As the American Chopper TV show comes to an end, the future of custom choppers is left missing a critical spokesperson that remindedus how much we love choppers. The only custom motorcycles themed show to stay on the air more than a season, one has to wonder if cancellingthe show will have a profound impact on the custom motorcyclebusiness in general or is the internet buzz enough to maintain it?

The upswell the custom chopper business received from the TV show created around a group of guys who built custom choppers almost equaled the techno bubble in the late nineties as far as the amount of start-ups entering the business. Like any other pumped up market, eventually consumers came back to reality and many of the newly created custom motorcycle businesses had to close up shop.

Once an almost completely underground market, the interest that was created in people who under normal circumstances would not be interested in choppers also propelled small businesses into huge successes and created an new internet niche that has remained as large as it was during the chopper. Since websites cost a lot less to run than brick and mortar businesses, the fallen economy had no effect on the huge number of websites that were built around custom motorcycles.

What remains to be seen is whether or not the custom chopper business can live through this recession with only magazine ads and internet buzz to keep it going. I'm guessing that many more custom shops will shut down this year. Some may simply turn back into one man motorcycle shops that can no longer afford a crew of bike builders.

Fortunately for one man shops, they only have to build 5 or 6 customs each year to stay in business. And the small number of buyers left with money to spend are also the sort to not search for cheap bikes as much as getting the motorcycle they really want. Most every day Joes, the type that were stretching their budgets to get into their own custom bike when times were good are certainly not going to risk their family's financial future on a $30,000 toy.

The only buyers that remain at this point are the hardcore biker and the wealthy. I think the middle class will come back to buying {custom bikes|choppers[s/pin] but only after this economic slump is truly over and Americans are no longer afraid to spend money again. But we have certainly seen the peak of the custom bike craze. There's just simply no way it will be what it was during the American Chopper days.

I'd be willing to bet that more than half of those that bought custom bikes just because of American Chopper have already traded them in on more practical motorcycles, if they're even still riding. When the economy tanked many just couldn't justify keeping a toy in the garage for an occasional ride that was worth more than a lot of Americans make in a year.

While there is a future for custom motorcycles, it isn't going to look anything like the recent past.

For more information on choppers visit Choppers.