# The Spoils of Fame. A Chopper Thread



## jwm (Nov 16, 2010)

Classic/ Antique bicycles draw attention. Whether you pedal down to the local coffee hangout, take a ride on the bike path, or just cruise the neighborhood on Saturday morning, someone will inevitably notice your cool old bike and want to ask you about it. That's a huge part of the fun of owning any classic vehicle. You get to meet, and talk to a whole lot of people.
Nonetheless, I can often take the Jaguar, or the B6 down to the local Starbucks,  finish my coffee, and BS with the gang down there without being interrupted with more than a "Hey, nice bike," once in a while...
Not so with the Spoiler.



 





I love to take the chopper out to ride up and down the shallow hills in the quiet side streets north of The Boulevard. The low ride, laid back seating, and  long slow steering, define cool. Give the Spoiler a long slow downgrade, some gentle bumps to rock the springer and you're having damn near illegal levels of fun.This thing feels bad as hell!
It's just that sometimes the Spoiler gets too much attention. I mean- as I said earlier, getting some attention is part of the fun, but  the Spoiler can be more fun in that department than you really want to have.
 The last time I took it down to the corner I had to give up trying to keep a conversation going with my buddies because people kept coming up and asking about the bike. In the span of fifteen minutes I had three or four of the usual, "How much was it; where'd you get it?" inquiries.  A Chinese guy who spoke very little English was trying to ask me something about the motor, and finally one very sweet old lady wanted to know if I took it on the freeway. I couldn't quite make her understand that it was a bicycle. And after that there was a guy with a little bitty kid...
By that time my brew was cold anyway so I split for another pass through the side streets north of The Boulevard.




All part of the fun.

JWM


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## rustyspoke66 (Nov 19, 2010)

Thats really cool, has anybody thought about doing a easy rider bike?


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## jwm (Nov 19, 2010)

Yes. Me. 
I like almost everything about the way the Spoiler looks as it comes out of the box. That's why I've never changed out the handlebars or the seat. Except for the three-speed, the only thing I've done with the bike is add the blue glass reflectors, the headlight, mirrors, and the old school white grips. I don't like the color flake black with red ghost flame paint, though. I have a couple different paint schemes that I would like. One idea was to go red and yellow flames like the "Billy Bike" that Dennis Hopper rode in ER. And I've also kicked around just stripping all the paint off the frame, and then polishing and clear coating the aluminum. It would be easy to do a Captain America theme on the tank. Part of what holds me back is that the Spoiler is not really a fun bike to work on. Actually (unlike an old Schwinn) it's a PIA to mess with.  And the final consideration- with a machine like this, do you really want to strip all the factory paint off the thing to do a home-made rattle can paint job, however good?  There are always professional painters. The people who painted my Harley back in '91 are still in business. But that ain't cheap.
So goes the argument in my head. And the bike stays black for now.

JWM


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## mantaray06 (Nov 23, 2010)

JWM
I think we may have this discussion before, do you try and keep a bike as close to orginial as possible or do you perform radical customizations to make it your very own? It is a never ending personal battle. Sometimes you customize and sometimes you leave a good thing alone.

But in your case, some mild "personalization" is a fair medium. 

PS. I like the reflectors on the grips. A wee bit of flash is called for.


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## jwm (Nov 24, 2010)

Yeah, I'm always in two minds about customizing. I don't like to change things just for the sake of changing them, but I really like seeing my own stylized edition of a bike, too. It's funny- back when I had my Harley I had it painted to match my 1950 B6. I never for a moment thought about just leaving the Hog out of the box stock. But I'm very reluctant to  rip into the Spoiler. This is, in part, because the Spoiler is obsolete, and they didn't make a lot of them. You know- "collector's value" and all that.  I don't know why I should worry about the  price this machine going to fetch twenty years after I'm dead and gone, or about the opinion of buyers in that future market, but somehow I do.  The only thing that I have done with the bike that can't be undone is the pedals- I took off the reflectors, and drilled the holes out to put  some pointy chrome acorns in their place. I've seen guys do spikes, but I didn't want a bike that was so bad that it could draw  blood. Especially mine.
But I still want to throw a paint job on it.
I'm going through the same debate with my 1980 Heavy Duti. The paint looks OK, but there's enough rust sneaking through the yellow here and there that I'm getting trigger happy. Leave it? Redo the yellow? Maybe copper. Maybe white...

JWM


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## mantaray06 (Nov 25, 2010)

*Well I went pretty overboard on mine.*

I didn't go with the Spoiler so I never felt bad about cutting up a classic. I modified my OCC to meet my preferences. Plenty of the OCC's around. (JWM, I know you have seen it before, but I thought a few more pictures may spir some interest in choppers on this forum.)

Before....




After....




3-speed, disk brakes, soft tail, extended forks, green metal flake powder coat.

I still have some detailing to perform on it, but I had to ride it this last summer. We put over 200 miles on it this summer.


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