I didn't know orange and black would look this good until I tried it.

I like all sorts of motorcycles. Choppers and bobbers are a big favorite. There's nothing like riding a bad-ass bike to make you feel alive. But building one is another thing entirely. Either you pay someone some serious coin to do it for you, or you do it yourself and hope you got it right. The problem is that a chopper or a bobber is a stylistic statement. You've got to have a plan from the beginning and stick to it if it's going to look good.

Now there is an online bike configurator that helps you figure out what you want ahead of time. Surprisingly, it come from Allstate Insurance. Wait, what? Yes, your insurance agent wants you to think of him (or her) as a big, bad, 1%er. All I know is that I had hours of fun making the bikes in the photostream below. I tried a lot of different things, and some of them even look good.

There are 12 steps. Choose a frame, front end, engine, wheels, fenders, gas tank, seat, exhaust, handlebars, paint (the real fun part), accesories and background. Then save it and compare it to the other bikes that others are building and posting. Surprisingly, your bike gets graded. Sick, sweet and decent are the rankings, from best to worst. Another surprise is the engine, which is clearly a Harley-Davidson Sportster instead of the Big Twin. The options are how the engine is finished: chrome, black, a combination of black and chrome, and red and black. There are multiple options at ever step, so the combinations must rank in the hundreds of thousands. It's very comprehensive, though I could have used a couple more options in just about every category. But I'm just being greedy.

The bobber was the result of people stripping off everythign from their Harley or Indian that didn't make it go fast. They'd strip them down then bob the fenders to cut even more weight, hence the name. In the '60s, when bike builders started altering the frames by stretching them or chopping them to put on longer forks, they became known as choppers.

Head on over to the Allstate Garage, give it a shot, see what you can come up with. And share the results with us. We'd love to see what you create. Here are my bikes. I tried a lot of different combinations to show how versatile the bike builder is, and not everything actually reflects my tastes. However, a couple of them came out real nice. Nice enough that I'd be proud to ride the bike.