boards and i don't look at modern magazines... It's better this way!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Yup. We be on the INSTAGRAM trend too...