The hardtail chopper or rigid frame chopper is just what the name implies: a chopper with no suspension. While some old school bike builders like Billy Lane Choppers might argue that all choppers should be hardtails, I'm not going to get into that.
Amazingly one of the most popular fads right now is the XS650 hardtail. Even hardcore Harley enthusiasts are taking these old school metric bikes and chopping them. I think some of that is due to the fact that many first time bike projects were in fact metric chops.
I think riding a bike with a hardtail chopper frame gives the biker some unspoken respect. Those of us who ride 200 miles to a bike rally on our touring bikes have to give some props to a guy who made the same trip with no suspension.
Of course the hardtail chopper is the standard when it comes to show bikes. Who doesn't like a bike where the rear fender hugs the tire and makes that stretched neck look even longer than it is? The lower the rear end, the cooler the chopper looks. Why is that?
Adding a bolt on (heaven forbid) or a weld on hardtail to a stock frame can completely alter the way a bike looks. Bikes that sit relatively level like Sportsters and the previously mentioned XS 650s take on a completely different persona with the addition of a hardtail.
Custom hardtail chopper frames can be bought for under a thousand dollars with the weld-on pieces going for as low as $300-400, which makes converting a stock bike to a hardtail a very inexpensive way to build your own chopper.
Should every chopper be a hardtail? Let's just say that every chopper should look like one.
