Cycle Source Magazine

I just received a few copies of the new Cycle Source in the mail today. Chris Callen had asked me to write him my definition of a 70's chopper. I think some pictures got switched around.... the picture headlining it is not actually me it's Jon Wolf but hey if it makes me as bad ass as Jon Wolf then I'll take credit for it. Anyway below is a picture I took for the article and this is what I wrote as my definition of a 70's chopper.




Although opinions may vary depending on your up bringing and the region you were raised in ….. my definition of a 70’s chopper is this. It was the ultimate path to freedom in the holy lands. It could take you wherever your dreams pushed you and ever further with a little trip to the stash beneath your king queen seat. Your chopper would reflect you and no one else with personal touches in everything from the way you modified the frame, shaped the gas tank or painted the skeleton of its being. The work was in most cases crude and done with very little prior knowledge but that didn’t matter because money was tight and the satisfaction was in the fact that this thing you have created would fulfill your wildest fantasies. No matter how outrageous or un-ridable these dirty whacked out moon machines may have looked their ultimate purpose was to be ridden. If you weren’t riding it there was no point in having it at all. Sissy Bars were a must for long hauls through our Midwest and into a desert scene where you would ride side by side with the spirit a cowboy on horseback. Slim and tall bikes handled better in the pothole riddled streets and long bikes hit the long roads. The miles where in some cases easy and in others hard but it didn’t matter because you rode with a band of brothers and the smiles went on for miles. These battle scared machines were ridden hard, only mere inches from another like a pack of wolves chasing a deer into a watering hole of lust and unruly nights beneath a full moon. The love of your life would be temperamental and an out right bitch at times but the love you had for her was beyond any speakable words and the days of the warm rays of sunshine on your back as you would ride through a spring green meadow would always be a reminder of the love you share. Of course there was always fantasies about others such as a beautiful young shovelhead, which you may have taken for a test ride once or twice but you would never leave your ol’ lady.

Well….. At least this is how I envision life on a 70’s chopper. I have no proof to back up any of this nonsense but this is how I lived in the summer of 2009. This is my first bike. I built it with very little prior knowledge. It taught me how to weld, machine parts, lace wheels, build motors, engrave, polish my fingers to the bone and live a life with my brothers that would burn memories into my brain that will never be forgotten.

BUILD IT, RIDE IT, CRASH IT
Josh Kurpius







Pick yourself up a copy and check out my coverage on Bacon and Warren new Panhead as well as the Country Mile III