Old School Chopper Frame Fabrication - Knucklebuster

The mistake most first-time builders make is to simply bolt on a bunch of ready-made parts in a rush to finish the project and
bikes built this way will show it. In photos they appear awkward, out of proportion and unbalanced with respect to the size
and placement of the ancillary components.
The human body comes in all types of sizes and shapes but regardless of the differences they are are proportioned in ratios
that architects long ago recognized so when you're building a bike the shape of the human rider has to be a major
consideration in the design and fabrication process and the best 'formula' to use in this endeavor is the real body of the rider
that the bike is intended for. This is what real choppers are all about. They are created for an individual and this very fact is
what makes them so distinct from mass produced cycles.
No matter how hard I try I can never give you any 'magic' dimensions for building frames or any 'secret' measurements for
choppers that create the 'perfect' bike as each one will be unique. In fact if they weren't unique they wouldn't really be a
chopper regardless of how they looked outwardly.
Building a 'real' chopper is a lot like building a Rolex watch. You assemble a bunch of bits and pieces that you've pretty
much 'standardized' on but as you put them together you deviate from the 'standard' and fine tune and fine-fit the various
individual pieces until you have a unique creation that functions both mechanically, ergonomically and aesthetically.
When you get aboard a truly custom built chopper you're not just a rider, you become a part of the machine and function as a
single unit, which if you ever experience it you will come to understand, but very few people ever have this chance because
they rush through the project believing mistakenly that the end result comes from just bolting on parts and components.
Figure 1 below shows the Old School Chopper as it now stands in the shop during the 'think about it' phase of the project.
Figure 1
We're thinking about a Sportster tank at this stage but we haven't decide whether to mount it low, high or in-between.
We have however decided to use a certain part that we've had bouncing around in the shop for the past 34 years but I bet you
can't figure out what we're going to use it for.