Tuesday 10.30-18.00
Wednesday 10.30-18.00
Thursday 10.30-21.00
Friday 10.30-17.30
Saturday 10.30-17.30

The Chopperdome

Admiraal de Ruyterweg 346
1055 NA Amsterdam

+31 (0)20 774 3396

A brief history of the Chopper Bicycle.

I suppose if you were being pedantic, you could trace the history of the Chopper right back to that fateful day late in 1930 when Henry Ford unveiled the Ford Motor Company range of cars for the 1932 model year. Why? I hear you cry? Because that car was the first to have a Ford V8 engine, and with it was born Hot Rodding and Customising as we know it today.
All over America, but of course centred around California, people started putting that ol`flathead V8 into just about any car that would take it, the 1932 became a Kustom Klassic, and slowly the trend for changing what came from the factory started to hit the Motorbike world also. If we jump forward a few decades, by the mid 1950s the California custom scene was in full swing: A certain style of motorcycle was firmly established when this picture of Ralph "Sonny" Barger was taken in May 1959.

The picture shows exactly the way the Custom motorcycle was developing. The engine was highly tuned, the frame was stripped to bare necessities, the front end was lightened and stretched. But most important from our historical viewpoint, two factors stand out, first the fitment of high "ape hanger" handlebars... purely a style statement, and secondly the fact that the rear mudguard had been cut in half to save weight (and look cool).
This process was known as "Chopping" and the style of bike had taken its name from this, the style was the Harley-Davidson CHOPPER .And the guys who built them, had younger brothers..........

Eventually we arrive at our "seat" as mentioned in the title of this piece, An American Bicycle saddle manufacturer called Pearsons Majestic had developed a seat for bicycle polo.. Yes, riding around with a stick in your hand trying to pot goals, just like Prince Charles. But cooler. The seat was long and thin, and needed supporting at the rear by a tube hoop attached to the rear wheel nuts. For bicycle polo, the seat was fitted to 20 inch bikes, with low flat handlebars. Now, bicycle polo never really caught on (surprised?) but Pearsons persevered with the solo polo seat, trying to sell it through cycle accessory shops.

Jumping quickly back to those Californian younger brothers, They had seen the potential of the seat, the rear support hoop looked like a motorbike sissy bar, and as motorcycles and bicycles shared a similar handlebar thickness,fitting 15 inch high apehanger handlebars was easy.. No one knows whether it was a reject polo bike that got the treatment, or whether it was a purpose built chopper bicycle, but the fact remains that some unknown Californian kids back in the very early 1960s produced, in their back yards, the first bicycle to bear the name 'Chopper'.

Huffy is an American bicycle company based on the west coast, and rumour has it that they tried the polo saddle/apehanger combination on a 20 inch bike in 1962. That rumour has built to legend status over the last few years on the American Musclebike websites, but quickly jumping to historical fact, a guy named Al Fritz was working as a concept designer for the giant Schwinn bicycle company in the early 1960s and he also saw the California chopper bikes, and he also took note.... I think this fact alone indicates that the apehanger bike craze was fairly big on the west coast by 1962, with two major bike companies sitting up and taking notice.

The Huffy soon faded from sight, but Al Fritz took what he had seen back to his bosses thousands of miles away in Chicago, and built a 20 inch bike to demonstrate what he had seen out west. This polo seat and apehanger bike, legend has it, was no hit with the bosses of the super conservative Schwinn Corporation, but Al was sure he was on to a good thing, and persevered. His perseverance won over in the end, as in June 1963 the first Schwinn Stingray 20 inch bicycle rolled into dealers stores all over the USA

1964 super deluxe Stingray

The Stingray was an overnight success, thousands were sold in the first month, and Al Fitz had a grin going from one ear to the other...... A new era in bicycle history had begun....The Musclebike had arrived.

Thanks to: Catfood Rob