What you spoke to is something I've wondered about occasionally during the conversations about a factory chopper or a "CVO" chopper; and that's just what would it be? So many of the more well known or notorious bikes that are sold as (ostensibly) choppers really aren't. And so many of them that really are aren't really machines you'd take out on the highway; at least not for any real travel. They're barhoppers, at best; and that's what they're designed to be (unless you can carry everything you'll want to take with you in a shirt pocket or a rolled up tshirt sleeve and won't mind pissing blood after a couple days in the saddle).
So, just what would a "factory" or a "CVO" chopper actually be since in being an HD product it would have to be something that could actually be ridden and not be solely a status piece? Wouldn't it? (And I ask because I'm not really sure I know what the answer to the question would be....).
Guess what I'm wondering is, if the MoCo makes something that's sold as a chopper are they by contemporary definitions offering a product that is going to be just a bar hopper status piece and not a bike to be ridden much more than around town or in the county? Or would the product be designed to have the handling, safety and at least modicum of comfort that would be required for the mass audience to be able to ride it all day? I mean, hey, Peter Fonda may have helped glorify the chopper, but he rides a Road King.... So is the chopper a circle that can be made square enough to fit the various requirements of a mass manufacturer like Harley Davidson and still keep it a real chopper (even for the CVO audience)?