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Facts you didn’t know about bobber choppers
Only the true Captain America fans or avid comic book readers might know the fact that the earlier versions of the Marvel superhero rode a chopper.
Yes! You read that right.
The cinematic universe of Marvel has radically changed the costume as well as the bike of the most honest and upright superhero. Early in the 1950s bobber choppers were so popular that you could not find a single bobber chopper for sale. Everyone was crazy about the bobber choppers.
The low seat, heightened forks, the angled handles, and a loud engine. These outrageous characteristics of the chopper bikes surely made heads turn wherever the riders took them. The craze continued till the late 80s until the entry-level sports bikes were introduced in the market.
After the introduction of fully-faired sports bikes, cruiser bikes, semi faired bikes, and the naked bikes the market for the bobber choppers saw quite a decline but it again picked up a spark in the early 2000s and till now these bikes enjoy a cult status among the heavy riders.
Today many renowned companies such as Harley Davidson, Yamaha, Suzuki manufacture and sell bobber choppers around the globe. Apart from these big wigs, there are also local custom shops that can customize any bike to look like a bobber chopper or build a bobber chopper from scratch.
Many of the times the custom shops offer the bobber choppers up for sale during the holiday season. Well with so much history and the fact that these bikes are still popular there is a lot of trivia about bobber choppers that you might be missing out on. Let us take at a look at some of these facts about bobber choppers:
Modern-day choppers look nothing like their older counterparts. They might share the same frame yet you can distinguish between a modern-day chopper and an older chopper quite easily. The chopper bikes are derived from bobbers.
Bobber bikes were simply the lighter version of some of the earliest heavy-duty motorcycles. The earliest motorcycles used to have fenders. By removing these fenders the motorcycles were relieved of the extra weight and were intended to be faster by doing so. The bobbers were basically skeletal of a heavy bike along with only the necessary parts.
The removed items included the fenders, the indicators of the bike, the trunk, and even the front brakes. It might sound crazy now but yes even the front brakes of the motorcycle were removed to make it a bobber. Thank god, this thing has been out of practice now.
After the bobbers enjoyed a huge success among the masses, the motorcycle manufacturing company went a step ahead by modifying the handles, refining the engine, and accommodating design changes in the chassis for the chopper motorcycles. This was a post World War II period and the world economy has not yet recovered from the repercussions of the war. So Harley turned all the bobber motorcycles into choppers and earned huge benefits without manufacturing the chopper from scratch. The rule was simple. Turn every bobber into a chopper and reap your benefits.
As the world economy recovered, other companies started manufacturing their own versions of the choppers. These versions were arguably better than the Harley choppers. So Harley also had to set up a manufacturing unit for choppers along with selling the modified choppers. Very soon Japan also entered this arena and Japanese choppers enjoyed success among the youth.
As the world economy started to stand on its own, America became one of the developed and leading nations of this post-war world. The American economy was strong. This led the people to modify their choppers. The length of the front forks increased, fuel tanks were colourized, the front wheel was narrowed.
There were so many changes to the original chopper design and the chopper modifications we see today are derived from that period. In fact, the practice of painting the fuel tank is from that era. An additional factor that helped these bikes to reach a cult status was the movies. There were several movies released in this period that showed choppers. From there on everyone wanted to have a chopper for themselves that would be modified according to their own taste.
The choppers to date enjoy a huge fan following. Some biker clubs even have a strict requirement for the owner to have a chopper. Now, who would not want to own such a monumental piece of machinery. But the problem is you would not find many second-hand choppers in the market.
Most owners do not sell their choppers but you can still try. Go searching around in your locality. Who knows you might be in luck and get a second-hand bobber chopper for sale. Or instead of all that hopping, go online and select from a wide range of Belmonte bikes where you will find second-hand bobber choppers for sale in premium condition and at a reasonable rate.