How far can I extend my front end before my bike handles bad? How much rake should I put on it? These are probably the two questions most often asked by a guy starting to get a chopper together, and both questions fall into the same category as "how high is up?" A better way of putting would be: "what length and rake will make my bike handle better than stock?"

     That's right brother. Done right your bike should handle better than stock when being used for the purpose for which you are building it which is usually highway jammin’. Now if your planning on running your chopper in a moto-cross, your head is in your ass anyway, so just shine it on. The result would be like saying a Rolls Royce didnt handle or ride worth a dam just because a porche shut it down through a slalom course. Whenever you build something for a specific purpose, it has to suffer a little somewhere else, and this holds true for long forks. Generally speaking, the longer you go, and the more degrees of rake you put in your frame, the better your bike will handle at highway speed in a straight line; you suffer slightly at low speed and through tight corners, as does a rolls or a Cadillac. (The quality of the fork you are using is very important; if the constuction of the fork allows it to flex around like piece of wet spaghetti, your’e going to have handling problems, no matter what.)

     There are other things to consider along with the handling characteristics, such as size of wheels, tires, weight, handlebar leverage, and ground clearance. These in turn, should be decide upon with weight, height, strength, and favored riding position of the owner in mind. Remember that you are not going racing; you’re goin’ puttin’ to enjoy your self, and you can do this best if you’re comfortable.

     There is always, of course, Denny Dumfuk who isn’t happy unless he’s the most, the hairiest, the biggest, highest, etc. He’s the guy who got ape hangers outlawed for us. What can I say? You can overdo anything. But lets look at the positive side. Take, for example, a stock full-dress ’52 hog and put it up against a chopped version with a 16 on the rear, 8- inch over narrow springier up front with a 3.00x21 Avon. I’ll bet a $ 100 bill against a weeks use of your ol’ lady that the chop will crap all over the dresser on a tight mountain road. Why? Light weight; ground clearance; firmer, more responsive fork; and better weight distribution. True, an 8 inch fork isn’t very long by today’s standards, but I would guesstimate you could go 14 inches with a 3/4-inch rake before you went so far as to lose ground to the stocker. Even 16, 18, and 20 over with up to 1 3/4-inch rake is believable if its set up right and all factors are given careful consideration.

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