We can all pretty much agree that the days of the big-bucks billet bikes are gone and a new day has dawned. Like all fads that get overinflated and indulged, the bubble burst and left a ton of builders and manufacturers who were late to the game scrambling for the next thing to glom onto. After these guys MIG welded a few rusty rat rods together and found little to no satisfaction or monetary gain, they faded back into obscurity.
For the guys who bought these television-influenced choppers, rat bikes seemed to be a great choice after they sold their $75,000 15-foot long choppers for $20K. They had just enough scratch to buy a Cone Shovel, spray-bomb it flat black and bolt a bunch of old junk car parts to it. The thing about those "I made it ugly on purpose" bikes is it seems that the worse they look, the more some people like them. Hell, there are a ton of (other) magazines which eat these turd piles up like pumpkin pie and shit them out to the impressionable masses every month furthering bad taste. Let's all just thank the little baby Jesus that this style of bike's demise is coming upon us fast.
Today's choppers are consisting of bikes that have much more of a core aesthetic. They truly reflect the current times we live in just as well as our distilled vision of days past. There is no doubt that traditionally styled bikes are in, but I would not call it a flavor of the month. Skinny bars, Friscoed tanks, and mid controls are now ruling the roost, and for good measure, because they just have the right look. Don't think of it as a fad, think of it more like Kurt Cobain, Tad Doyle, and Mark Arm's musical onslaught, which murdered trendy music of that day and changed the world as a side effect.
Sure, you may be angry that all of the bandwagoneers as of late have jumped into the eBay fray and driven up NOS Flanders bars, Bates seats, Knuckleheads, and Anderson pegs, but at least we don't have to stare at trucker chicks and spinning dice-adorned "choppers" anymore.
Jeff G. Holt