Choppers just don't look right with a radiator hanging out front.There is just something about those springer front ends! If I ever feel the need to have something like that, this is where I am going to start...
http://www.sugarbearchoppers.com/rollers.htm
I wonder what a Goldwing engine would look like in there!
Is that the actual bike in the story?You could buy a Chopper Kit that used a Honda CB750 engine for not a lot of money back in the day. Wrecked Honda CB750's were a dime a dozen. Another bike that was cheap after it was wrecked and ended up as a Chopper was the Triumph Bonneville. Chopper kits were available for them as well. I was given a wrecked 650 Bonnie by a Shipmate that bought it and wrecked it the very same day. I ordered a Chopper Kit and built it on the Ship while we were out to sea for a couple or months. I rode it a few months and then I sold it after a guy offered me a stupid amount of money for it. It was a fun bike for bar hopping around San Diego, CA but it was awful for riding any distance at all. I could ride up to a bar and a girl would jump on without even asking her if she wanted to go for a ride. I guess that's the reason that guy that bought it just had to have it. I was leaving for deployment in a few months anyway so selling it was a good idea at the time. I used the money I made on it to buy a new Honda Interceptor in Japan, which I brought back to the States.
Yep! I spent a lot of time at my GQ station in for forward engine room, which is where I kept that bike. My GQ station was at the #1 generator switch board. I had nothing to do because all the generators were under automatic control in the Central Control Station with another Operator standing GQ watch there. Only once for training did I manually start the #1 generator, synchronize it with the electric power buss, and close the breaker to put it on line. I hid the frame, fork, engine, and parts in an empty part of the switch board. There was no power in that section of the switch board so it was safe to do that. Everyone else thought there were thousands of volts in that part of the switch board and I never told anyone there was not. Even when I was ratted on by an ass hole did the Master Chief come down to inspect my Switch Board and found nothing because he wanted nothing to do with high voltage electricity. He came down, looked around, and asked me to open the switch board. I pulled out my face shield, rubber apron, rubber boots, and a hard hat and started putting that stuff on, which is required. I asked where his high voltage safety gear was because he would need it if he was present when I opened that part of the switch board, which is normally required. He told me to never mind and went away. He then told the guy that ratted me out to never harass any engine room personal again.
That's the only one that survived of that bike. The Honda Interceptor I brought back from Japan was different than the one sold here in the States. It was fully cowled, had larger carburetors, and no limiters like the ones sold here in the States. My 750 domestic Japanese market Interceptor was a lot faster than even the "Americanized" 1000cc Interceptors. That bike was scarey fast, and is the reason I sold it several years later after I almost killed myself on it. The guy I sold it to rode it a couple of times and quit riding it for the same reason. He sold it to the Barber Motor sports museum where it still resides today as the only example of a street legal racing bike that made it to the States. Here's a picture of that bike.
