by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com
When they are not going for a full-blown shocker build like say the one Orange County Choppers used to make, custom motorcycle garages have very few options at their disposal to make their projects stand out. Finding the right wheels is one of the easiest ways to ensure a custom bike sends the right message across.
Having remade literally hundreds of Harley-Davidson bikes over the past 25 or so years, the Germans at Thunderbike know this all too well. Sure, they do make their own custom frames, and when they do wheels are not that important anymore, but when going for a Harley conversion they are essential.
So essential, in fact, that at times these guys even name their builds after the type of wheel used. We’ve already seen the Street Bob-based Big Spoke, and here’s another, the Spoke Bob 21.
Also based on the Street Bob, the motorcycle rides – as its name says – on multi-spoked 21-inch wheels that are sure to catch the eye as they roll down the street. But they are not the only changes made to the two-wheeler.
Thunderbike went in full custom mode for this one, providing their usual complement of modifications in four key areas: fender, saddle, tank, wheels. Aside from these, a forward control kit was fitted, but also a pulley brake kit to go with the build.
In all, around 16 elements went into the making of the Spoke Bob, all of them of Thunderbike design, with the exception of the front and rear signals, supplied by Kellermann.
We are not given any info on how much the motorcycle cost to put together in this form, but a quick math exercise (Thunderbike lists the parts used, and most of them are available in their shop) gives a price in the range of over 7,000 euros – about $8,400 at today’s rates. Of those, about $3,000 was spent on the wheels alone.
