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Moonduck · 07-28-2003, 03:38 PM

I mentioned in another thread that I'd recently lost my mind and been having thoughts about chopping my Honda ('81 Nighthawk 750). I'm really spiralling down towards actually committing to it.

Tools and fixtures aren't a problem. What I don't have at home I can get to in my father's body shop. Money is always a problem, but as I won't be paying for labor, the project should be cheaper. The donor bike needs help in certain areas, but those areas are ones that would be getting replaced in the chop process anyway (tank, seats, certain linkages).

The dilemma is do I shop for an old Santee or Amen frame (hard to find, though I have a line on a semi-inexpensive Santee Swing-arm frame), or just set to cutting and welding on the stock frame? Another big concern is calculating trail. I've found a source for longer tubes for the stock forks, but haven't a clue as to how to figure out if I need to rake 'em or what, short of mounting them of course.

I'm looking to do a mild chop - 6-8" over on the forks with perhaps a few inches of stretch in the rear. I want it to look old-school, 60's-70's era as I don't really dig the modern bikes (West Coast Choppers, OCC, etc). They're cool, but not my thing. I really dig the choppers I remember seeing as a kid. I happened to be looking at the Honda working mentally on a simple repair of existing problems when I started to recall the old-school Honda CB750 choppers that were around in the 70's. This is where this (crazy damnfool) idea came from.

So, any chopperheads hereabouts?

07-28-2003, 03:38 PM	#1 (permalink)
Moonduck Junkie Location: SE USA	So, any bike builders here? I mentioned in another thread that I'd recently lost my mind and been having thoughts about chopping my Honda ('81 Nighthawk 750). I'm really spiralling down towards actually committing to it. Tools and fixtures aren't a problem. What I don't have at home I can get to in my father's body shop. Money is always a problem, but as I won't be paying for labor, the project should be cheaper. The donor bike needs help in certain areas, but those areas are ones that would be getting replaced in the chop process anyway (tank, seats, certain linkages). The dilemma is do I shop for an old Santee or Amen frame (hard to find, though I have a line on a semi-inexpensive Santee Swing-arm frame), or just set to cutting and welding on the stock frame? Another big concern is calculating trail. I've found a source for longer tubes for the stock forks, but haven't a clue as to how to figure out if I need to rake 'em or what, short of mounting them of course. I'm looking to do a mild chop - 6-8" over on the forks with perhaps a few inches of stretch in the rear. I want it to look old-school, 60's-70's era as I don't really dig the modern bikes (West Coast Choppers, OCC, etc). They're cool, but not my thing. I really dig the choppers I remember seeing as a kid. I happened to be looking at the Honda working mentally on a simple repair of existing problems when I started to recall the old-school Honda CB750 choppers that were around in the 70's. This is where this (crazy damnfool) idea came from. So, any chopperheads hereabouts?