Aesthetics and the Attack Chopper

At this point I should probably address a fear that I may have left you all with.
You may be rather worried about what your Attack Chopper may look like if you toss aesthetics to the wind and merely concentrate on performance.
Well, never you mind. Attack choppers can be STUNNINGLY gorgeous motorcycles. And not only look good, but have very unique and special aesthetic that cannot be matched by any other kind of custom motorcycle.

To paraphrase Ayn Rand:
A chopper can have integrity just like a person, and just as seldom.
In what way you ask?
Well, look at it. Every piece of it is there because the chopper needs it- and for no other reason.
The major components make the shape.
The relation of the masses was determined by the space require to mount those major components and to space them apart so that they function properly.
The decoration was determined by the method of construction, an emphasis of the principles that make it work. You can see each stress, each support that meets it. Your own eyes go through a structural process when you look at the chopper, you can follow each step, you see it being built, and you know what makes it work and why it works.

But you’ve seen bikes with tubes that support nothing, with purposeless trinkets attached, with covers, louvers, cup holders, tassels, false rocker boxes, false kickers and other various gee-gaws.
As useless as the crystal poodle menagerie on your grandmas shelf.
Do you understand the difference?
A proper Attack chopper is made by its own needs.
Those other bikes are made by a need to impress.
The determining motive of an Attack Chopper is the rider and the environment it is ridden in.
The other bikes determining motive is in their audience.”

Seek function over form… and the form will come naturally, and it will be attractive.
Sure you still need to think carefully about each individual part and make sure it works with the rest of the bike aesthetically… but you will find that many of the major decisions will be made for you by function.
Handlebars will be chosen not by looks, but by function.
Pegs are where they are because they need to be… not because you want to look cool.
Parts look the way they look because they are strong and light… not because they needed more surface area to chrome, or because you wanted to hide a battery behind it, or to cover something up to make it look smooth.

And it isn’t just integrity in aesthetics. Or truth in design.
It’s about practical, concrete, absolute truth.
Truth or integrity in custom motorcycles may be a foreign concept to most of you, but whether or not you realize it you respond to it on a subconscious level. We all do.
Truth use to be universally appealing to everyone.
In the days of modern and pre modern though… truth was considered both obtainable AND desirable.
We now live and mostly post modern world where truth is viewed as NEITHER desirable nor obtainable.
But many of us still desire truth.
And the Attack Chopper is the most truthful of all the variations on the custom motorcycle.
The Attack Chopper philosophy is rooted firmly in truth.
The absolute truth of performance.
You can’t lie about whether your bike works well or not when you are pushing it as hard as you possibly can, when it’s at its limit. It’s handling limit, its acceleration limit, its braking limit, its top speed limit, any limit… you can’t lie.
You come face to face with the truth.
The question is: Is my bike good enough?
There is no relativity here. No subjectiveness… it is succeed or fail.
When that question is asked is your bike going to be found wanting?
We aren’t talking about merit for your chopper based on beliefs, feelings, or opinions of any person or group here… we are talking about factual, scientific reality:
DOES IT WORK?
CAN YOU GO FAST?
CAN YOU STOP?
CAN IT HANDLE?
WIL YOU DIE WHEN YOU RIDE IT FAST?
When you build a bike that can function as we have stated here… then you are dealing with truth.
Your bike has merit, TRULY… no matter what anyone believes, hopes, wishes, or feels.
This is the concrete and real not the fluid, relative, or subjective.
We are dealing with facts here people.
A real way of evaluating your bikes value and merit… based on performance.
Not the sway of the masses or of the style of the month.
You must determine YOUR absolute performance standards and YOU must meet them with all the powers at your disposal.
All that you have been told says that you are foolish to attempt to build a chopper that works like a real motorcycle.
But all that you have been told ALSO says that you need to go get a loan and start making payments on your dream bike: a brand new sportbike.

And we all know that’s a lie, now don’t we?