Bobbers

[DC]

What about a Vincent?  Those bikes are so cool.

[Troll]

Smart...'round here, we tend to measure distance in time...like how far is it to Milwaukee from here? about 3 hours...As far as the Cafe' bikes go, Rocket Garage is one of my favorites...

[John Hopkins]

To each his own, but if you ride with me I only stop for gas every 3 hours.

I used to have a very slow bike too..

Now I stop every 100 miles.

John.

[chief]

Have you been looking at the bikes down in the Italian board?  These are cafe bikes and prove what you are saying.

[Troll]

This is why I'm so happy Cafe' racers are making a comeback. The original Cafe' bikes begat the sport bikes of today, and the choppers spawned the "custom" look, which, I hope has run it's course...The bobbers are reborn as "naked" bikes...To each his own, but if you ride with me I only stop for gas every 3 hours.

[chief]

The original meanings apply...

a bobber was around before choppers... a bobber is where the owner will remove everything that doesn't make the bike go fast... maybe change out some oem parts for ligther ones etc.
A chopper... was a chopped frame bike... few were done by professionals back in the old days... they chopped the frame to change the geometry of the bike... we added stuff and fast wasn't the main goal.
a custom - throughout the 90's and 00's these things appeared to "look" a certain way... stretched tanks etc. NOT a chopper, though some of the work done would have been done on choppers.
big-wheel - seems to be the new thing... that gigantic front wheel... I guess since they screwed up perfectly great looking cars putting gigantic wagon wheels on them... this was the natural extension into the MC world.
I love bobbers, can live with choppers, dislike stretched tank customs on the whole, and think the big-wheels absolutely SUCK!! 

[John Hopkins]

Over here a Bobber is a bike stripped back to the bare bike, all the bling removed but the frame left original, in other words just things removed or bobbed..A chopper is a bike with the frame cut and welded to become a hardtail, usually with a sprung seat..A custom build is a one off, like no other bike..

John.

[Drift1]

Don't want to jack the thread or change subject so real quick would love for the next project to be a gt750 original of course.

[pcarrell]

Oh man, I see what you mean!  I wasn't very clear now that I look at it.  Richie, what I meant by that was that your 440 LTD is a prime example of how excellent of a bike that was!  Way ahead of it's time!  I'd ride that sucker with my head held high!

[Drift1]

PC not to sure how to take your statement,but anyway I picked this up in pieces from Maryland last year.My plans are to disassemble it and re build it from the frame up for my son.Being he's only six I have plenty of time and he's loking forward to lending a hand.

[45 Bravo]

Ratman, we have a new nickname for your bike...

Farmer Bobber

45 Bravo

[pcarrell]

I always thought the Kawi 440 LTD was an under rated bike.  Your's goes to prove that!

[Drift1]

I'll agree with the fenders gone off of the drifter you definately lose the appeal.The fenders are what sepparates theses rare breeds.I'm sure you could take a drifter and turn it into a great looking bobber,but being there are limited numbers produced why would anyone want  to.There's plenty of other breeds you can bob out if that's the style your looking to achieve.I myself like to tool around town once in awhile with friends just for the short trips.However if your going to do any type of long distance runs I personally would recommend pulling the drifter out (unbobbed) of course.Her's a picture of my 82 kawi 440

RATMAN I was on Heather's Leather's today and there's actually your stool seat getting wrapped.

[CDNRatMan]

aw come on was going to run with this one....lol.....who would chop or bob a fantastic looking peice of kit like a Drifter

[pcarrell]

Yeah, but we all know you're mid project Ratman.

[CDNRatMan]

like this....lol....

[Anti-hero]

I agree that taking off the identity loses its appeal... I am a big fan of bobber style bikes though... I bought a drifter salvaged but the little resources I had made go with a kind of bobbed look I have the original fenders that I need to work on hopefully I can bring it back to its original look

[ChilliDrift]

Most definitely... I saw one similar.. m comment.."not ,such Drifter left"

[pcarrell]

I saw one guy that posted on another website, maybe a year ago, and he bobbed a Drifter.  Looked like a regular VN1500, bobbed.  Shame to take a limited production bike and make it no different  then the zillions of other vulcans.

[45 Bravo]

I don't know, I have never seen one on here or the web.

Besides Taking the front fender off, and reducing the rear fender would take away a lot of the identity of the Drifter and what gives it its appeal. (at least to me)

While the swing arm arrangement would make for an interesting design on a bobber, I just don't think (or can't believe) that someone who went out of their way to FIND a Drifter, would DISLIKE their Drifter enough to start cutting on it..

But there are all kinds of people out there and they do STRANGE things to their toys..

45 Bravo

[John Hopkins]

Start bobbing a Drifter and you are left with an ordinary Kawasaki VN1500..

John.

[Anti-hero]

Has any one here ever converted their drifters into a bobber? I know a drifter is hell of a bike...special at that... At least for me but I jus wondering