Old School Choppers

When it comes to choppers no phrase is more incorrectly tossed around more than ‘Old School Choppers”. So what exactly is an “old school chopper”?

When I think of “old school”, or “old skool” as some hip guys like to say; I think of bike builders like the late Denver Mullins or Sugar Bear. To me these bikes have been captured by the late artist Dave Mann better than anyone. To guys who were building choppers long before they became fashionable, the term means one thing, and to those who have jumped on the band wagon since OCC it means something a little bit different.

Springer front end at least 6 ” over stock, a hand forged sissy bar, a two up king and queen seat and set of fishtail mufflers that reach up past the passenger seat. Built by one or two guys in one of their garages or maybe their backyards. This is true old school. The front end might be a few pieces welded together, the tank is small to cut down on the weight, and the front fender is long gone. 

The frame has been stretched so the rider is just barely looking over the handle bars, and the whole bike looks about 12 feet long even though its really only about 9. The frame is rigid and the rear fender barely clears the tire. The headlights (two stacked) are square and the bike looks like death waiting to happen. That, my friends, is an Old School Chopper. If it comes out of factory it is a production chopper.

I think what gets my goat more than anything right now is the number of builders who claim to be building choppers when in fact they are building “bobbers’. How can you build bikes and not know the freakin’ difference? Since when did every stripped down custom become a chopper? C’mon guys, you have to have added some stretch or rake to be calling these choppers. You are building bobbers.

Am I wrong about this? Is my definition of Old School Chopper wrong? Is anyone other than Mondo still actually building them now that Billy lane’s off to jail? I did a search on Google for “old school choppers’ and on the first page of results I could only find one shop that actually was building them. That was very discouraging.

Now of course, I know plenty of guys are still building them, but the point of this post is that the term has almost completely lost it’s meaning. Which means the next inevitable step is that true old school choppers will be lost forever except for faded photos and in the memories of those lucky enough to have ridden them. Or maybe Mondo and Sugar Bear will live forever. Man, that’d be nice.