Cafe racers & Choppers

[Mick.E]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, what do the membership think about the customising/bastardising of the marque Looking through the site photos I see one or two cafe racer AJs & Matchy's and in the past i've seen them chopper style. I'm fairly sure no one here would advocate taking a vintage machine and chopping it to bits but where is the line drawn or are there no boundries. On the subject of customising i've seen fibreglass petrol tanks for sale on another web site I thought they were made illegal back in the 70s or am I having another senior moment?

[Biscuit]

As long as nothing drastic is done, and the machines can be restored to original, I see no problem.

I googled for fibre glass petrol tanks and there are several companies making them, so one assumes they must be legal.

There was also a company offering fibre glass underground tanks for petrol stations.

[Janet]

If someone had a bike that was truly original and near perfect I think it would be a shame to hack it about as it could be the only one there is. If it has been modified over the years as is usually the case I don't see the harm. Of course, everyone has the right to do what they want with their bike but that doesn't stop me having an opinion about it.

I had to laugh a couple of years ago while on a touring holiday we attended a BSA camp in Wales. I was on the trusty 400/4, acting as sweeper, and Glyn was on the BSA B31. A guy came up and started going on about how good it was to see a well used original bike ( well-used it certainly is but.....) He then spotted the only shiny bit on it - the brand new carb. Suddenly we were pariahs because "SHOCK, HORROR" it wasn't the proper one for the bike. In my well known gentle manner I politely informed him that the proper one wouldn't have got it out of Yorkshire without feathering it's plug yet the offending one had done 1000 miles since we started from home.

I suppose he was one of the purist types. He didn't seem very keen on my Honda either.

[Steve Dempster]

I agree with Janet that to take a bike that's in original nick or concours/near concours seems a shame but faced with some aged horror found in a barn with basically a frame and engine salvageable I see no reason why turning it into a chop or a bumfreezer is a problem. That said, I have no intention of putting apehangers on mine (yet)

[Locust]

I thought most old fogies nowadays got hold of a (chopped) bike and tried to put it back to how it was when it came out of the Factory.
Well thats how I look at it, having said that the Royal Enfield I am doing is not as it was for the simple reason it started life as a Crusader Super 5 and some bright spark change the leading link forks for standard teles, and put alloy mudguards on it. I have managed to get the proper rear mudguard and a standard front.
I have changed the colour to be different, how does silver and red grab you.???

[Mick.E]

Mmm must say I'm surprised, thought there would be a barrage of replies along the lines of "Keep it origional at all cost"
When I was a lad all of my mates were stripping their bikes of all the tinware and replacing it with glass racing tanks,mudgards and racing seats, rearsets, clip-ons and a few other bolt on goodies inc goldie silencers completed the job. The rich kids built Tritons & Norvins, The rest of us made what we could of our Enfield and Beeza 250s Err thing is,30 odd years on,I still like the look.Edited by - Mick.E on 03 Nov 2007 11:45:22 PM

[lawrence]

Its your bike, do what you want! If you want it spangly purple with pink wheels, so what.

I have never encountered anyone who complained that my bikes weren't original. Mind you I am over six foot and usually accompanied by a group of ugly bikers

[itma]

and basically its a subject thats been done to death a million times?