What is a Bobber motorcycle,❓ How is it different from a Chopper, a Rat bike or a Soft-tail bike❓@✒GBG⚔

1.  Jawa was quite a  popular motorcycle in India once. This Czech brand started production in India in the year 1961, under brand name 'Ideal Jawa'. In  1971 the company  started making motorcycles under Yezdi brand but stopped production in 1998 due to financial reasons. Now, once again, the Czechoslovakian  bike 'JAWA' has been brought back to India, courtesy the famous 'Mahindra and Mahindra'.

2.  The most eye catching of these new Jawa launches is 'Perak', a factory made Semi-bobber bike. Looking at this bobber, I thought of putting some bike ken together in one place, hence this little essay.  Lets move on to see some types of bikes, like Bobber, Chopper, Street-fighter and Bagger etc, one by  one.

3.  A 'Bobber' bike is a motorcycle  based on stripping excess bodywork, removing the front fender, and shortening the rear fender, which is 'bobbed' (as in bob-tail), and removing all superfluous parts  to reduce weight and clutter. Bobbers are typically built around unmodified frames. As no cuts or add ons are done with the original frame, bobbers are fairly easy to create from stock motorcycles, and are generally hand built. Bobber builders tend to adopt an economical approach involving old, second-hand, recycled parts, rather than depending upon bling motorcycle accessories.  Spring saddles, dull black or flat paint and some rust finish, are signatures of a 'Bobber'.

4.  A  'Chopper'  bike has an elongated frame chassis, and is highly elaborate, heavily chromed, with  lots of add ons. Working on choppers needs high class workshop works like welding, cutting, turning, machining etc. Choppers were born in California in the late 50s. Choppers have radically modified steering angles and lengthened forks for a stretched-out appearance.  Perhaps the best known choppers are HD of "Captain America" and "Billy Bike", a customised HD of the film Easy Rider.  Choppers generally have a thicker backwheel and comparatively larger in diameter,  but thinner front wheel. Choppers are fitted with long extended sissy-bars and springer forks, and are mounted with a higher rake, to move the front wheel forward.  Glossy flake-paint, chrome parts and an extended wheel base,  are a chopper's signatures.

5. Softail motorcycles  feature a hidden rear suspension with softer springs or shock absorbers to absorb bumps. 'Soft-tail' motorcycles have their shock absorbers or springs covered under the motorcycle exteriors, out of view. The word 'Softail' is a registered trademark of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. HD released its 'FXST Softail' in 1984. Today however, motor cycles or even cycles coming with soft, and high quality hind shock absorbers are all called 'Soft-tails'.

6.  A 'Street-fighter', is a sports bike that is customized by removing stuff like fairing, leg gurads, and other accessories from it, and making other changes that result in an overall meaner and more aggressive look. These bikes are short framed street or sports bikes,  with a better ground clearance to climb up the stairs or get across  down-town pot-holes. They have a sharp turning radius, good pickup and cool breaking ability, and are built sturdy, or have  custom strengthened frames. A streetfighter is  undoubtedly a sports bike, turned in to a street bike, ready to take on any kind of surface conditions.

7. Than we have the 'Bagger'.  In simple terms it is a motorcycle with lots if bags, fiber or metal briefcases, or leather attache cases, but in fact to put it straight,  it is a low slung  cruiser and a tourer, with a lot if luggage storage capacity, every thing else set aside.

8.  We have all heard about the 'Café racer'. Honda has made some of the best. Enfield also seems to be in a mood to play with the idea.  It is a lightweight, and  zippy motorcycle made for speed and handling rather than comfort. It is a road bike as they say, made for quick rides, over short tarmac distances.

9.  Bar hopper is a bike with less than 100 km comfort range, It has less than ideal suspension, uncomfortable seat, no bags, or no windshield, etc. It is a stripped down bike having mean, nasty, loud and uncomfortable look aswellas feel, alongside a bragging and dragging engine, that makes heads turn by its rude noise. This type of bike always has some hand made parts,  like hand crafted bull horn or bone accessories, or a horse saddle for a seat.  Today  we dont have many bar-hoppers like we guys had in 70's and 80's. When young, I even saw one in Patiala with a truck steering fitted on it instead of a handle bar.

10.  Rat-bikes are motorcycles that are styled to look like they have fallen apart over time, and have been kept on the road by divine intervention.  Maintained at little or no cost, by employing kludge fixes, these bikes are a treat for some and an eyesore for others.  Survival bikes look similar to rat bikes, but SBs are different in purpose and construct, as they are modified for stylistic and functional reasons, and are purpose made.

11.  For owning any of these poisons, one has to be a 'Biker with a slight Kink'. A biker to be precise is somone, who can own, or owns a car,  but prefers using a bike instead, and has different bikes for different seasons, and different reasons, and a 'Biker with a Kink' is a biker who has an   'I don't give a Fu**' attitude towards what others think of him or his ride. Happy biking friends. Shalom.
🚩तत्त सत्त अकाल🚩
✒Guru Balwant Gurunay⚔