Form following function is one of the soundest principals to base building anything on. Think about it, if you didn't care what it looked like, or how big something was, it would be incredibly easy to engineer the best, most durable whatchamacallit the world has ever seen. You would simply analyze the task at hand and build your product to give the desired result.
Fortunately for us, the building of a chopper has nothing to do with form following function--rather the emphasis is placed on making form and function equal parts of the equation. In other words, let's build something that does what it is supposed to do and looks good doing it! With that revised principal in mind, let's look at what you need to do to get your chopper project started.
Ask anyone who has built a custom before and they will tell you the first thing to do is have a vision or picture of the bike you plan on building. Don't worry if you can draw it, most people find a picture of a bike or parts of many bikes in a magazine and use that to create the image they are after. You have to have a plan in order to get to a finished product. No one walks into the garage and starts putting things together just to see what will happen.
So with your plan in hand, the next thing to do is price out your bike. Will you use lots of used and swap meet parts or will everything be new? How many of the parts do you plan on fabricating? Will you be tearing down your current bike to create your masterpiece? These are the cold questions that you have to answer honestly before bolt one can turn. Setting a budget and a time schedule on how you can supply the dollars to meet the budget will ensure you constant forward progress on the bike.
The next big obstacle is planning out some dedicated garage space for your bike. You can't build a bike in garage space that you use for other things also--it just doesn't work. Odds are your project will not be a six-week homerun, so you have to preplan for life's little potholes.
So armed with knowledge (a plan) and parameters (a budget) the next step is to prioritize the project. If you have planned to build a sheetmetal wonder that will require hundreds of hours of hammering, welding, bending and shaping--don't worry about buying a motor and transmission right away. Use the time you spend fabricating your masterpiece to shop around for that special deal on a powertrain. By setting the order of your build-up you can avoid parts delays and organize your budget even better. Conversely, if you plan on building a motor that would put fear into the heart of a Top Fuel drag racer, don't stress the color of the bike right away--get started on building the motor and transmission.
The last bit of leg and brain work you need to do before you start turning wrenches is source out places to do what you are not equipped for in your own garage. If you plan to use your buddy's shop welder, sandblaster and grinder--you might want to check his schedule first. Also, if you are going to have someone else paint your bike, get a feel for the backlog of the spray booth around the time of year you plan on finishing your chopper. Finally, if you only have a few wrenches and screwdrivers in a fishing tackle box for a tool kit, you might want to put the project on a back burner until you build up a fairly broad selection of tools in your garage. The right tools make all the difference in assembly and fabrication, and this type of project is impossible without them. A bench-mounted vice is just as important as a good set of sockets. If you can have a compressor and some air tools things will be even easier and, of course, some type of lift to build the bike on would be ideal.
By investing the time necessary to completely preplan your chopper project before any of the building takes place the odds are you will end up with more of the bike you wanted to build right from the start. Now, go out to the garage and start building something that can be shown in this magazine!