I thought you were a 23.5 pit guy? Thurston 44 would work but I found that the neck on these were wide. A vanson large chopper is huge I think 25.5 pit, the medium is 22.5 pit. Which means your an in-between medium an large like me.. An older or custom 42 is perfect 23.5 pit. I tried a 44 Thurston chopper- sold it, tried a medium (paul cox) to small sold it. Now I'm waiting on a custom 42 paul cox from vanson. Hope this helps some aggravation you may have faced
Either you get vanson to do a custom 42 or you wait.. and look for a tagged 42 chopper to pop up on the bay or anywhere 2nd hand jackets are sold. Carlos has a chopper tagged 42 an I havnt seen many of those.Sorry, was a way for a couple days... just jumping back in. I've slimmed down a touch (about 190lbs), so I'm about a 22.5-23" pit-to-pit. My only jacket currently is the limited edition Vanson Cycle Champ made for the Harley Museum. It's size Medium with a pit-to-pit around 22.5-.75". It sounds like the Chopper in Medium will be too small and the Large too big. Thurston Bros doesn't have any 44's in the Chopper in stock (I believe only they carry the Chopper in actual chest sizes; not just small, medium, and large). So what I'm hearing is that I need go to Vanson and get fitted for a custom jacket. LOL!