Nice Bike....

....for me to poop on!

All kidding aside, this bike (from Long Beach last fall), is a good reminder.

You might pick some other bars, style of sissy bar, or a different bend of pipes ....

....but it's hard to improve on the classic style of chop

....and no, it's not a bobber,

Today's Cost of Bobbing

I found this H-D product announcement a few weeks ago and thought it was kind of amusing. Is it just me?

Combine Chopped Rear Fender and Solo Spring Saddle for Classic Style

MILWAUKEE (March 26, 2010) – Owners of most 2006-later Harley-Davidson Dyna® models can achieve the hot bobber look with the installation of three new items from Harley-Davidson Genuine Motor Accessories that are easy to install with no cutting, welding, or fabrication necessary (and no fun!), my words.


The new Chopped Rear Fender Kit – Dyna® Models (P/N 59860-10BEO Primed, $349.95; P/N 59860-10DH Vivid Black, $449.95) is a complete “bolt-on” chopped fender kit. The chopped fender eliminates the traditional tail lamp and center-mount license plate, replaces the original equipment rear turn signals with the included stop-turn-tail lights for a clean, stripped-down appearance. Installation requires the separate purchase of the new Side Mount License Plate Kit (P/N 60938-10, $194.95), finished in brilliant chrome, with a durable steel mounting bracket that incorporates license plate illumination.



Complete the bobber transformation with the new Solo Spring Saddle – Black Leather (P/N 54373-10, $269.95), a 10.5-inch-wide solo seat with the minimalistic “just enough to ride” look. The torsion-style springs are designed for the optimal balance between spring suspension and support. The smooth metal seat pan and the simple frame cover leave a clean, finished appearance. The seat can be removed and replaced with a touring seat for a two-up riding. Installation requires separate purchase of Spring Seat Mounting Hardware Kit (P/N 54075-10, $229.95), sold separately.

Add it up and it only costs $1045.00 (plus $100 for black only), to bob your Dyna's fender , change seat and to relocate the license plate. Not counting tax or paying the dealer to install the kit. (we wouldn't want you to break a nail).

You too can have a unique customized bike... just like everybody else's.

Remember the days when Bobbing was done with a hacksaw, a file, surplus parts, some imagination, and little or no money?... me neither.

Factory Bolt ons? - Not a Bobber!

More Fun From Lincoln Park

Here's the other 1948 Lincoln Park photos from Harry Sucher's book. They are some of the coolest racing shots I've seen from that period and the first reason I believe the date was wrong on the Don Fera photo caption in the previous post.



This VL appears to be fitted with WL tanks. I'll bet these guys rode these machines on the street and raced on weekends. This and the Knucklehead in the above photo are good examples of how race bikes influenced the 'California Bobber' look.

Bobber

Not A Bobber Part 3

Again, I'm only dissing bikes that were found labeled as Bobbers that I think shouldn't be. Photos were lifted for the purposes of education and clarification of course.

Bobber. I'm really digging this '62.


Not a Bobber Lots of dudes call this Old School, but until recently, this type of bike never existed. They might be fine for an old Hot Rod or if you're parading in a clown costume , but sorry folks, Red Wheels and White Walls are cornball on bikes.


Bobber. Obvious stolen picture.


Not a Bobber. For some reason many dudes think white walls make it a Bobber. I'd call this a custom, and a fugly one at that.

It's likely a touchy subject and just my opinion so, have I pissed anyone off, will I loses any readers?

Click the Bobber, Not a Bobber label below for previous posts.

Bobber

Not a Bobber Part 2

I'm only posting bikes that were found labeled as Bobbers. Let's see how they fare on the Ol' Bobber Meter.

Bobber


Not a Bobber


Bobber


Not a Bobber

The More You Know...
This has been a Public Service Message.

Bobber, not a Bobber Part 1

Bobber! From the Wingnuts M/C blog


If it's in a book it must be right. It's crap like this that's fueling the problem. Not a Bobber!

With all the new blood that has come on board there has been a fairly recent phenomenon to call all kinds of custom bikes bobbers. New blood doesn't just mean young, there are plenty of older guys that are new to this sport. It has gotten to the point that the term is now so over used that it has lost all meaning.

Where it started. After seeing racers like this, guys went home and bobbed their bikes.

To me, it's really important that the history of the sport doesn't get so distorted. I've been meaning to do a post about it because it's out of hand. It was also brought up recently on the Wingnuts M/C blog. I'm going to try to keep it simple without going into every detail of the history of cut downs, bob jobs, or choppers. There's just too much to get into for one post and I wanted to start the discussion.

So a white wall makes it a Bobber? I found this bike and others like it being marketed as a such. Stretched frame, extended forks,... too many things to even list. Not a Bobber!

Today, it seems if the front end is short, or the wheels are black, or it has a fat front tire, it's a bobber. Then, I see so called bobbers advertised like the bike above with none of those features. Now days if a bike exhibits an early or somewhat conservative form of a chopper they are wrongly being called bobbers.

Bobber!

The name bobber is a derivative of the term bob job. At one time It was clear what that meant. A bob job was a bike were you cut or "bobbed" the fenders or dumped the front one altogether. It was done by Class "C" racers and those who copied them. Many guys did it after the fenders or the tips were damaged. Instead of fixing that long fender (it was just going bang into something again), toss it or cut it off.

Side note: The practice of cutting off damaged fender tips continued during the chopper craze of the 60's and 70's. At that time Sportsters and early Superglides had front fenders that were much larger and whose front portion was always getting scraped or damaged. This eventually led Harley to just install smaller fenders on XL's and FX's.

So a Sporster tank, white wall, ape hangers, and black springer makes a bobber?... Not a Bobber!

A lot of guys think the term best pertains to post WWII bikes (sort of the golden years of bob jobs), and I for the most part agree with them. What's interesting is that during the later part of the 50's, the term chopper was starting to be used to describe to what many would call a bobber. Keep in mind that things were evolving and they were both terms for cutting.

I guess black wheels, forks, and bars does it... or chrome them and it's a chopper. Wrong again. Not a Bobber. Can a completely custom ground up after market bike really be called a chopper or bobber? How can you bob or chop something that never existed? Today I guess the word "style" has to be automatically inferred to the description.


Oh I get it now... red wheels white walls and flat black. Some guys call this old school. I got news for them, this lame subject was never taught. Not a Bobber!

Probably the best way to clarify what I think is a bobber and what isn't is with examples so, I'm going to do an ongoing post on the topic. The bikes I post and say are not a bobber will only be ones that I find inappropriately labeled as one.

Here's one to fight over . A nicely done new bike, with old style parts.


Bobber!

I know there are some gray areas. I also think you can "bob" newer bikes. Does that make it a bobber? Some call the old style "period bobbers", or "period correct". Maybe we need a new term for in-between, new, or questionable bikes. Chobber?