How legal is your chopper?

[hunt]

I bought one of those a while back for.. well nothing actually! They are usually munted around the 2 bolt holes cos people don't use the spacers under em. Cost me about $50 to get John to weld it all up and make it spiffy again.

I just bought a slimline tank for $70.... It erm needs a bit of work!! (ah hem)

$70 bucks for a tank is pretty cheep, get the rust out,bit of bondo, bit of paint, it ill be good as new, have you seen the price of tank badges? i'm using a mid 60s primary cover at the mo, got the welds already around the bolt holes,i thought they were factory,not,its just bit of a drag to remove it everytime i want to check the timing, i'm running points so i need to check more often,

[Paul in NZ]

$70 bucks for a tank is pretty cheep, get the rust out,bit of bondo, bit of paint, it ill be good as new, have you seen the price of tank badges? i'm using a mid 60s primary cover at the mo, got the welds already around the bolt holes,i thought they were factory,not,its just bit of a drag to remove it everytime i want to check the timing, i'm running points so i need to check more often,

I stuck with points for yonks and aBoyer is going in this time. If my experience is anything like that on the Moto Guzzi it will pay for itself in no time!

Have you checked Best of british in ChCh?

[hunt]

I stuck with points for yonks and aBoyer is going in this time. If my experience is anything like that on the Moto Guzzi it will pay for itself in no time!

Have you checked Best of british in ChCh?

No, but i will, tried british spares only, been hoping one will get listed on T.M

[Paul in NZ]

No, but i will, tried british spares only, been hoping one will get listed on T.M

Also try Bob nesbit at Classic Cycles and Cycle Torque up north.

This gives you an idea of who is selling stuff...

http://www.motorcyclemarketplace.co.nz/t.htm

Cheers

[Waylander]

I think some of you are missing the point. The idea of a Chopper is not to handle well.

Wired1 why not just look at putting some springer forks on your XV frame. That way you don't have to worry about converting it to chain drive if you don't put a fat rear tyre on it.
There is a guy down Otago way on this site that has chopped out his Virago and he makes springer forks. If I remember his online name I'll give it to you.

[Paul in NZ]

I think some of you are missing the point. The idea of a Chopper is not to handle well.
.

Yeah and the idea is not to kill yourself either.

Engineering a set of springers is not all that easy as a great many people have found out. They usually end up super heavy and are a real pain to attach brakes too... While we got away with all sortsa crap in the 70's, you better get an engineering cert etc etc if you want to ride a bike like that these days.

I've only see one raked out, springer equipped chopper in NZ that looked semi safe and that was a big flathead HD built by one of the Lost Breed in the 70's.

I've ridden things like CB750 chops (guy bought it for $99) with long springers and I reckon it was a bloody death trap.

Your choice but if you want bling.. A long girder might be easier? Personally I'd just go for a couple of inches over and a 21" rim up front but....

[Motu]

Sorry about the composition,we didn't know about that stuff in the '70's.This is my brothers chop in about 1971/72 - it originaly had a set of beautifully made springers on the front...but as mentioned earlier,they had 8 inches of negative trail,but still riderable.The forks he has on it here were off a Rocket III,6in over and in raked Triumph yokes (the Triumph guys will know what I mean) Tiger Cub tank,this is about as good as it got back then.

WTF? A picture is worth a thousand words,but aparrently seeing as I've already used the picture I can't use it again,even if I link to the other thread.You'll just have to use your imagination.

[ezinnz]

I run a 4' long springer on my chop with 4" of trail and a single sided disc front wheel. It handles and stops fine.

While you might not throw long bikes around in the twisties on those hill rides you still need to build a chop that handles and responds well or you'll pay for it dearly!

My 2c.

[Wired1]

Yes do, dredge out the old synapses if you will. I had a shit of a time finding a set of drag bars to fit my XV750 and ended up finding a guy local (in Nelson) who makes them and sends them all over the world. Similarly I have been looking for springer front ends for Japas but there is buggerall around. If someone is making them it would be worth a crack...

[Waylander]

As above

How much for those drag bars? and would he be able to just make the risers? I,ve got a set of flat bars just need the risers to come up about 10-15mm from stock to clear the tank.

[Wired1]

I paid $120 for my metric bars with 100mm centres on the risers. He normally makes 3.5 inch centre riser bars for the non-jappas. I don't think he makes risers but I noticed there are shitloads of them on ebay when I was looking for my bars. His work is very nice, checkout the website at http://www.thehandlebarcompany.com/ and tell him the guy with the XV750 recommended him and maybe he'll start making more jap bars.

[Waylander]

The triumph ones will fit on a Jap bike mate. Could't tell if the risers were just HD or not though. Only ones I've seen on Ebay and trademe are for HD only.

[Shotgun]

I know that bike well.....Old Stan....nothing that a FULL rebuild & a fresh start wouldnt cure....lol

[Shotgun]

I think some of you are missing the point. The idea of a Chopper is not to handle well.

Wired1 why not just look at putting some springer forks on your XV frame. That way you don't have to worry about converting it to chain drive if you don't put a fat rear tyre on it.
There is a guy down Otago way on this site that has chopped out his Virago and he makes springer forks. If I remember his online name I'll give it to you.

Its Southland actually bud.. :-) and the bike has just been sold for 8K uncert'd as is. New project underway with a 300x18 Avon up its ass on a 10" wide Boyd Coddington 'Junkyard Dog' billet rim & a custom built singlesided fork assembly (2nd I've built)

[Waylander]

New project underway with a 300x18 Avon up its ass on a 10" wide Boyd Coddington 'Junkyard Dog' billet rim & a custom built singlesided fork assembly (2nd I've built)

Make sure you post up some pics of that man should look sweet.