Of course the Sportster is a 45-degree air cooled pushrod V-Twin while the Street is a 60-degree water cooled OHC V-Twin and some have commented that there were no water cooled bobbers or choppers in the golden age and that is true. The both have ample power and, based upon reviews, the Street 750 is as fast as a 1200 Sportster in the 1/4 mile. A 750cc engine was actually considered a "big engine" in the 1960's.īoth the Sportster and the Street have integrated engine/transmissions which make building a custom bobber/chopper a lot easier. Displacement "inflation" really didn't occur until later in the 1970's through today. It either needs to be a Sportster 883/1200 or the new Street 500/750 because they're the only ones in the correct displacement size. So with all of this established Harley's only offering a couple of motorcycles that fit this criteria. Below is an artist rendering of what would be considered an "old school bobber" from the 1960's. Additionally custom frames eliminated about a ton of Bondo required for painting a stock frame. Generally speaking the frames were custom built by the late 60's because they were superior to welding a rigid tail and changing the rake of the fork head on a stock frame for extended forks. The bobber typically retained near factory geometry while the extended front fork changed that. The primary difference between a bobber and a chopper was the length of the front fork. With all of this said a general statement could be made that the typical "old school bobber" used an engine of between about 500-1,000 cc, had a sprung one-up seat, rigid frame, and either a springer or girder front fork. Styling changed in the 1960's lead to the two-up rigid mounted seat so both the passenger and the rider experienced a kidney busting ride on rough roads. Who cared about the women anyway in the late 50's and early 60's? They were lucky to be allowe on the motorcycle to begin with (or at least that was the attitude of many bikers). We can also note that the original hardtails had spring mounted solo seats and to take their girlfriends on rides the bikers simple added a "butt-pad" to the rear fender giving the women a kidney busting ride while the rider still retained the spring mounted rider seat. We can also toss in the early Hondas that also hit the US market with the 305 and 450 Hondas being chopped and converted into bobbers and early choppers.īy the 1960's virtually all motorcycles were swing-arms but the earlier style of the rigid prevailed and many removed the swing-arms and welded a hardtail onto their motorcycles. The 650 Triumph Bonneville was arguably second only to Harley during this era of bobbers and early choppers. The earlier Sportsters tended to be favored because they could be purchased used for less.īy the 1960's the British invasion of Nortons, BSA, Vincent, and Truimph was in full swing and these are also converted into bobbers. In 1957 Harley introduced the Sportster first as an 883cc and then as a 1000cc motorcycle and these soon became a favorite of the bobber builders because of the integrated engine/transmission. Harleys were the favorite simply because there were a lot more of them around at the end of WW II. The Scout and WLA Harley were both 45 cid (740cc) engines while the Chief used a 1200cc (79 cid) engine. Both of these had rigid frames while the Indian used a girder front fork and the Harley used a springer. I'm referring to the post WW II bobbers up to 1970 which also included the very first choppers that didn't really make an appearance until about 1968.Īs WW II came to an end the dominate American made motorcycles that established the bobber style were the 1930's Indian Scout and Chief along with the WW II WLA Harley Davidson that was available as war surplus by the tens of thousands. Let me begin by defining "old school" because that's the criteria being addressed.
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