Okay, so they aren’t real choppers, bikes with mile-long forks, teacup-sized gas tanks, armpit-exposing apehanger bars and bruising-to-the-bone rigid rear ends. But Harley’s new Rocker and Yamaha’s equally new Star Raider S travel quite a long way down that low-riding, raked-out road. The big difference is that while honest-to-Jesse-James choppers usually ride like a log wagon and handle like a dump truck with six flat tires, the Rocker and Raider have excellent riding qualities and handle better than even a lot of conventional cruisers.
It’s fascinating to see big manufacturers like H-D and Yamaha building machines like these. The Rocker in particular is a daring move by an OEM, with a swingarm-mounted rear fender that wraps tightly around a 240mm tire and turnsignals that double as brake- and stoplights. And even though the Raider has a 40-degree fork rake, you’d never know it was that radical by riding the bike.
It will be interesting to see how the motorcycling public reacts to these two. If sales are anything close to what The Motor Company and The Tuning Fork Company expect, we’ll probably be seeing more faux choppers in the near future.