Big Legal Disclaimer: The contents below are re-printed from the May 1970 issue of Big Bike Magazine with permission of Daisy/Hi-Torque Publishing for historical purposes only. ChoppersRule does not recommend, endorse or encourage the mechanical methodology shown on this or the following pages under the header "Raking Your Neck". Modifying a vehicle frame may result in instability, injury or death and should only be attempted by trained professionals.

One thing that spells automatic chopper these days is extended front end, and the further it is extended the wilder the bike looks.

Once you get past a certain point with extending, however it becomes necessary to rake the neck, if only to keep your feet on the ground when you pull up to a light. Of course, the raked neck also adds much to the appearance of the bike.

Raking isn't that difficult, as long as you have a torch that is capable of cutting the neck and an arc welder that is strong enough to safely re-weld it. The two main things to remember are to be sure that you use enough amperage on the arc welder to get good penetration with the re-welding job, and that you eyeball tire neck to make sure that you have bent it straight before re-welding. 

With these thoughts in mind. follow the pictures, and add a bit of rake to
your life.

1 . The stock Harley neck. Some later frames have a fork lock in this area which will have to be cut out when slicing the neck.

2. Make a chalk or soapstone mark up the center of the neck and at the top of the neck. This gives you a reference mark for cutting.
3. Just for your own reference, you might want to measure the distance front the point where the neck web connects to the downtube to the chalkline. In this way you will he able to remeasure after cutting and bending to find out just how much you are raking the neck.
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