I got into choppers in the late nineteen seventies. Riding one of those kinds of bikes was considered real wild. For me it was a way to escape esoteric mainstream society. When you hung out with some bikers back then your life could be just like it would have been living as a cowboy in the eighteen hundreds.

After trying to get a real old English BSA on the road I finally got the chance to buy a 1871 rigid frame Shovel-head. One thing looked real familiar to me. I found out later that many of the bikers back then would use a real early model Sportster gas tank. Those skinny ones could be mounted right on top of the frame above the engine.

Just about every custom ride back then had been put together from used or homemade parts. None of them choppers had any of the brand new accessories. I really had to learn the proper way to kick start that Shovel-head. There was no way I could have afforded some bike with an electric starter.

When I went on active duty into the Marine Corps there was no way to get my chopper hauled to where I was stationed. At the low rank of E-3 a 1980 1000 CC Sportster that had been repossessed was all I could afford. Since it had to be purchased that was from a Harley Davidson dealer in Honolulu it was still a completely stock bike.

Since I’m only five foot six inches tall that stock bike was hard to ride. Harley had set it up so that I had to tip toe at every stop light. Naturally any motorcycle rider with some chopper experience would look into customizing his ride.

Harley had changed the way the shock absorbers bolted the swing arm and the frame together. The older model Sportster shocks just bolted on from the side. My bike had some shocks that bolted on top of the swing arm and to some ears underneath the back of the frame. That’s how come I couldn’t just get some shorter early model shocks.

That’s when I found out most of them old Iron-heads were interchangeable. I could swap off my late model stock frame for a 1972 one that had been used for drag racing. A custom motorcycle shop could customize the swing arm to taker some side mounting shocks. I could even trade off them stock shocks for some real old shorter ones. Those side mounting Pan-head shocks were fully chromed and worked fine.

Over the years any chopper rider can continue to change things around. Them Pan-head shocks didn’t hold up. I now got a new pair of early model Shovel-head shocks and my bike doesn’t bounce up erratically when I have to slam on the brakes.

When I had originally choppered my ride the stock front end had been traded off for a short springer front end. I wouldn’t go for one of them long ones because the frame would have had to be raked. It still was a bit to long and one of those twenty one inch front tires couldn’t be used like most of the other chopper owners did.

At least the military back then would ship every thing you owned back home for you when you were released from active duty. My chopper made it to my parent’s house just like my jeans and shirts. I sure didn’t have to worry about transportation.

That setup didn’t last forever. I rear ended a car that was parked on an off ramp. The wreck crushed the front wheel by bending all the spokes. It bend in the front end and even put some dents into the gas tank. Because

I had got my ride put together a long was from home it was awfully hard to repair at first. I did find one good spot for some more affordable used parts. The original Albuquerque Harley Davidson dealer had kept a lot of the old parts when he sold out. He was still running a repair shop from his house. At his place I was able to buy a 1946 springer front end.

That front end was the kind used on the scout bikes in World War Two. It fit the frame neck fine. It’s just that I had to get my frame set up to use the old style ball bearings instead of the late model rollers. That front end was also better than the custom one because it is a bit shorter. I can now run a twenty one inch front wheel just like most of the other old chopper riders would.

In the end being able to check out a bunch of the other choppers on the road back then helped me figure out how mine should be. That and some luck has allowed my ride to look like a real antique while it is relatively young. The set up now fits the gray hair clogging my beard.