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Updated Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Note About the Pix: Many of the pix featured on this page come from "open source" places like eBay, Craigslist, etc. The rest are pix of bobbers that people have sent me and what I have seen locally. Although it has never happened, if a picture of YOUR bobber ends up here and you're not cool with it, please zap me some mail and I'll promptly take it down. I don't make a dime off of this site, and I'm not here to rip anybody off... I'm only here to showcase some cool bobbers and maybe give home builders an idea or two. Thanks and enjoy the collection!
>> Bobber of the Month << |
 (As told to me by old bikers
now gone)... In the old days, back when the air was
still fresh and gas was less then thirty cents per
gallon, any bike sporting all of the factory goodies
such as fenders, spotlights, saddlebags and all of the
associated yee yaa was considered a "Garbage Wagon" by
those who participated in flat-track, enduro, or
street racing. To increase speed and performance,
riders would remove, or "bob" parts from their bikes
which weren't absolutely necessary for its operation.
Fenders, saddlebags, spotlights and the assorted
chrome goodies were removed leaving essentially an
engine, two wheels and a frame... THIS is a "Bobber"
(or more precisely, a "bob job"). Contrasting the
bobber is the "chopper", a movement which began as a
bobber (with bits and pieces "chopped" off) but over
time experienced a metamorphosis from a more practical
racing machine to a less practical (and poorer
performing) embodiment of a motorcycle more bent on
making a statement than winning a race (Apes and
extended forks make diving into a corner at speed just
a little bit more hairy) = ). Both choppers and
bobbers owe their history to those first riders who
knew that big engines and less weight equaled BIG
smiles. NOW, I recently read an article
(below) by one of the most famous chopper builders
EVER who pretty much says that MY definition of a
bobber is BULLSHIT. = ) I don't mind... Sugar Bear
is THE MAN !
Sugar Bear Choppers - Chops And Bobbers - Busted Knuckles From
the June, 2007 issue of Street
Chopper
By
Sugar Bear
A short bike with a Sportster tank and a flat fender is not a "bobber," it's just a short chop. About 99% of the bikes that are called bobbers...well, you get the picture. I've been involved in conversations with youngsters (born after 1960) who claim that what they build are Bobbers. I'm not even sure most of them have ever seen one. In the '50s, in my area, we were riding chops, bobbers, and garbage wagons (full dressers or baggers, as they are known now) and each had a distinct style! Chops had cut-down tanks (this is before Sportster tanks were made), cut-down fenders, no floorboards, cut-up bars or apes, usually upsweeps with fishtails (normally no mufflers), sidemount taillight, etc. Bobbers had small fatbobs, floorboards, bobbed rear stock fender (usually cut at the rear fender hinge), the stock exhaust (2-into-1), stock bars, basically a cut-down (bobbed) stock bike. Of course we know what a garbage wagon (eh, bagger) looked like. Anyway, you guys are building short chops, not bobbers. This is a cycle that repeats itself time after time. People start building chops, then they build long chops because that's always been considered what a chop should look like. Then after awhile, they begin to realize that the long chops they built are hard to handle and you need gorilla arms to keep it straight and to turn. Of course, these people flunked geometry and physics because they unknowingly set up their bikes wrong. So to be able to get back to riding, they shortened up the bikes but didn't want them to be called chops (because that might seem to infer they don't handle) so they called them bobbers, custom bikes, etc.
I've seen this cycle so many times in my riding
history that it's ridiculous. I remember people
snickering at me in the early '90s because I was
riding long chops and still building them. "That
looks cool, but I wouldn't ride one of those."
"How does that thing handle in the curves?
(snicker)." It's very easy to tell who the
uninformed are. If you don't know how to set up
a long bike so you can ride it with one hand and
be comfy, buy a stocker, put some chrome and
handlebars on it, and stop ruining the
reputation of choppers. If you want a chop and
don't know how to set up a long one, do a short
one. A long chop is a thing of beauty; there's
nothing like it. If set up right, you'll ride it
forever and smile away every mile. If in doubt,
ask anyone who has ridden a Sugar Bear chop.
Remember, a short bike with a Sportster tank and
a flat fender is not a bobber- it's just a short
chop. To tha' PICTURE PAGES! (Woo Hoo!).... Click
tha' Pic to go to tha' Photobucket
directory or click the NAME to see a
thumbnail gallery of tha' bikes in that brand.
Installed 10/25/09 |
UPDATED