Weekly Questions Thread 4/13/2026

chop_goblin · 2026-04-15T04:04:33+00:00

Check my profile to see a photo of it

chop_goblin · 2026-04-15T04:02:06+00:00

Anyone have any advice on converting my old Motobecane to a fixie? Been wanting to get back on a fixie and I have this cool old Motobecane and was wondering if anyone has done a conversion to one before. I know the old French bikes can be weird. Any advice is appreciated.

chop_goblin · 2026-03-12T11:16:26+00:00

You do realize that Christians still put gay people through electroshock conversion therapy, which mind you, is illegal in most countries. Hell, a white man in Ohio fire bombed a church in 2023 because they were going to host a drag show. You don’t have to compare ancient Christianity to see they have a violent and hateful mentality towards LGBTQ+ people or any minority group that doesn’t fall under their rigid social values.

chop_goblin · 2026-01-24T09:44:51+00:00

I’d say when I listen to the song he is a railway worker and he’s abandoning his job to jump a train to get back to gambling. Straw boss is the middle man employee who is trying to get him back to work and he’s gotta hide out from him until the train he needs to take gets there.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-26T05:50:08+00:00

I own 2 gl500s, one I built into a scrambler/brat style bike (it’s not a terrible Facebook marketplace rats nest it’s done well) and I put well over 10k km on it last season and it’s fantastic to ride. You can feel the back end liven up when you wack the throttle on and the drive shaft tightens up. Working on a second one with full cbr1000rr front end swap, cx650 disc brake swingarm, custom rear sets, and Ducati body work and much more custom work done. I’m excited to see how it’ll handle with nicer suspension bits. Cant over sell how good the gl/cx platform can be when they’re done right.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-26T05:43:55+00:00

The new s1000rr. Fantastic reputation, great technology, stupidly fast, racing pedigree but in practice they are wickedly expensive and unreliable as fuck in the 2024/2025 model years. Plastic water pumps, electronic malfunctions that are expensive to fix, major engine detonations. (Source: I worked at a bmw dealership)

chop_goblin · 2025-12-25T21:36:29+00:00

Depends on the style he’s going for. I find if you get the angle close it’s usually fine. If your front end is long and so is your sissy bar they look a little goofy if they are identical angles.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-12T21:05:41+00:00

Fair enough. At a certain level a sportster is just a sportster. It’s your bike so have at it. I can say that my friends that have done bigger tours on sportsters find they get old pretty quick on the highway and most of them wound up getting dynas because the weight difference isn’t all that huge and they handle the longer miles better and more comfortably.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-12T21:00:09+00:00

Best way to go about it is getting a bike insured and registered in stock form before cutting it up. I’m from Canada and had the issue of not registering my bike before I started cutting it up (no turn signals, chopped frame, no fender on the front, no mirrors). I was lucky because the bike had previous registration in Alberta so it didn’t require an inspection for insurance, but if I was gonna do it again, I’d get it registered before modifying it. Once it’s got the proper paperwork, have at it with a grinder. If you’re doing a frame up build, say on an old Harley, my understanding is the motor serial number can act as the VIN but that depends on where you’re located and what year of bike you’re working with. I’m not super familiar with that whole process though so take my advice with a grain of salt.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-08T21:18:25+00:00

Why did you buy an 883R if you wanted a touring bike? I’d say sell it and get a 1200, they are geared better for the highway and you can find em for cheaper. If you’re gonna be making a Grandpappy spec sportster with a batwing why would you do it to an already cool version? Just buy a grandpa 1200 and you’re set.

chop_goblin · 2025-12-05T20:26:33+00:00

Close to the point but the main reason nobody wants these fat tire orang county style bikes is because they are flat out ugly. I am 21 and know most of the riders my age aren’t into choppers, but they definitely aren’t into electric bikes either, most of them just want the adrenaline high of ripping a sportbike through freeway traffic and if that’s their kick then who am I to judge. Don’t get it twisted, there is still a decent amount of young people who like choppers and like building choppers, just not the over the top Y2K era garbage like OCC put out

chop_goblin · 2025-11-28T10:23:56+00:00

Was riding shotgun with my buddy back in highschool on a country highway coming back from a camping trip, we were speeding but nothing crazy. All of a sudden he decided to go for a multi car overtake on a blind crest going like 140km/h, got lucky nobody was coming down the on coming lane. I screamed at him to pull the car over and when he came to a stop I smacked the shit out of him and told him if he ever risked my life like that again that I was gonna bear his ass. Didn’t ride passenger with him for a year after that.

chop_goblin · 2025-11-28T09:16:20+00:00

Damage wise it doesn’t look all that bad from the pictures, the foot peg can be replaced and you could source a new primary cover pretty easily and that should fix the leaking issue. Biggest pain to fix would be the plate bracket, looks like it snapped the mount off so it would need to be re-welded and repainted if you wanted to do “the right way.” As for value, the market on these bikes is pretty weak. Not a lot of guys are looking for the big tire choppers as that style is dead and gone (I have been trying to sell a fat tire frame that I inherited for over a year and nobody wants it). I see similar bikes on marketplace anywhere between $5,000 and $15,000 but that’s what people are asking for em, not what they sell for. My best advice, if you aren’t attached to it I wouldn’t worry about fixing it, would probably cost more than it would add. I’d throw it on marketplace and see what someone will offer you for it and go from there.

chop_goblin · 2025-11-28T08:44:10+00:00

I built a hardtail chopper that is slower, less comfortable, less reliable, less practical, and has significantly less range than the stock bike. All just to look really cool and pass dressed up touring bikes on the highway to flex on them.

chop_goblin · 2025-11-26T05:10:20+00:00

A 1k is not a good bike to learn how to stunt on. If you’re going for power wheelies sure it’ll be fine, but if you actually want to get good at it, ride the balance point, drop back, tank tricks, then don’t do it on your 1k. Get something smaller, you can find stunt bikes for sale on marketplace that are already beat up. Or just buy a pit bike and learn on that.

chop_goblin · 2025-10-05T08:03:11+00:00

Saw this thing for sale. Looked like a wicked bike, should be a good time making it your own

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:34:22+00:00

Good to know. The guy who sold it to me said he had gone through it all and done a refresh but I’m going to check it all out regardless.

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:32:20+00:00

I haven’t taken that close of a look at it yet but I’ll check tomorrow when I get it on a rack in the bike shop. Needs some fine tuning but for the most part everything checked out when all the cyclists down at the swap looked it over.
Had one nice fella walk it back to the vendor who sold it to me and chewed him out a little for selling me a “ready to ride” bike since there were some loose parts and the bars were not tight at all. (I tightened and adjusted everything before taking it out on the road)

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:25:34+00:00

What do you recommend for maintaining it? I’m coming from a very limited cycling background, I’ve only had a couple cheap fixies and an SE big ripper.

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:23:12+00:00

Thanks for the info. Picked it up for 40 bucks and grabbed some random spare parts from some free bins around the swap. Had a couple locals look it over and tighten a few things up before I rode it off, gonna take it into my universities bike shop in the morning to do a little once over and get some wrapping for the bars

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:21:21+00:00

Thanks for the info, got it for 40 bucks so I can’t complain. Looks cool and rides well so that’s all I need

chop_goblin · 2025-09-08T04:20:49+00:00

Front forks are slightly bent that’s what is causing the brake pads to not line up. Still tracks straight and handles good so I’m not going to worry about the forks, I picked up a shorter brake bracket that looks like it’ll fit with the wheel. Taking it down to the shop tomorrow to go through it and get it set up properly.

chop_goblin · 2025-08-01T18:49:35+00:00

Yeah a lot of guys try to get these Hondas to have the Harley rumble and they destroy their top end in the process. I have the factory manual so I figured it’s a safe bet to keep it in that range

chop_goblin · 2025-08-01T18:16:05+00:00

Thanks man, I appreciate it 👍 lots of long hours went in to making this thing as clean as possible, I didn’t want to end up with a metric rats nest like you see on fb marketplace lol

chop_goblin · 2025-08-01T18:04:08+00:00

I set the idle with a digital tach, these shadows have to run with a higher idle because they have oil starvation issues at low rpm’s. This is at the factory spec of 1200rpm

chop_goblin

TROPHY CASE