So you want to build a custom helicopter? Me too, so the first question I asked myself was where do I start? Should I make a business plan, a schedule, a financial statement, or should I just buy my wife some flowers and proceed blindly? I guess I should do all of the above, but not necessarily in that order.
I will start by trying to justify this purchase and/or effort by listing my reasons for building a Chopper. 1) I want to ride a custom chopper, a totally cool, snotty, fire-breathing, gas-eating, pavement-pounding, 2-wheeled monster that scares an old lady. 2) I want to be able to say “I built that” when someone asks me where I got that totally sick bike. 3) I want to be able to customize the bike beyond the standard add-on parts I can get for my current bike, a Harley Davidson Fatboy. 4) I want to be able to make this dream come true, which means I need to be able to afford it. A $35,000 helicopter is out of my current budget. 5) I’ve been talking about this for 5 years, so why don’t I do it and stop talking and start building something?
Now I have some reasons on paper. I’ll look at my options, then I’ll make a plan, a timeline, and find some extra money.
Let’s start with my build options and plan a slow and steady approach. I realize that I will have to do a lot of research before I begin. I have 4 basic options, a bike kit, a rolling chassis, a build from scratch, or an extreme makeover of a current bike.
Option 1) If I start with a motorcycle kit, maybe it’s the most advanced mechanically and the most backward financially. What I mean by this? Well, a kit bike has all the parts, it just needs paint, labor, gas, oil, and some love. The problem is that a full kit bike will set me back $12,000 up front. This is a little out of my spending a ton of money now and then I won’t be able to ride a bike for a year or two thinking. If I get a kit maybe I can put it together quicker as I will be motivated and have all the parts ready to go. As a first bike, I think it’s a very good option, considering all the costly mistakes I can make on that road. One drawback to this option is the amount of customization I can do to the bike while it’s being assembled. Because all the parts are in the kit, I can resist the urge to buy new bars or different sheet metal or other parts.
Option 2) Start with a rolling chassis, this is the middle option, spend a lump sum of money, about half of what the overall bike will cost, and get a basic setup that works together.
A rolling chassis kit consists of a frame, 2 wheels, forks and triple clamps and bars, all built and configured to work together. Add a motor and transmission and all the main workings of the bike are in place. This setup helps avoid some of the important work required to mix, match, and fit these elements together. This option also allows for a ton of customization on the parts that people see and the parts that give the bike personality. For me this is a very serious option to consider. You would only have half the cost and half the parts sitting and gathering dust until you have time to put it together.
Option 3) Find each and every part one at a time and build a completely custom motorcycle. I know I could do this, but I also know I’ll run into more unexpected and possibly costly problems with this type of build. This option would give me a bike that no one would ever duplicate. This could be very good or this could be very bad. What if some possible combination of frame, motor, forks or wheels didn’t work together? It wouldn’t be discovered until the motorcycle was all together. I think this option is best left to the serious pro who builds bikes overnight, as they are working on other people’s bikes and running businesses during the day. I may consider this for my second custom chopper.
Option 4) Take an existing bike and start cutting and changing it. This is perhaps as complicated as cutting and re-welding the frame to create new rake and angles. Or it could mean just getting a new frame and using the engine, transmission, and other parts to build a new machine. I like this idea and think it would be a lower cost alternative to all the new custom parts. With this option you can also keep the current record and title if the frame is not replaced. This is also a lower cost option because many of the miscellaneous parts can be reused.
I know that one page cannot fully explain all the possible combinations of the Custom Chopper build, I just hope this information gives you something to start with and build on. It has helped guide me in the direction of a rolling chassis, so I better go shopping.