#chopper

Now that the chopper craze has come and gone, let’s take a look back at 2009 and one of the many players in the chopper game: Big Dog Motorcycles. Here, Fonzie takes the 2009 Big Dog Coyote for a spin, along with MO E-i-C Kevin Duke. Together, they boil down the main ingredients that spelled the end of the chopper fad: The bikes are great to look at and somewhat enjoyable in a straight line, but ultimately they are completely impractical motorcycles with mediocre performance at best. But since the Coyote is meant to be looked at, go to the photo gallery to see more pictures.  

The theme of ridiculous cruisers continues for this week’s Church feature. Last week we brought you the mildly outlandish, but wonderfully brutish Kawasaki Vulcan 2000. Its ridiculousness lie in its monstrous V-Twin engine. This time, we bring you the 2004 Big Dog Ridgeback, which is a reminder to the crazy (and concurrent with the big-engine fad at the time) trend of utterly impractical, yet wildly designed choppers of a decade ago. What did the 2004 MO crew think about it? Considering Sean thinks you’re an idiot if you fell for the chopper fad, that should set the tone for this story.  

The Gods of Torque looked down upon the land and saw the Star Raider muscling its way through the atmosphere – its rider clinging to the grips, vainly trying to become more aerodynamic – and they decided to help the poor mortal to better enjoy the awesome engine that their powers had wrought. By their command, salvation for the rider, in the form of a bullet cowling, descended from the heavens, magically attaching itself to the triple clamp. And all was right in the world.

It’s long, it’s weird, and it’s no doubt polarizing. Welcome to the Travertson V-Rex, the topic of this week’s Church of MO feature. The V-Rex is what happens when computer renderings based in science fiction turn into three-dimensional reality through creativity, clever engineering, and yeah, a little bit of money. In 2008, MO’s Editor-in-Chief, Kevin Duke, rode the head-turning V-Rex and now, five years later, we’re taking a look back at a motorcycle that’s as head-turning now as it was then. Has time made the V-Rex any less radical? Not a chance. What do you think of the V-Rex? Tell us in the comments section below, then click on the link above to the original story, where you’ll also find a huge photo gallery.