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Freestyle Harley-Davidson Blue Flames Is What’s Wrong with Series Custom Frames

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Take a good long look at any custom motorcycle made in the U.S. No matter in what state they were made, or when, they tend to have that certain unique feel about them. And a big reason for that is the custom frame that underpin them. You see, Americans love to make one-offd, and that is why the garages there usually don’t make a frame and then turn series production on it. This results in truly unique two-wheelers, each with its story to tell. Not the same can be said about Europe though. First off, there are far fewer custom motorcycle garages there. Secondly, the ones that do exist have been forced to turn to mass production, including of custom frames, and that takes its toll on the originality of this build. Take the bike in the gallery above. It comes from Europe, and is the work of a very busy garage there called Thunderbike. It looks very much like all the other custom-framed Thunderbikes we’ve discussed over the past few months, regardless of when they were made. This one comes from 2008, and it is the result of pairing a custom Thunderbike frame by the name Freestyle with the usual Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle engine. It appears to be exactly what you would expect from a custom European bike, with nothing particularly exciting about it. And the blue color sprayed on it, the work of Thunderbike’s usual partner in this area, Kruse Design, does not seem to help either. The fact the bike will probably not be remembered down the ages (we uncovered it while digging for machines worthy of our Custom Builds Month coverage) does not diminish the merits of the frame tough. Made from large diameter cold-rolled ST52 steel tubing, it comes complete […]

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Harley-Davidson Radical Over 26 Is All About the Massive 26-Inch Front Wheel

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com As some of you might have noticed over the past few days, as part of our Custom Builds Months we started covering more the side of the motorcycle industry that has to do with custom frames, because this is how you get truly unique builds. Generally, motorcycle garages come up with a frame design and stick with it, if it works, for the limited number of bikes made based on it. But there is one such organization in Germany that has not one, but 15 custom frames, and made not a few, but literally dozens of bikes using them. The shop is called Thunderbike, and one of those dozen bikes they made over the years is the one in the gallery above. It’s called Radical Over 26, hinting to both the type of frame used, and the size of one of the wheels that support it. First, the frame. Thunderbike has about six Radical frames in their portfolio, ranging from lowriders to the extremely curved one that formed the basis of this machine. This one allows for the integration of Twin Cam B engines, and is made of large-diameter cold rolled ST52 steel tubing. To power it along the shop chose a Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle 103 good for 100 ps and gifted it with a Mikuni HSR 42 carburetor and a custom exhaust system. As for the element that makes the bike stand out perhaps the most, the wheels are seriously imbalanced in terms of size, and that, coupled with the very low seating position and the raised handlebar really make the motorcycle worthy of the Radical name. Up front, the shop went for a 26-inch wheel inspired by the one used on another of its custom builds, the Open Mind, and offset it with

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Red Scorpion Is What Happens When Custom Frame Meets Harley-Davidson Hardware

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com There’s nothing better in the world of custom bike-making than coming up with your own frame. Sure, you could choose the easy way and start modifying existing motorcycles, but that doesn’t say that much about your skills as a custom builder. We know of a huge number of shops in the U.S. making their own custom frames, that in turn end up becoming the base for incredible two-wheelers. But there are garages outside the States that do the same thing. One of them – and a very lucrative one – is Germany-based Thunderbike. We talked about their work extensively over the past few months as part of our various special coverages, but given the large number of builds they make, there seems to be no end in sight. Until recently, we covered at length Thunderbike’s skills when it comes to modified Harleys, but from this week on we decided to have a closer look at their custom frames, and we’ve already said a word or two about some other of their creations for this segment. And now it’s time for another. In the gallery above sits a motorcycle the garage completed all the way back in 2007. It is called the Red Scorpion, and it is one of the finest examples of how you can pair your own custom frame with custom parts and available Harley-Davidson hardware. The bike is part of the garage’s Freestyle collection of bikes, and it is built around one of the 15 or so frames available in its inventory. Riding low thanks to the use of an air suspension, and with an appearance of having a broken back, the Red Scorpion is animated by a Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle 103ci engine. The powerplant draws its fuel through a Mikuni HSR 42

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1921 Harley-Davidson Banjo Board Track Racer Wins H-D Design Award

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com At the beginning of last week, bike maker Harley-Davidson announced it is holding a special online event dedicated to all those bike builders who were robbed by the health crisis of the chance of showing their creations in live motorcycle shows. Called The No Show, the Harley event brought together on Youtube and Instagram around 60 bike builders across the U.S., each showing and advertising their bikes the best they could. Of the 60, Harley chose three to be named winners in various categories – Media Choice Award, H-D Styling & Design Award, and Harley-Davidson Museum Award. As far as Styling & Design, the bike was selected and the crown was handed by Brad Richards, the man in charge of design at Harley, to a build called 2-Cam Banjo Board Track Racer. The bike is the work of a man from Wisconsin named Michael Lange. Describing himself as a bike builder for 50 years and a self-employed man for the past 30, Lange decided to bring to The No Show a motorcycle he built way back in 1996, one he was supposed to show at this year’s Mama Tried. The man’s confidence in the bike paid off, given his build won one of the three awards, but perhaps for him that’s just a small achievement. Running on massive wheels and packing a host of custom-made parts, from the engine itself to the fuel tank and the frame, the Banjo is of course an odd sight on the roads today, but it is a common one at various racing events still paying tribute to the racing bikes of old. Lange says he originally built the bike to race it as a privateer, and race it he did for the past 24 years without many major issues.

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1964 FL Panhead Is Today’s Dose of Old School Custom Harley-Davidson

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Ever since Softails have come onto the motorcycle scene, garages across the world flocked to use them as a base for whatever project they had in mind. That means most of what’s out there now is based on newer motorcycles that, despite being generally cool, lack the old school appeal of older Harleys. Take the 1964 FL Panhead in the gallery above. The FL is one of Harley’s historic lines, having started out in the early 1940s, and is generally seen as one of the best representative of the classic Harley look. Whereas custom bikes based on more recent Harleys are favorites of the present-day online media, older ones such as this one here are stars of motorcycles shows big and small. But for the first time since ever, a global health crisis ended pretty much all such events planned for the year. To fill the gap, Harley-Davidson announced on Tuesday (June 16) a week-long online event dedicated to some 60 not-so-famous bike builders that would have been the talk of show-goers at the now-canceled or postponed events. The custom 1964 FL Panhead in the video below is a build made by one of those 60 builders. Its creator’s name is Eric Stein, and he is by no means a full-time motorcycle tuner, but an “operation’s manager” at some North Carolina company. Since 2014, Stein used most of his spare time to customize motorcycles. This particular one, the most recent of the batch, is his 11th, and a good looking one at that. Keeping things simple, the Panhead keeps true to the “older style bikes that are appreciated more” while at the same time adding a custom flavor through fine touches like the rear fender or the unique fuel tank – watch the video below

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Harley-Davidson Country Cruiser Comes with Two Rear Wheels

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com The European custom motorcycle industry is not even close in terms of size and reach as that in the U.S. but that doesn’t mean there aren’t shops on the continent that strive to keep this segment populated with constant new builds. German Thunderbike is one such shop, and this here machine is its latest customized Harley. Based on the bike maker’s Street Bob, the bike has been built to highlight what Thunderbike has to offer in terms of custom parts for Harley motorcycles. But it is also described as the perfect tool for riders to “clear your head and leave the stress of everyday life behind.” The first things that stand out when it comes to this Street Bob are the wheels. The garage decided to fit the motorcycle with two rear wheels for symmetry and more balanced proportions: the front one is a 3-inch wide wheel that usually goes at the rear, while the rear one has been replaced with a 5.5-inch wide one. Both are wrapped in Dunlop rubber, A long list of other custom parts made it onto the all-black build, most of them of Thunderbike-design. They range from the front and rear fenders to turn signals and exhaust – this last piece of hardware is from Dr.Jekill & Mr.Hyde. “To give the Country Cruiser more visual highlights we have installed our covers “Drilled” on the primary, ignition and grip ends. The flat torque handlebar with our Base Rubber grips offer good grip and a relaxed seating position that is already in the bobber style,” Thunderbike says about the build. As with most of the other project the garage is responsible for, the Country Cruiser as they call it uses the stock Harley engine. In this case, we’re talking about a 107ci

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Pack of Custom Harley-Davidsons Out Hunting, Apex Predator Leads the Way

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com/ In April 2020, Harley-Davidson concluded a custom build competition called King of Kings. Dedicated to its network of international dealers, the contest saw some incredible machines coming out the door of garages spread throughout the world. King of Kings was the coronation of an older, similar Harley initiative called Battle of the Kings (BOTK). It brought together 15 shops that have won BOTK in the past, competing against each other to get the majority of the 50,000 public votes cast during the event. Over the past month, we brought you each and every one of the 15 builds in detail, as a testimony of what a little imagination and some technical expertise can do to an otherwise stock Harley. We finished our run through the list on Saturday, and now it’s time to have a look at the entire pack of motorcycles that have wowed the crowds online. As you already know by now, the winner and the holder of this year’s King of Kings title is the Mexican-made Apex Predator. Based on a Sportster XR1200 with the stock engine, it is supposed to be a “retro-futuristic XR-based track monster meets street fighter,” and managed to attract the majority of the 50,000 votes. Built by a dealer in Mexico’s Queretaro, it features custom parts like front fork covers, dual air intakes, wave-style brake rotors, and a seat wrapped in Alcantara as a touch of class. The bike also received a TFT Bluetooth instrument panel, and a hand-built 2-1-2 exhaust system. Runner-up was the Greek-made Gryps, a Sportster designed in such a way as to be a mix between a real-life two-wheeled machine and a creature from the ancient Greek mythology – it is shaped somewhat like the mythological griffin of millennia ago. The Gryps is

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Harley-Davidson Forty-Eight Gets Low Stance and High Exhaust

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Two weeks after we started, we came to the end of our Harley-Davidson King of King’s coverage. Of the 15 bikes that took part in the competition, only one is left, the one its builders call the Harley-Davidson XL 1200 FT. The creation of Harley’s dealer in Bordeaux, France, the build started life as a regular Forty-Eight, and received a number of changes meant to alter its appearance and performance and make it suitable for the Harley-designed contest. As usual, the shop had to respect the budget limit imposed by Harley for the bike to be admitted into the competition, so the changes that have been done to the stock machine are not necessarily extensive, but they are effective. To give the bike – officially called XL 1200 FT – a meaner appearance, the rear has been shortened and the exhaust has been raised to a higher position. At the front, the fork has been paired to high performance shock absorbers that also help give the motorcycle a lower appearance, and there’s also a special housing for the headlights. Engine wise, not many modifications have been made to the stock engine. The shop did add new camshafts and a high-flow air filter, but that’s about it. “Our XL 1200 FT brings together modern and historic elements of the brand to make it a somewhat timeless motorcycle,” said the French dealer about the build. As did all other bikes that have been entered in the competition, this too needed public votes to win. In the end, it failed to do so, and the title went to a Mexican build named Apex Predator. King of Kings was a competition dedicated to Harley’s international dealers. 15 bikes were featured on the roster from all around the world, all

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Harley-Davidson Iron RR Is How an 883 Looks Like With Stage IV Tuning

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Two weeks in, there are not that many bikes left to talk about in our coverage of the Harley-Davidson 2020 King of Kings competition. Only two are still to be admired, and one them is this Polish-born Iron RR. The build-off event dedicated to Harley’s international dealers concluded in April, and it has already crowned its winner, the Mexican-made Apex Predator. But each of the builds that entered, 15 in all, had something special about them. Most of the bikes we’ve seen so far have been all about crazy looks and only minor mechanical upgrades. In the case of the Iron RR, the ratio is somewhat inverted, as the Szczecin-based shop focused more on performance than extreme looks. The build is based on an Iron 883, but one that got its tendons replaced and its heart pumped. The garage replaced both the front and rear suspension, added a new fork, and fitted the two-wheeler with sports brakes. All these changes were required because the motorcycle’s 883cc engine got tweaked with the inclusion of the Harley-Davidson Stage IV tuning kit. The new hardware is backed by a new exhaust system. The Poles did a bit of work on the bike’s appearance as well, just to make sure the build sends the right message. There’s a special paint scheme on the bike’s body, but also a new LED light system up front. All the modifications made by the garage did not exceed €6,000 ($6,500), which was the budget limit imposed by Harley-Davidson for the participants. The other rules of the competition stated that the base motorcycle needs to be a Harley-Davidson, at least half of the parts used for the tuning to be taken from the Harley inventory, and the finished product be road legal. As is

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Pandemic Panhead Project, Part 2

The tanks and fender are out to Deny 925, the master of patina paint, for a scallop classic paint job. In the meantime, I needed to install the Morris Mag, decide on a carb, install the front brake, finish a handful of welds, work with the guys at Bates on a clutch cable, make an old clutch lever work, hell, make the brake lever work and find a brake cable, take the springer apart and add Paughco inner springs, install the headlight and taillight, make a muffler bracket and mo’. READ THIS BUILD TECH ON BIKERNET – CLICK HERE JOIN THE CANTINA – SUBSCRIBE TODAY https://www.bikernet.com/pages/custom/subscription.aspx

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