does harley davidson make choppers?

B

bah bah bah

New member
every now and then i see bikes i think are harleys but they dont look like regular bikes. they have cooler paint jobs, lowers seats. can you buy these from harley?
 
Forget the moron in the green hat as he doesn't know his @$$ from 3rd base. The chopper is defined as a bike that has had everything non-essential to its operation cut off or removed to save weight. These bikes originated from the soldiers that came back from WWII and just could not get the adrenalin out of their system so they made their bikes as fast as possible. These bikes go by 'bobbers'. The bikes became radically modified during the late 50's, the 60' & 70's and up to today. These bikes are characterized by the extended and raked out front end and custom paint. Highly modified high horsepower motors completed the transformation. These bikes are only mass produced by outfits like Big Dog, West Coast Choppers, Orange County, Titan, and a host of others. Small operators and home built choppers and bobbers are among the finest made and highest quality as a slower pace work make the details. Chopper builders routinely use the Harley Davidson powerplant but have been known to use the vertical twin engine from Triumph, even the Yamaha XS series engine. The engine configuration is limited only by one's imagination.
http://www.chopperdirectory.com/Choppers/Builders/Chopper-Manufacturers.php
(this is just a small sample)

The only current major mainstream manufacturer I've seen is the Honda Fury. It seems to be a bike that is gaining popularity and is a nice looking bike.
 
They make plenty of bikes that you can make into a chopper, but they do not make any off the dealership showroom floor chopper. By my definition a choppers has to have a raked out front fork and chopped rear. It must a appear to be a hardtail at least and weigh as little as possible, so anything that is unnecessary must be "chopped".

There are a few "choppers" that are mass produced, heck I just read an article in a magazine that compared a Big Dog chopper to an (interestingly enough) Honda Fury, also a chopper.
 
liability issue, choppers are tough to ride and control, to any inexperienced, beginner rider they are dangerous, they don't market one cause they don't want to pay out lawsuits cause you can't ride it.
 
No, they make custom styled motorcycles in almost any standardized shape but not the ones with flame shaped tube frames. They sell starting points. A cruiser by any other name.
As Mushki said 'Not by my definition"
 
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