If you want a more concrete guide, try this. An experienced kit builder (though not a professional) I spoke to reckons it took 10 full days to build his last chopper from a kit. For someone less experienced it could take a couple of days longer. Twelve 9 hour days works out at 108 hours. Over evenings and weekends, this could drag out to three or four weeks of living in a pile of motorcycle parts! So be prepared to literally live experience if you are going to take plunge.

What about practical side? Well, there is no substitute for experience. The place to start building up your experience with mechanical side of building to kit bike is with your current ride. Make sure all you can do basic maintenance on your motorcycle, and then start to do some simple disassembling. Take off tires, take off exhaust, real basic stuff; all of this will help to build a new confidence in shop side of things. You can also get some great videos on maintenance, and even on building custom bike of your dreams. Read books, watch videos, and buy t-shirt! Believe me, all preparation you make will stand you in good stead.

If you really are hopeless at mechanical side of things, why not pay someone else to help you build it, or even get them to build whole thing for you? The cost of kit plus labor could well work out cheaper than buying a chopper “off shelf”.

And of course, when that beautiful chopper is standing on your driveway, and your friends are asking you “Was it worth it?” you can turn to chopper, drag your hand across flames on tank and polished chrome, turn back to them and say, “What do you think?”

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