Saturday, December 23, 2006

Could Miami Become The Detroit For Choppers

It will if Victor Cabanas, founder of Chopper Nation in Miami, Florida, has anything to do with it. He's the "Henry Ford of choppers." Because most choppers are hand made one-off customs requiring hundreds of hours to build, average prices hover around $60,000 and go up from there. He, like Henry Ford, realized you could open up the market to more buyers if you could reduce the price of the product. Henry Ford did it through the invention of the assembly line.
Victor Cabanas is doing it by replacing time intensive sheetmetal work-- such as pounding out gas tanks and fenders by hand-- with "stamping" those items from steel presses-- just like they do in automobile plants around the world. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, "You can have any car in any color as long as it is black." Chopper Nation will get you onto a chopper for as little as $25,000 as long as it is black-- the company's bare bones introductory model.
Despite using interchangeable parts, even the "Model T" version is unique enough to stand apart from the crowd with its unusual "twisted" downtube, a signature of every Chopper Nation bike. Choices in custom paint jobs and accessories will cost more. For those with more discretionary income, the sky is the limit. At the top of the line is a chopper that uses nitrous oxide (NOS) for an added rocket blast when needed.
More things we like about Chopper Nation:
They make their own distinctive frames. Many custom bike shops-- including the Discovery Channel's famous Orange County Choppers-- buy their frames already pre-made.
The location. If you live in south Florida, it couldn't be easier to get to their facility. It's right on the west side of I-95 at NW 108th Street in Miami.
They will be introducing a "soft tail" design at a comparably low price.