Books about Chopper from Amazon.com

Billy Lane is the fastest-rising star among the high-profile custom chopper builders, and in this book he offers many of his secrets for building a chopper that will stand out in a crowd. This is the ultimate resource for any chopper builder—a book designed as a step-by-step guide to building any type of custom motorcycle. This book also covers custom-building beyond the chopper genre, including the building of  "bobbers," an old-school style of custom that has been revived as a hot trend. Predating choppers, they are on the cutting edge of current biker "cool", for real riding, and are much safer and more functional than choppers.  Billy Lane has been featured several times on the Discovery Channel’s top rated series Biker Build-Off and the Monster Garage premiere episode. Plus, He was Easyriders Builder of the Year, and winner of numerous national Best in Show awards. This book shows Billy's inside secrets of constructing a complete motorcycle, from hand fabricating metalwork to adding the detail parts that will make your bike your own creation and stand out from the crowd.  Hundreds of color photographs will lead the builder through the construction process.

Choppers don't have to cost thirty thousand dollars. In fact, a chopper built at home can be had for as little as five thousand dollars. The key is the use of a donor bike for most of the components How to Build a Cheap Chopper documents the construction of four inexpensive choppers with complete start-to-finish photo sequences. Least expensive is the metric chopper, based on a 1970s vintage Japanese four-cylinder engine and transmission installed in a hardtail frame. Don't look for billet accessories or a fancy candy paint job on this one. Next up, price wise, are two bikes built using Buell/Sportster drivetrains. The fact is, a complete used Buell or Sportster can be had for five thou or less. Now you've got more than an engine you have wheels and tires, brakes, hardware, lights, harness, and some sheet metal. Bolt all that stuff to a simple hardtail frame to create an almost-instant chopper. Most lavish, but still cheap by comparison with many of the bikes built today, is a big twin chopper built from carefully chosen aftermarket parts. A RevTech engine and five-speed tranny set in a Rolling Thunder frame. Accessorize from the swap meet and add a simple one-color paint job to create a bike no one needs to be ashamed of.

A stunt man and side show performer made famous by the Discovery Channel, Indian Larry Desmedt is best remembered for his remarkable custom motorcycles, his wild tattoos, and his love for building and riding rolling art. This book, by those who knew him best, offers a closer look at the life that made Larry into the chopper shaman so many admired.

Full of photographs that document a uniquely colorful life, the book follows Larry from his humble beginnings to his unlikely stardom, tracing his short career as a bank robber, his time in prison, his spiral downward into heroin addiction, and his rebirth in 1994 as the spiritual bike builder revered by so many and running through it all, the love of hot rods and motorcycles that finally brought him happiness.

Why was he nicknamed Indian Larry? Because early in his career, he ceaselessly rode his Indian Motorcycles through the street of New York City. 

In MemoriamWe all were saddened to learn of the recent death of master chopper artist, Larry Desmedt, or "Indian Larry" to all knew him. As fate would have it, we at Motorbooks had decided months ago to feature one of his beautiful creations on the cover of this new book. We are honored to be publishing a book that celebrates his life and work, both so sadly cut short. Our condolences go to his family, friends, and to anyone in the chopper community lucky enough to have known and worked with Indian Larry. When a motorcycle has been built from the ground up, stripped of anything not needed for speed, power, and striking looks, and draped in rich colors and chrome, it has been transformed into a chopper. What was once considered an outlaw ride has now become a luxury item and a mainstream obsession. In Choppers: Heavy Metal Art, author and biker Mike Seate explores the many styles of choppers and bobbers and the builders behind them. The book is divided into several sections based on style or type of chopper, with each section devoted to the builders who follow a similar style and philosophy. Some builders are established names in their field, while others are up-and-comers rocking the chopper world with their far-out ideas and new spins on a classic style. Photographer Michael Lichter, who has photographed choppers for Easyriders and several other magazines for nearly three decades, provides stunning studio images of the featured machines as well as portraits of their creators.Featured Builders Include:- Matt Burris- Larry Currick- Arlin Fatland- Al Gaither- Roger Goldammer- Don Hotop- Jesse James- Kendall Johnson- Kai- Brian Klock- Billy Lane- Indian Larry- Donny Loos- Rick Sairless- Russell Marloe- Pat Matter- Arlen Ness- Corey Ness- Mike Pugliese- Kim Suter- Mark Warrick- Paul Yaffe- Hank YoungAbout the AuthorMike Seate is a journalist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began riding motorcycles at the age of 16, and 24 years later has still not bothered to learn how to drive a car. His columns on city living appear three times each week in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and he has written hundreds of feature stories and opinion columns for various motorcycle enthusiast publications. Mike has written a number of books for MBI, including How to Build a West Coast Chopper, Outlaw Choppers, and Jesse James: The Man and His Machines.About the PhotographerMany factors make Michael Lichter's photography distinct, such as his technical mastery, his attention to detail, and his drive for perfection. Few other people see the world as Michael does, and no one else captures that vision on film the way he does. Michael began taking pictures and working in the darkroom at the age of 13. In 1978, Michael started doing commercial photography in Boulder, Colorado. By 1980, Michael had worked his passion for motorcycling into his photography career. His work began to appear in Easyriders magazine. Soon Michael found himself in the beds of pickup trucks during rainstorms, photographing packs of bikers on the roads around Sturgis, South Dakota. Michael is the author and photographer of the best-selling book Sturgis, and is the photographer of Billy Lane: It's Not a Motorcycle Baby, It's a Chopper!