Bootlegger Choppers out of Williamston, South Carolina, seems to feel the same way I do about choppers versus customs and one quick glance at our feature bike says chopper long before it says custom. And no, I’m not making any statement that one is better than the other, that depends on your personal preference. It’s just that a bobber is not a chopper and never will be even though they started out that way back in the day or that no matter how much you wildly rake and stretch a bagger, it’ll always be a bagger, not a chopper.

   What Bootleegger has been up to with this bike Jack Cofano shot at the 2013 Easyriders Charlotte show is to build a good looking, but too-tough-for-paint bike (forget the black frame, it’s just a backdrop) that uses real metal color as its finish. Whether it’s the worked over tins or the various brass pieces like the wrench hand shifter, foot controls or the fender holes filled with brass mesh, the raw metal covered in a clear coat for protection just looks quietly tough and ready.

   There’s just enough taste of a frisco-style chopper here from the stance to the way the tank sits to qualify this bike as a chop for the hardcore rider. The use of “found” items like the ’48 Chevy hood ornament of the tank give it a real garage-built feel even though it clearly wasn’t. There’s just the right amount of cleverly tasteful thinking that went on in this build so it doesn’t have or try to have a slap-dash fell to it without feeling contrived either. Overall, Bootlegger Choppers has put a hell of a lot of effort into this bike to make an onlooker feel comfortable looking at it. Much the same way a P-51 Mustang looked just right without trying to look like a show plane (I’m assuming there are show planes, there’s a show for everything else).