Heard the term thrown around here a bit...but what is it? A bobber floats in the water waiting for a fish to bite. Please explain to a dumass!
That looks like a chopper to me. A bobber is a stripped dresser, no bags, 'shield, or the hinged part of the rear fender without anything that's left modified, customized or "chopped".
choppers are stretched out, that bike has 0 stretch and a stock rake...technically it's a bobber, but looks like a chopper and old school bobber looks like this:
I am no expert but my understanding of a true bobber is a post WWII bike, they started as mostly military surplus bikes (since there were many surplus bikes to be had for cheap and alot of G.I.'s back home with some extra coin). You cut off most of the rear fender (or bobbed it) and stripped the bike of anything that wasn't necessary to reduce weight. Essentially a traditional hot rod bike. Same princible, it was all about going as fast as you could.
Makes sence...git rid of all the crap that they put on from the factory. The first Hot Rod bike, I like that.
I hate when people argue about stupid shit like "what is a bobber" But you're incorrect. As stated above, a bobber is traditionally a bike with stock frame, stock suspension (ie, not a hardtail, unless it's stock), and all the shit taken off. Today the term has been bastardized to include any bike that doesn't have a bunch of rake and long forks. Incidentially, in the "traditional" sense, a chopper would be ANY bike that has had it's frame modified. By the way, the CHOPPER in the first pic does in fact have several inches of stretch up, and in fact, may not be a chopper at all, if the frame is a fabricated deal, and not a modified stocker, it becomes a custom. See how sily all this labelling shit gets?
Basically, in my definition, if you modified it with just wrenches it's a Bobber, if you broke out a torch and sliced and diced ANYTHING it's a chopper! Simple. Being stretched isn't necessarily the determining factor. That's like saying a customized car isn't a Custom if it isn't chopped. Most people who modify bikes swing quickly past that fine line from Bobber to Chopper. Bobbers are rare. That fine Chrome and gold & Brown Bike has a lot of nice looking frame modification work that looks like a sculptural art metal smith did it. That makes it a Chopper
Bobber = bobbed rear fender on a ex military bike .which is exactly what this 500 CC Indian looks like. We had these as Kids in NZ ,real cheap too.
To my understanding it was a bike term but I think made its way into hot rods, to describe fenders like the front fenders on the coupe from american graffiti and shit like that.
Thanks for the ejumication! I am now more Bobber aware! I always thought he was the Big Popper? Well thats for another thread!
Sugar Bear has been building show quality/magazine bikes since the 60's. He nails the "50's/60's" definition of bobber/chopper here. And around here they weren't called bobbers, I never heard a bike called a bobber back then. The stripped down Harleys with stock split tanks were called Fat Bobs, and that's what a lot of folks (including me) rode. "A short bike with a Sportster tank and a flat fender is not a Bobber. Its just a short chop. About 99% of the bikes that are called Bobbers well, you get the picture. Ive been involved in conversations with youngsters (born after 1960_ who claim that what they build are Bobbers. Im not even sure most of them have ever seen one. In the 50s, in my area, we were riding chops, bobbers and garbage wagons (full dressers or baggers as they are known now) and each had a distinct style! Chops had cut-down tanks (this is before Sportster tanks were made), cut-down fenders, no floorboards, cut-up bars or apes, usually upsweeps with fishtails (normally no mufflers), side mount taillight, etc. Bobbers had small fatbobs, floorboards, bobbed rear stock fender (usually cut at the rear fender hinge), the stock exhaust 2 into 1), stock bars, basically a cut-down (bobbed) stock bike. Of course we know what a garbage wagon (eh, bagger) looked like. Anyway, you guys are building short chops, not bobbers. This is a cycle that repeats itself time after time. People start building chops, long chops because thats always what a chop should look like. Then after a while they begin to realize that the long chops they built are hard to candle and you need gorilla arms to keep it straight and to turn. Of course these people flunked geometry and physics because they unknowingly set up wrong their bikes. So, to be able to get back to riding they shortened up the bikes but didnt want them to be called chops because that might seem to infer they dont handle, so they called the bobbers, custom bikes, etc I have seen this cycle so many times in my riding history that its ridiculous. I remember people snickering at me in the early 90s because I was riding long chops and still building them. They said: -it looks cool, but I wouldnt ride one of those. How does that thing handle in the curves? (snicker)- Its very easy to tell who the uninformed are. If you dont know how to set up a long bike so you can ride with one hand and be comfy, buy a Stocker, put some chrome and handlebars on it and stop ruining the reputation of choppers. If you want a chop and dont know how to set up a long one, do a short one. A long chop is a thing of beauty. There is nothing like it. If set up right, youll ride forever and smile away every mile. If in doubt, ask anyone who has ridden a Sugar Bear chop. Remember, a short bike with a Sportster tank and a flat fender is not a bobber. Its just a short chopper."
Bobber---Defined as "to bob" something (cut fenders) only. Shorten fenders known as bobbed fenders. Chopper...to chop (cut frames) only. Altered frames with long forks known as choppers. Bike was chopped...changed from stock frame... There is lots of documented history available about how all of these things were started... Other than that who gives a crap??? Smile... I have a bobber chopper now---want figure that one out?? grin... Roadrat
HMMM...That was close, but wasn't the "Big Bobber" that big statute in front of those hamburger joints? The one that he was holding that big hamburger up in the air? HellRaiser
Isn't a 'bobber' the same thing as a 'hummer'? And why isn't this bike stuff on the Jockey Journal instead?
The Jalopy Journal
