Archive for December, 2009

Choppers Kits

choppers kit

You probably have seen the kits to make your bike a chopper. I actually used one of these kits for choppers on my first bike that I customized. I took a 2005 V-star and bought the chopper kit that changed the rake by 14 degrees by using a combination of adding 9 degrees in the neck and 5 more degrees in the triple trees. This also required the use of 6 inch over fork tubes because I had lowered the rear of my bike 1″.

Now, the big selling point of these chopper kits is that they maintain the factory trail. Well by my calculations only one of them does. Part of my job requires me to use CAD software so I sat down; opened up Auto-cad and basically drew my bike as it came from the factory. I then altered the rake in both the triple trees and steering head to see which chopper kit would give me a trail measurement that was closest to the factory. The result between the 3 available kits was very different. 18 degree kit gave me more that 6 inches and 9 degree kit left my with only 2″. If you do this remember that you must alter both the steering head and the triple tree rake the same as the kit to properly calculate this.

The 14 degree kit actually worked out to be the safest of the three with a trail of around 4 inches. Interesting enough I had used 6″ over forks because of the lowered rear end, as the website had suggested, but when I later returned the rear end to its factory height the bike actually handled better even though the website would have had me buy 8″ over tubes. Looking at my bike the way it sits today, I’m sure had I used the 8″ over tubes as suggested my front end would be too high.

Here’s picture of how my bike looks with the rear end at factory height, as you can see it looks level.

motorcycle with chopper kit installed

 Now here’s the same bike with the rear lowered, (and a different paint job):

bike with chopper kit lowered rear

It’s hard too see much difference but it handles better at factory height. And speaking of handling I want to address the claims made that these kits allow your bike to handle like factory. I can’t speak for the 9 or 18 degree kits but I found that the 14 degree kit does indeed feel pretty much the same as the factory handling with the exception that the bike is noticeably longer when you need to make tight turns. And I would go so far as to say that the bike actually turned quicker at speed with the kit installed. Responded much faster to leaning.

Installation wasn’t a piece of cake but I managed to do it myself in less than 5 hours. Take note that you will need to replace the fork tubes which means you need to know how to change fork seals and refill the fork oil to pull this off. Also the steering head bolt needs to be tighten to 150 foot pounds. That is a lot of torque and you will need to actually hold the bike and tighten that bolt at the same time or risk pulling your bike over. Having installed this kit myself, I would recommend that you get someone to help you. Really.

Would I do it again. Given the cost, if I was to do this again on this particular bike I would probably have the steering head cut and moved 9 degrees, and then mount 5 over triples and 6″ over fork tubes. I believe it would be much cheaper and would look better.  But with the kit installed I can return it to factory anytime I want. So it really is personal choice whether or not you want to permanently alter your frame.

My final verdict on the chopper kits is that they are basically everything they say they are. And the quality of the parts is outstanding.

What Makes Choppers A Chopper?

Here’s a little video I posted on YouTube about choppers. I give some explanation of the difference between a bobbers and a chopper.  As I said this is on YouTube so ignore the references to links to this site, because hey, you’re already here! This can be viewed in high def by clicking this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhmTj8EZ1eQ

American Choppers

I’ve been a big fan of this show for quite awhile. Initially, I really loved to watch them build the choppers, but eventually the whole family dynamic draws you in to where you really want to know what’s going to happen to these guys next. Should we care if it all goes away?

I don’t say that to be mean spirited but let’s face the facts. There are plenty of other families as screwed up as this one out there but they’re not pulling down a couple million a year in endorsements to be on TV. And let’s be honest about MIkey. He should have been paid well by Discovery for keeping the show interesting even if he didn’t contribute much to Orange County Choppers, but I’d bet he got screwed there. I really hope he gets his life together.

I like all the Teutuls, and I think watching the show we get to see them often enough being themselves to know whether or not we do like them, but they all have their issues and sometimes I have to wonder if the show’s edited to push the conflict a little more than it should. And is it all real? Seems odd to me that they say they’re not seeing each other but yet there they all are together in a commercial for the show.

I hope they resolve their family problems before the show goes off the air which I anticipate will be very soon. The average American doesn’t even care about the bikes any more, and I’m sure the ratings have seriously fallen this season, with Paul Jr leaving and all. As I stated in a previous post, ( OCC Choppers) his departure doesn’t seem to have hurt the bike builds any.

Anyway, the reason I’m even writing another post about  them is I wanted to just talk about the show and say that I’ll miss it. When there is a new episode I always DVR it, and it has become a regular part of my life, the original inspiration for me getting into customizing bikes in the first place. So even though I believe a lot of the success of the company was manufactured by the show I’ll try and stop holding that against the Teutuls moving forward and just say “it is what it is”.

Hat’s off American Chopper.

Yamaha Choppers

Guys are taking old Yamaha XS650s and turning them into some of the coolest choppers you will see. It excites me so much I just had to write about it and show some examples.

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