What is a Bobber Motorcycle?

It can be said that bobber style motorcycles are the foundation for customized bikes all over the world. Riders who wished to have unique bike would “bob” their motorcycles which meant stripping the excess bodywork from the motorcycle to make them much lighter and faster for the ultimate motorcycle experience. 

When is comes to "bobbing", there are no rules- a motorcycle can be customized to whatever the rider's tastes may be. Bobber motorcycles have been around for a very long time and won't be going away anytime soon. 

A “Bobber” motorcycle is not a type of motorcycle, but simply a customized motorcycle. In an effort to make the motorcycle lighter and faster, anything that is seen as extra or unnecessary is taken off the bike to reduce the weight and give it a minimalistic look. Back in the day items such as fenders, lights, mirrors, and anything else that did not contribute to making the bike faster was taken off the bike. 

Motorcycle owners would remove parts they thought were “unnecessary” to make them lighter and faster. Here are the most common bobber modifications:

• removing the front fender
• rear fender would be significantly shortened
• removal of mirrors
• Headlights would be removed
• The handlebars were altered
• The seats would be made as light and small as possible
• chrome components would be removed

It was not until the decade of the 40's that the bobber motorcycle really gained in its popularity. Motorcycles were fairly popular before World War II, but their popularity grew even more after the war ended. During the war, American servicemen got used to riding much lighter and faster motorcycles overseas that they wanted something similar when they returned home. Since many of these servicemen gained mechanical skills working on military vehicles while at war, they began to bob their bikes by tampering with and removing parts of their own motorcycles in order to make them lighter and faster.

It was not until the 1970’s that the bobber trend took a back seat behind the chopper.  While the chopper is also custom, the difference between the two is that the chopper favored style over functionality, while the bobber put speed and performance ahead of style. By this time, many motorcycle brands began to make their motorcycles much faster as well. By the mid-1970s, most Japanese and European performance bikes could outperform all but the fastest bobbers. 

During the 2000s, the bobber resurfaced again and a resurgence of interest appeared once again. Riders became nostalgic for a more traditional style of customization and the bobber was becoming popular once again.  Motorcycle brands were joining in on the bobber trend as well. Triumph released its all new Bobber Bonneville in 2001 and in 2017 release the Triumph Bobber. Although the brand motorcycle was popular, they were nothing compared to a legitimate custom bobber.