Attack Choppers: Old scans

Sunday, November 28, 2010

HFC

...and I'm continuing on with my series of scans of key bikes that inspired me from old Iron Horse magazines.

Today I thought we would look at Soupla's HFC Shovel from NYC. I will always remember this bike as the very first bike that made me want to run apehangers.
Up to that point I thought they were cool, but not for me.
Sure, I loved David Mann paintings but still... I just didn't think they were THAT cool.
ALl that changed with the HFC feature. This bike went to the top of the list for me as soon as I saw it.
Course the open chain primary didn't hurt it either... this was also the first time I had seen that.
This was such a great feature, with awesome pics and a great locations as well.
It made such an impression on me that I drew this up in art class that year.

My chopper manifesto

I do not accept the assumption that a rigid framed motorcycle cannot go fast, stop quickly, or handle well. I want my choppers to perform above the social accepted performance standard for rigid framed motorcycles; (that is to say: BAD)
These are the standards I have set before myself to achieve with said choppers:

My choppers must be able to Evade, Pursue, and allow me to survive.
My choppers must be light.
My choppers must be skinny and be able to navigate tight traffic with ease.
My choppers must go fast, accelerate hard, stop well, handle good, and do so without fusing my vertabrae.
My choppers must not scrape hard parts when leaning.
My choppers are not bar hoppers.
My choppers are not non-functioning scuplture.
My choppers must function like a real, useable vehicle.
My choppers must be a valid mode of transportation.
My choppers must not be built for other peoples enjoyment or entertainment.
My choppers must be built for me and my preferences and standards alone.
My choppers must not be fragile.
My choppers must be able to hop curbs, hit potholes, skid, wheelie, do burn outs and crash without breaking.
My choppers must be able to be ridden on all sufaces (Pavement, dirt, gravel, snow, sand, mud)