Strip it back to the bare essentials, and make it lighter, faster and cooler. It’s a recipe for success that dates back nearly as far as the motorcycle itself, and it’s no surprise that bobber motorcycles are one of the longest-standing forms of custom bikes.
Accepted theories date the inception of the bobber back as far as the late 1920s and early 30s, when riders started stripping off standard road equipment to shed weight and stand out from the crowd. Emulating competition bikes of the day (predominantly AMA dirt track), road riders commonly stripped front fenders, exhaust silencers and other add-ons, and rear fenders were shortened drastically. In fact, the bobber terminology traces its origins back to this modification, as the bikes were originally called bob-jobs, as in bob-tail.…