In particular ones that have been modified or 'chopped; as in Orange County Choppers. I once had a Titan Gecko, beautiful machine but more temperamental than a cheerleader, very prone to breaking down inconveniently. I eventually changed it for a Harley Fatboy ironically the raliegh chopper bike i mentioned was supposedly inspired by the chopper motorbikes although it is hard to see how
I should have mentioned that the "big, powerful motorcycles, particularly Harleys" weren't stock. As you pointed out, they weren't stock, but were heavily modified. When you said " supposedly inspired the chopper motorbikes" did you mean to say supposedly inspired by the chopper motorbikes"? I think that it's the Raleigh Chopper that was inspired by the motorcycles, not the other way around. But considerable artistic license was employed in the adaptation.
Marines in WWI supposedly came to be called Devil Dogs by the Germans, but no kind of proof of this ever surfaced.
True. See the wiki-article for details of how and why it happened. The "Teufelhunden" (Devil Dogs) nickname was supposedly used as a mark of respect, but there is no proof that it actually happened. At least, no Germans have ever heard of the term. Oh, well.