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 trying to justify this purchase and/or effort, for this I will make a list of my reasons for building a Chopper. 1) I want to ride a custom chopper, a completely cool, stretched, fire-breathing, gasoline-eating, pavement-pounding, scaring old lady 2-wheeled monster. 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-ons 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 just 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 schedule, and find some extra money.
Let’s start with my build options and plan on a slow and steady approach. I realize that I will have to do a lot of research before starting. I have 4 basic options, a moto kit, a rolling chassis, a build from the ground up, or an extreme makeover of a current motorcycle.
Option 1) If I start with a motorcycle kit, it might be the furthest ahead from a mechanical standpoint and the furthest behind from a financial standpoint. What I mean by this? Well, a kit bike has all the parts, it just needs paint, labor, gas, oil, and some love. Problem is, a complete kit bike will cost me $12,000 up front. This is a bit 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 faster since I’ll be motivated and have all the parts ready to go. As a first moto 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 put together. Since all the parts are in the kit, I can resist the temptation 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 frame kit consists of a frame, 2 wheels, forks and clamps and triple bars all built and configured to work together. Add a motor and a transmission and all the major operation of the bike will be in place. This setup helps to avoid some of the major work required to mix, match, and match these items. This option also allows for a ton of customization on the parts people see and the parts that give the bike personality. For me this is a very serious option to consider. It would only have half the cost and half the parts sitting and collecting 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 expensive 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 professional who builds bikes all night, since they are working on other people’s bikes and running businesses during the day. I may consider this for my second custom helicopter.
Option 4) Take an existing bike and start cutting it up and swapping it out. This is perhaps as complicated as cutting and re-welding the frame to create new rake and angles. Or it could just mean 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 registration 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 one page can’t fully explain all possible Custom Chopper build combinations, I just hope this information gives you something to start with and build on. It has helped steer me in the direction of a rolling chassis, so I better go shopping.