So much of the choppers was Rube Goldberg engineering that was the result of the best use of what was available to suit the man who was riding the chopper.
Long ago, down here in the kudzu jungles every handle bar that had the hand grips up at chest level were called ‘goose necks’ but those with the grips horizontal were usually more specifically called ‘ape hangers’.
It’s the joint that attaches the boom to the mast on a sailboat.
And that’s why they’re illegal in many states.
Illegal because of numb hands? How about the difficulty of operating the clutch, brake, headlight, turn signal and horn switches?
If you follow my logic to the next step, those numb hands would make it difficult to use the clutch, brake, and other controls properly.
Ape hangers are not illegal in any state. There are varying laws regulating height. Eye level, shoulder level, inches above seat or handlebar risers, etc. Risers are mounts.
It’s generally been a reason to get pulled over by the cops for no reason; a.k.a. harassment. It’s happened to me sans ape hangers.
Took a buddy to KS one weekend to get his bike and packing double on mine. In South Haven, KS on the return we got stopped by a KS trooper. Said our bars were too high. My buddy’s Harley and mine had custom bars which were 6 measly inches high. We had no tools to lower them. It was lower them or impoundment. The fact our bikes were legal in OK meant nothing. When told factory bars violate the law according to him he said it was up to the new bike dealers to change them before selling the bikes. Typical of cops to not know motorcycle laws.
So the cop took out his took kit and my buddy had to lower his to something resembling a lawn mower handle. Grips now hit gas tank so turning radius halved. Unsafe.
Mine had countersunk Allen heads. The trooper had no Allen wrenches. There was a gas station 1/3 of a mile up so the cop said go there and see if they had some tools while he ran a warrant check. Gas station had no Allens.
The trooper was still sitting back down the road so I told my buddy “I’m not getting impounded. Two miles to OK so how about WOT and he can kiss off”. We did not even look back. Just wound them out in every gear and took the first dirt side road once we crossed the state line. No idea if he called ahead.
All over 6" tall handlebars… and then it started sleeting and temps plunged into the mid 20s. Great way to end a day; especially lightly clothed…
A Chopper is called a “chopper” because it is chopped up. I would say it always included “chopping” the neck off the frame and welding it on at a more radical angle. This necessities installing longer forks or your front end will be dipped down in the front. As you have already seen many times, the length can be extreme to the point of not be drivable.
In the late 1960s, I had a '58 Triumph Trophy-6, a bike older than the one Marlon Brando rode in the movie “The Wild One,” a movie which pretty much created a nation-wide scare that all motorcycle riders were beer guzzling, womanizing, town terrorizing, gang warriors, unfit for civilized society…
But I digress, the first thing I did was install a 750cc hop-up kit (new cylinders and oversized pistons), a new Jawa 4 valves per cylinder head, a Crane Cam (3/4 race???), the spark was provided by the factory magneto. It was one “fire breathing” machine.
But this was the era of “Easy Rider” and I decided to “chopper” it out… The motorcycle shop I patronized was really into race machines and had scratch-built several race bikes, so I knew they knew how to weld frames. But, with no experience building choppers, we put a “rake angle” in the neck that necessitated a 24" extended fork just to keep the bike level, way more than I wanted, but I was not going to have them rework it (once was enough…).
I installed 24-inch over-size forks and it was something to marvel… I also installed a tiny teardrop gas tank, a King/queen seat, with a trident sissy-bar, the exhaust pipes flowed back and up the trident sissy bar, It was one radical machine.
But it was not a “so-nice” bike to ride. The 24" over size forks had a bit tooooo much play and it was a bear to steer in a parking lot. As was mentioned previously, there were no figure-8s ridden on this bike, but at speed (over 30mph) it tracked like a dream. When out cruising with friends, I often screwed the throttle adjustment down to hold the setting and I slipped up onto the queen’s seat, leaning against the sissy bar as if riding with a ghost driver… Yeah, I know it was stupid, but I was a teen ager whose brain had not developed any judgement yet…
One last thought on this chopper, the tiny teardrop gas tank may have looked great but it had no reserve, each side of the tank fed only one carburetor and I had to hit a gas station every half hour when out on the road. I ultimately installed a “beer pony keg” (7 gallons) on the backside of the sissy bar, running a fuel hose under the seat to also feed the carbs. But It also looked really coooool (not enough "o"s in cool to describe this…). I am sorry to say I have no pictures that have survived over the years, However, if you find an October '69 copy of “Brit Bike Choppers,” it’s in there…
Decades later, I rebuilt my 1984 XLCH Ironhead Harley Sportster, I remembered my mistakes and wanted a ridable bike… I kept it basically the same. I did do some engine mods but nothing radical. “P” cams to give it more low-end torque (I like to “short-shift”…). An S&S Super “Shorty” for carburation, and a dual fire ignition system, was it on the engine.
I like a long front end, but I was not against what I had. So I installed 2" slugs over the internal fork springs to stiffen up the front end and hold it high… As for the rear shocks, the stock ones were so long and had so much travel that I could slip my arm between the top of my rear tire and the rear fender. I installed much sorter shocks so that the rear tire actually sits in the rear finder.
I had Corbin build me a custom seat that sat nice and low, but retain some comfort. The “drag bars” (handle bars…) are also my design, until 1995 or so Custom Chrome sold drag bars that were only about 22" wide and I wanted the look but I wanted them higher and wider and they filled the bill and 'lo 'n behold, they were listed in next year’s catalog…
Next, was the paint, I did it in Candy Apply Red with a silver micro dust base coat. All the artwork is mine. The tank motif is a Dream Catcher with an Eagle, the dream catcher base is done in silver leaf.
What I’ve never understood is why Harley insists on Painting the oil tank, chain guard, and electronics cover black.
Note, I’ve also painted all those also in Candy Apple Red. Also note how nicely the rear tire sits in the rear finder.
So, in the end, this bike is not chopped, it sits high in the front and low in the back and I say, “She’s sitting Proud…” She now has over 90k miles on it and the engine is still tight and a dream to ride.
Beautiful Sportster. Great job on that one and love the color.
A long time ago I had a 1960 Sportster but it was kind of a PITA. The stroke had been lengthened by 3/4 of an inch and had a hot cam along with reworked heads and high comp. pistons.
The PITA part was that it had a Fairbanks Morse magneto ignition on it and the mag was fixed timing. That left me with 2 choices.
One was to retard the timing and sort of make it easy to start (barely) but it was kind of a dog on the road.
Two was to advance the timing. Ran like a bat out of xxxx on the road but would beat me to death kicking it over.
Went to lunch on it one day, ate, and when I came back out it started to get contrary. It kicked back so hard that it split the bottom of my right boot completely open to the sock and left me limping for 2 days. I weigh about 200 pounds and I could stand on the kicker pedal with both feet without it moving an inch.
No speedometer so I had no idea how fast it would go but I did open it up once on a 4 lane and the stripes going by were a blur. Finally traded it. Keeping it would have left me crippled. And when it did not kick back the ratchet would slip and the kicking foot would get driven into the ground…
Back in the ‘60s, when I had the Triumph, it also was just a kicker. I’m only 5’ 8" and I weighed only 140. The 750cc hop-up kit with the Jawa head brought the compression ratio up to 13:1 and it would only run on the highest octane of Sunoco Gas (110?). To get it started, I would slowly kick the kick-starter over until it was just starting to go on a compression stroke, I reset the kick-starter and then standing on the foot peg, I would drop-down and kick that starter and it almost always started. It only ever kicked back if I just tried to kick it over without first bring it to a compression stroke.
The Sporty is a late model with an alternator. It also does not have a kick-starter, only electric. Over the years, the alternator has gone out twice and I ran it on only the battery while awaiting parts. I call it my “Loss Charge” system. I think I heard this term from an old racing buddy who said that is how dragsters do it, run on only a battery…
And although I have not ever had this problem with the Sporty, I’ve had enough friends who have had broken clutch cables and I’ve taught them how to limp their bikes home and if they have a dead battery, how to start their bikes even if they are alone and there is no hill nearby…
Since I’m driving down this “memory lane,” I might as well take you on the full trip…
OK, this only works if your bike starts easily. This takes practice because if you are slow on the clutch, it will only stall out. If your clutch is not dragging, put the bike in second gear and hold the clutch all the way in. Now push the bike as fast as you can, but no more that 5-10 feet, (any more than that, you’re just killing yourself, and you aren’t going to get it going any faster…), then hop on and as you plop your weight onto the seat, drop the clutch, but only to pop the engine over, and pull the clutch back in, do not just let the clutch out. If your engine is in good order, just popping the engine over should get it started. The reason I have you plop onto the seat, it puts more weight onto the rear tire and there is less chance of the rear tire sliding verses getting good traction and forcing the engine to turn over. If your clutch drags, you hold the clutch in but leave the tranny in neutral and as your hop onto the bike you also kick the shifter into 2nd, and then drop the clutch for that kicking of the engine…
Now, the really desperate measure to get your bike home if the clutch cable is broken. This only works if your engine starts… So start your engine, and once again, you are going to do some pushing, as fast as you can, 5-10 feet, and hop on and pop the shifter into first gear. It ain’t pretty, but works. Now bring it up to speed, ready to shift to 2nd, and as you put toe pressure on the shifter, let your RPM drop and the tranny should shift tight into 2nd, same for 3rd, 4th, etc… Now you have to slow down, drop the throttle, as the RPMs drop, slowly down shift, as when you are going really slow in second, shift it into Neutral and hop off. You are going to do this all over again…
One more photo, I really like this one as it my view as I drive…
One mistake a lot of people make when push starting is opening the throttle. If you leave it closed, it results in a vacuum in the cylinder after the intake valve closes and a vacuum is a lot easier to compress than a cylinder full of atmospheric pressure air.
I often shift without the clutch even if the clutch cable is not broken. When upshifting, put normal pressure on the shifter and as soon as you close the throttle, the absence of torque on the transmission unlocks the dogs and the transmission shifts. You don’t have to close the throttle completely, only to the zero torque opening. Close it completely and engine braking can lock the dogs. Only closing it to zero torque opening makes for smoother clutchless shifts.
When doing clutchless downshifts while using engine braking, the dogs will unlock and allow the shift when you open the throttle to the zero engine braking opening.
At every rpm, there is a throttle opening where the engine is neither delivering torque or braking. At that throttle opening, you can shift just as if the clutch was pulled in.
The other day I was watching a NASCAR road course race and one car had an in car camera aimed at the driver’s feet. He never touched the clutch pedal upshifting or downshifting, but you could see him lift the throttle to upshift, and blip the throttle open to downshift. His left foot was always on the brake pedal. It’s too slow to transfer your right foot from throttle to brake in racing.
This works because both motorcycles and NASCAR race cars use transmissions that have dog clutches instead of synchronizers.
That Sportster looks light years better than the stroker Sportster I had. Mine was in large silver metal flake in candy apple red and candy apple blue flames. In the sun it would sparkle like diamonds.
But…that was the first, and last, time I would ever shoot metal flake paint. What a royal aggravation to the nth degree.
My 50 Triumph with the Sonny Routt 800 kit had 12.5 to 1 compression. It also was a bear to start but once running it fooled a lot of people with the acceleration. Even with a careful look everyone thought it was a ho-hum 650 CC. They did not know the engine cases had been hogged out to accept those much larger barrels. With the throttle rolled on hard it was more a matter of being dragged along than riding it.
The word “chopper” refers to a custom motorcycle because the first enthusiasts to customize their motorcycles started by chopping off parts, often any part that doesn’t make the motorcycle go faster.
If anything, raking the front end puts extra strain on the front suspension, and makes for awkward wide turns. It’s all about looks.
Modern choppers don’t have to have solid frames. Some high end choppers have rear suspensions. They can have plunger suspensions or Harley style soft tail suspensions.
Ape hangers are illegal because they change the geometry of how a motorcycle handles, making counter-steering difficult or impossible. To make a proper turn on a motorcycle, you look where you want to go, you press the handlebars on the side you want to turn towards, and you lean into the turn. With ape hangers that are above your shoulder height, pressing down does little or nothing to counter-steer the motorcycle.
I found a video about it: https://youtu.be/CoJTQKad18M
The Handlebar height across the US is a mishmash of laws, rules, and regulations that are exceedingly hard to determine and then enforce.
Remember, when crossing state lines, some states do not enforce their restriction on out-of-state registered motorcycles. Some states do enforce their limits on visitors. So do some research on the internet before trusting your drinking buddy that you will not get ticketed.
The 15-inch handlebar height limit is the most common limitation currently in effect in those states that have established a limit. As of June 2006 (I did not find a more recent listing, but I’m sure they are out there…), according to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), 35 states and the District of Columbia have some type of handlebar height limit.
Of these 35 jurisdictions, 20, including Connecticut, have set a maximum handlebar height at not more than 15 inches above the seat. The second most common restriction requires a motorcycle’s handgrips to be below shoulder height (10 states).
Two states allow handlebars to be no more than 30 inches above seat level; one state allows them to be no higher than 15 inches measured from their fastening point on the motorcycle; one state prohibits them from being higher than the operator’s eye level; and one state allows motorcycle handgrips to be no more than six inches above shoulder height.
Sixteen states do not have height limitations for motorcycle handlebars.
These states have a maximum of 15-inches above the seat…
Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia
These states require handgrips to be below shoulder height…
Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Wyoming
Nebraska allows a maximum of 15-inches above handlebar fastening point…
Washington and Wisconsin say it’s a maximum of 30-inches above seat…
Oklahoma allows handlebars to be no higher than the operator’s eye level…
California allows handlebars to be positioned so that operator’s hands on grips are not more than 6 inches above the shoulder height when seated…
Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia have no restrictions on handlebar height…
WARNING: This is all old information and may have changed, do not take my posting as gospel…
The one good thing about ape hangers it that if you drop the bike in a parking lot, the high handlebars provide a lot of leverage to pick the bike up again.
Sport bikes with low handlebars can be a real bear to pick up again if you drop one. I remember the first time I dropped my ZRX1200R in the parking lot while taking it off the side stand. It kind of rolled forwards and I wasn’t ready for it and it tipped away from me going beyond the point of no return. That’s where I learned that that bike actually does weigh 540 pounds. I had to go for help to get that bike back up again. Another time, I dropped it, and I did manage to right it, and my back hurt for several days afterwards.
This is an old and faded pic I took of my (one of them) 3 wheel chopper at a friend’s house one winter. It’s a 1941 Harley Servi Car; a.k.a. Meter Maid trike. Two tone orange metal flake, extended Harley springer fork, Goodyear G 50s with Cragars on the back, and a ton of fun around town.
Back up, hit the brakes, wheelie. With a passenger aboard do the same and it will wheelie and stay almost vertical with the rear of the seat acting as a pedestal; at least until someone comes over and pulls it back to Earth by the front wheel. It handled fantastic but going around corners took some getting used to as it has a live rear axle.
Only reason I ever got rid of it was lack of power. About 750 ccs with a 5.5 to 1 compression ratio does not cough up a ton of HP. Made just for puttering in traffic all day with the meter maid using a telescopic pole with a piece of chalk to mark cars.
The problem with Fonda’s bike was the rake and the hydraulic front fork. A glide won’t work correctly when it becomes more parallel to the pavement. Change to a springer or girder fork and there’s a vast improvement. Use the stock steering head angle with 8 or 10 over tubes and the hydraulic fork would be fine.
Oh, how you’ve got that right about Fonda’s forks. As I mentioned that I installed 24" oversized fork tubes on my '58 Trump, they acted more like “leaf springs” flexing rather than shock absorbers compressing…
At the time I was chopping my Trump (in 1968-9), I had very little experience with a springer front end, other than the springer I had on my Schwinn Springer with 26" wheels when I was a kid… But I had ridden several pre-WWII Harleys, and I had my hands and feet full with throttle in the right hand, front brake on the right hand, manual timing advance in the left hand, transmission shifter on the left hand, rear brake for the right foot, and the suicide clutch for the left foot. I hardly had time to think about the springer front end…
As for your '41 Servi-Car, I would love to chug around on it; it would not bother me that the “get-up-and-go” had “got-up-and-gone…”
Another bike I had was a 1974 Honda CB400FX and this was a Flaming Rocket Sled on two-wheels. Honda decided to get back into big bore Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing and their first venture was with a 400 class. They built this 400cc inline four-cylinder. Fueling was provided by four “exotic” carburetors that the dealer had never seen previously. The compression ratio was outrageous high, and the spark plugs were not sold in the states and had to be ordered from Japan. The book said it developed 55 bhp at 13,500 RPM. In order for Honda to compete with this bike they had to have a production run of 500 bikes. But they did not have time to de-tune it for normal street use and I and 499 others got full blow racing machines. The one really stupid de-tune function they did try was to install a huge oversize rear sprocket thereby reducing the top speed. But it basically made 1st gear useless. I swapped out the 54-tooth rear sprocket for a more reasonable 42-tooth sprocket.
It topped out at over 160 mph as measure at 22 seconds in a measured mile. I did not like riding at this speed but it was so smooth and had so much power, that you just cracked the throttle and it seemed most happy always screaming above the speed limit.
My son has it now, he built a “coffee table” for it to sit on in his man cave. With the exception of that sprocket (long since lost…) and the factory exhaust system, (factory muffler’s baffles blew out…), it is all original…
Unlike “Maverick” (Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun’), I do not have a “need for speed…”
When I lived in FL anything above 13" from the seat was illegal, I usually used body weight rather than handlebars for steering a motorcycle.
Below is the 2020 Florida Statutes – 316.2095 Footrests, handholds, and handlebars, para (2)
“(2) No person shall operate any motorcycle with handlebars or with handgrips that are higher than the top of the shoulders of the person operating the motorcycle while properly seated upon the motorcycle.”
I guess it really boils down to how long is your torso, because it is measure from the rider’s seated position to the rider’s shoulders. Change riders and the handlebars might have to come down or could even be raised a bit…
Then there is the issue of “Pull Back Handlebars” where the tubes rise up and then bars drop down, like in the photo of the Servi-bike in the previous posting…
I’m 5’8" and one of my riding buds is probably 6’2". If we lived in Florida and if his handlebars were at the state’s maximum height for him and I rode his bike, it would be illegal for me…
I am not a biker and l know very little about bikes but what you say about different riders on the same bike but could they make adjustable and seats and adjustable handlebars like the adjustable steering wheel on cars or maybe adjustable foot pegs instead of a seat so more than one rider could ride the same bike?
