Priceless

That's me on the first hardtail chop I built in 1983 or 1984. Me and my
clubbrothers went to Sweden the year before I built it. I was still riding
my FX Super Glide. I thought it was a damn cool bike with its purple with
silver flames paintjob, its six inch over frontend, 21 inch wheel and
mini-apes but with a stock swingarm frame.




Once in Sweden it looked like kinda silly compared to the awesome choppers we saw overthere. We rode our
bikes from the boat from Denmark into Gothenburg, Sweden and the first thing
we saw was a typical Swedish chop with twenty inch over frontend,
tillerbars, hardtailframe and fat car(!) tire in the back passing by. We
followed the bike into some square where Mothers Harley shop was situated at
the time.




The owner, I think his name was Uffa or something, listened to our
stories, looked at our bikes and gave us the key to the Mother freaks
clubhouse where we stayed and partied with the members for a couple of days
before we moved on. They even took us on a boatride on an old tockboat they
owned. We went from clubhouse to clubhouse, from party to party.




Every Swedish biker we met was riding a radical home built chopper in those days.
Unbelievable! Once home again, back in Holland, me and my buddies decided we
had to have radical choppers as well. So I built that chop on the photo. I
remember having to order the hardtail frame from England. They told me that
was the only place where you could have them made up to your personal specs.




I put the bike together in my dads workshop. Did all the work myself and was
damn proud of it. Lotsa parts were store bought but you really had to do
your best to find the things you wanted. I only handmade things like the
sissybar, the seatpan, the forward controls and all the little mounting
brackets and stuff.




After it was finished, every day when I came back from
work I would just sit next to it and look at it for hours. Every fucking
day! I rode that bike a lot, rode it to Sweden the same year it was
finished......Beer