Written by Andrew Jones
Please spare a thought for the poor old chopper. King of the custom scene for almost 40 years, the resurgence of the bobber and cafe look in the first decade of the Noughties has, in some eyes, relegated it to uncool school ever since. Of course, custom bike tastes wax and wane like Australian Prime Ministers; in one day and out the next. Or as some would argue, maybe choppers never went out of style at all" What we do know is that Chicago’s Federal Moto were looking for a challenge on their 13th build, they decided to throw out their cafe and tracker chops and bust out something a little different. Here’s the Yamaha XS650 they came up with.

?We’ve been teasing it on Instagram,? says  Federal?s Pete Müller. ?It’s a completely off-brand build for us, coming from a shop known for cafe racers & trackers. Of course, being a chopper built by Federal, there are all sorts of details brought over from our side of the moto world hidden in the details; this isn’t your dad’s garage-built chopper.? So, my Dad built choppers" Why didn’t someone tell me…
As much as they’d probably like to take all the credit, Pete and Mike are quick to point out that they had help in the form of Chi-Town ?distasteful tastemakers? Cult Runner (aka Chris Thorn) to help them out. So what did they get from the collaboration" ?We got a two-wheeled, head-turning ripper that?s cleanly crafted, distastefully lou...