Leisure suits. The Bee Gees. Pintos, Gremlins, and Pacers. Yeah, in a lot of ways, the ’70s sucked. Hard. But the ’70s also gave us some serious coolness, especially in the motorcycle department. So, four years ago when Scot Schneider set out to build his latest creation, he had one thing in mind—a loving tribute to the beautiful scoots from what many consider the Golden Age of the Chopper: the 1970s.
“I saw an old dude riding an old 750 Honda digger about 10 years ago in Oklahoma City,” Schneider recalled, “and I thought it was the coolest, purest thing I’d ever seen. From that point forward, I started collecting all of the old Street Chopper mags from the ’70s I could find. These old magazines are where I got my inspiration, and I decided to build something that was as period correct as possible.”
Schneider’s build started off with 1977 CB750A “Hondamatic” motor he found on eBay. It was a brand-new-in-the-box treasure that had been sitting at a Honda dealer in Kansas for 30 years.
“I got the whole motor, brand-new in the crate, for $900. I thought that was a pretty good score,” Schneider beamed.
Next came a C&G frame and swap-meet springer frontend, both from the ’70s as well.
“I had David Irving at Irving Customs modify the frame to fit the 24-inch-over springer and redo the back half,” Schneider said. “He also had a jig for building Invader-style wheels, so I had him build those as well.”
However, as with a lot of builds, Scot’s was put on ice for a couple of years when life got in the way. Fast-forward to 2010 when he finally got sick of looking at his unfinished rolling chassis and got the inspiration to complete his “Me-decade” masterpiece.
“I’d been working weekends for Jerry Covington of Covington’s Cycle City for the past 10 years, and he wanted me to finish it for the upcoming Eternal Combustion show Michael Lichter was presenting at Buffalo Chip in Sturgis,” Schneider explained. “With a lot of help from Jerry’s son David, we got the remaining fabrication done so it would be ready for paint and chrome.”
Now, as you can probably tell from the pics, the paint was no mean feat.
“The most challenging part of the build was deciding how I wanted the bike painted,” Scott asserted. “All I really knew was that I wanted ‘bass boat’ flake, and it had to scream ’70s. I’ve seen enough of Brian Loker’s work, so I knew he was the right man for the job. He came back with a vision of candy reds, oranges, and yellows with silver leaf, and I told him to go for it. In my opinion, he nailed it.” Once the paint was finished, it was time for the final assembly and wiring before the bike took a trip to North Dakota.
“I actually received the last few chrome parts for it in Sturgis and bolted them on right before we took it to Lichter’s show,” Scott said.
The end result is the beauty you see here—the period-correct ’70s chopper Schneider set out to build three decades after that Honda motor arrived at the dealership.
“There isn’t anything on that bike they wouldn’t have done 35 years ago,” he said proudly.
Right on, Scott—we can dig it. STC