A Few Great Books on Build Custom Motorcycles

Thinking about building your own custom bike? Maybe you are looking into on of the popular Bike-in-a-box kit? Here are a few books to help get you started.

How to Build a Cheap Chopper
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.

Billy Lane’s How to Build Old School Choppers, Bobbers, and Customs
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 much safer and more functional than choppers.

How to Build a Kit Bike
Scratch built motorcycles remain very popular. In order to simplify the process, many companies in the American V-twin aftermarket are selling kits. Three of these companies, Custom Chrome, Arlen Ness and Biker1s Choice, have excellent programs. All offer very complete kits that allow the builder to assemble a complete motorcycle without any additional purchases. All that1s missing is labor and paint. The book will document, with detailed photos and copy, the assembly from beginning to end, of three motorcycles from the firms mentioned above. Because of the technical nature of this book, there will be more images and less copy than in other Wolfgang Publication books. Each sequence will be illustrated by at least 200 images. Approximately 60% of these images will be in color. This book will also contain side-bars on tools and basic assembly techniques, all designed to aid the first time builder.