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Magnificent Stock H-D Replacement Rigid Frames

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Edlund Frames Classics from the Masters The good Doctor Hamster was in a jam recently. We were building a Panhead basket case with a modified stock Knucklehead frame. We had it straightened and fixed by the local master Dr. John. We still weren’t happy and decided to search for a stock Panhead frame. Hell, it was the only way to go. READ THE ARTICLE ON BIKERNET – CLICK HERE Join the Cantina – Subscribe Today https://www.bikernet.com/pages/custom/subscription.aspx

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Harley-Davidson Torqpedo Is a Brutal Full Package Custom

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com There are few custom motorcycle garages out there that have created so many projects that they can split them into series. The Germans from Thunderbike are one of those garages, as we’ve kept telling you for the past month or so. With so many custom motorcycles in Thunderbike’s portfolio – all either Harley-based, or built on a custom frame but powered by a Harley engine – we’ll probably keep talking about them for the rest of June, which here at autoevolution is Two-Wheeler Month. For today we chose the Torqpedo, a Softail Breakout-based build that is part of the garage’s Racer Series, alongside the TB-R1, and it is described as being the receiver of the full package of custom parts available in Thunderbike’s portfolio. That means most of the elements on the Torqpedo, from the toppers to the suspension, are of custom design, and were made by either Thunderbike itself, or by third party partners like Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde in the case of the exhaust system, or Ingo Kruse when it comes to the paint. The entire construction of the bike’s body sets it miles apart from the original Breakout, but perhaps the biggest contribution to that distinct look are the huge wheels, with the front one from a collection called Vegas and sized at 23 inches. What’s more, a pulley brake system was fitted so that the view of the wheels is not obstructed by other elements. With the tank and the tail designed according to the garage to “form an unmistakable racer line,” the Torqpedo is an older project of the shop, but one that like most others shows how much potential Harley motorcycles have when it comes to customization options. You can see all the modifications made to it in

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Harley-Davidson Production-R Is Nothing Like a Series Milwaukee Motorcycle

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com We’re not sure how many Harley-Davidson branded parts are needed for a custom motorcycle build to justify the use of the name Harley, but we’re pretty sure the deployment of a Screamin’ Eagle, even on a custom frame, is reason enough. Despite this name, the bike in the gallery above is of course not a series production Harley. It is actually a custom creation coming from Germany, from the hands of a garage called Thunderbike – we’ve talked about this crew’s products at length over the past couple of months. As most of the group’s other two-wheelers based on a custom frame, this too was meant as an exercise for seeing what can be “technically feasible with Thunderbike frames and parts.” That means tons of original hardware was fitted on the same frame, linked to a Harley engine, and made to work both visually and mechanically. The skeleton of the motorcycle is a frame Thunderbike calls TBR-R. Inside it sits a Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle 110 good for 100 ps and 160 Nm of torque. But that’s not the impressive part. No matter your opinion on custom motorcycles so extreme, we’re pretty sure you can’t help but notice the massive wheels fitted on this one, especially the airplane turbine-shaped one at the back. Sized 26-inch front and 21-inch rear, they eclipse pretty much every single other part of the build. As usual, the Ingo Kruse-painted bike rides on an air suspension that should give it a bit more ground clearance that shown in the photos above. The Harley-Davidson Production-R by Thunderbike made its official debut way back in 2014 at the European Bike Week in Faak, Austria. We are not being told what happened to it since, but we’re pretty certain we’ve seen an evolution of

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Harley-Davidson Marrajo Is How Two-Wheeled Metal Sharks Look Like

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com It’s Two-Wheeler Month here at autoevolution, and since the beginning of June we’ve tried to bring you not only the best, but also the craziest vehicles on two wheels. But never until now did we uncover something like the bike in the gallery below. Custom motorcycle shops, especially those usually handling Harley-Davidsons, have made a habit out of creating complicated builds meant to send whatever message the garage needs sending. We’re not sure what the message of this one is, but we still like it. The two-wheeler you can see in the gallery is called Marrajo; that’s the Spanish word for the shortfin mako shark. It’s in Spanish because the build belongs to a Spanish shop that goes by the name El Solitario MC. Sometime in its past, this motorcycle was a 1998 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200. El Solitario came across it at a time when it had just 10,000 miles on it (16,000 km), and decided to turn into a “Chupito but suitable for longer distance cruising.” For reference, Chupito is also an El Solitario creation based on a 1977 Ducati 350. Chupito is funky-looking too, but this Harley is a whole new level of funky, probably thanks to the shark snout-like nacelle fitted around the headlight, and the steel bars that rise from under the seat to form what is supposed to be a shark fin. There are tons of other custom parts fitted on the bike, ranging from the leather seat to the modified fenders. They all combine with one another and the colors chosen for the tank and exhaust to create an image the Milwaukee-based bike maker never had in mind for this particular 1200. El Solitario says because the engine had barely been used before they got their hands on the

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Harley-Davidson Titanium Is a Lower and Slimmer Breakout

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com German Harley-Davidson dealer/custom bike builder Thunderbike has been in the business of reimagining Milwaukee made machines for two decades now, and one of the favorite stock motorcycles it likes to tamper with is the Breakout. Part of the Softail family that presently includes no less than 12 models, the Breakout is described by Harley itself as a “muscular modern chopper that turns stoplights into drag strips.” For Thunderbike, the stock bike is more of a canvas to be remodeled at will. The Breakout conversion in the gallery above is called Titanium, and that name was chosen because almost all the aluminum parts fitted on the motorcycle have been polished in titanium – and there’s a long list of them, ranging from the tiny side mount license bracket to the more visible 21- and 23-inch wheels. Some of these parts have other functions than being just visual enhancements for the custom build. The air suspension, for instance, brings the two-wheeler much closer to the ground than in stock form, while the wheels, fork and custom fuel tank significantly alters the shape of the bike compared to the original Breakout. The engine remains the stock 114ci fitted from factory, only it breathes through a Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde exhaust system. Visually, the cold look of the Titanium-polished parts is enhanced by means of a custom paint job performed by one of Thunderbike’s favorite partners in this field, Ingo Kruse. The German garage says it took just a few weeks to put together, paint job included. The bike in this condition, which was first shown in public last year at the garage’s Jokerfest event, is listed by Thunderbie as for sale, but no mention of the price is given. Full details, as well as a way to

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1969 Triumph T120R Bonneville La Sal del Diablo Delivers an R-Rated Message

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com In the world of cars and motorcycles alike, the name Bonneville is held in high regard. Often associated with the Salt Flats in Utah, a place where for decades daredevils have gone to challenge speed demons that tormented them, the name also inspired a number of vehicles that were made over the years. The most famous of all vehicles wearing the name Bonneville are the Pontiacs produced with this name from 1958, and the Triumph motorcycle line that was born in 1959. But since this is Two-Wheeler Month at autoevolution, we’re not here to talk about the Pontiac. So we dug up the 1969 Triumph T120R Bonneville in the gallery above on the website of El Solitario MC, a Spanish custom garage we talked quite a bit about over the past few days. The motorcycle that brought us back to the Spanish is a Triumph Bonneville from the early generation of the model. The T120 designation stands for the line manufactured between 1959 and 1975 as the first model of the series, while the R is there to signify this was a model meant for the U.S. market. The customization of the bike that led to the creation of the La Sal del Diablo (that’s the name El Solitario gave the bike) was a collaborative effort between the Spanish and an Anaheim, California-based shop called Hell on Wheels, which handled the rebuilding of the 650 cc engine of the two-wheeler. According to the garage, the end result is a no-expense-spared machine built around a matching numbers Bonneville. It features a new frame, 19- and 21-inch wheels, a customized fuel tank, and as a touch of finesse hand lettering on the body spelling out an R-rated message (check gallery for details). The end result of the

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1976 BMW R45 Gonzo Tried to Be the Opposite of Custom, and It Nailed It

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Usually when going for a custom motorcycle build, most garages choose the flamboyant way of doing things. We usually get to see extensive engineering, sculpted parts, and a wealth of eye-popping colors and visual tricks that are supposed to leave us in awe. But not this build here. Sometime in its past, the motorcycle in the gallery above was a BMW R45. Part of a family of horizontally opposed twin-cylinder machines introduced by the Germans back in the 1970s, it would have probably met the crusher if it weren’t for a Spanish garage that goes by the name of El Solitario MC. Unlike other businesses in this field of work, El Solitario did not try to make the Bimmer stand out in a crowd through some innovative engineering solution, or a design so polished it would have made our eyes hurt. It actually went the other way, with the goal of making it as spartan as possible. El Solitario says it built the bike with “no pressure for results,” and the goal was not to create a bike with “a posh finish or complicated technical solutions.” Instead, they sort of tried to see how much things they can remove from a bike and still keep it functional, and without spending a fortune while doing so. Named Gonzo after the Muppets character, it comes with a shortened and narrowed subframe holding the seemingly unpainted stock fuel tank, a lithium battery, and a beat down, custom seat. It rides on 21-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, fitted with aftermarket shocks and Michelin tires. The Gonzo was made by El Solitario (we’ve talked about some other of their builds as part of our Two-Wheeler Month coverage) with no particular purpose a long time ago. It spent its past

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Harley-Davidson Black Rebel Is a Full Custom Thunderbike

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com As one of the largest Harley-Davidson garages on the European continent, Thunderbike has a long list of custom parts at the ready for any build that is required of them. And with 20 years of customizing Harleys behind them, the Germans are not playing around. Usually Thunderbike builds come to the world as per customer request, but from time to time they do make a project or two just as a means to showcase that wealth of parts. The bike in the gallery above, called Black Rebel (alternatively spelled Blackrebell), has been made to fulfill the wishes of a customer. Based on a Softail FXDR, the build has been designed as the “full Thunderbike drone.” It comes with a long list of custom parts, ranging from the license plate frame to the exhaust system that swerves toward the rear. “The Blackrebell got the complete series of the new Thunderbike FXDR parts,” says the tuner, the most prominent of which being the front and rear fenders that cover the massive wheels. As most other Thunderbike builds, this one rides on an air suspension system also, which depending on the swing arm can vary the bike’s ride by 100 mm with the push of a button. The exhaust system is also of Thunderbike make, designed specifically to run with Milwaukee-Eight engines, and comes as a complete kit with header and muffler. The host of modifications made to the FXDR make it stand out quite a lot from the usual production version of the motorcycle. We are not being told how much the final product ended up costing, but if you’re curious about an estimate you can head on to the Germans’ official website and sum up all those custom parts – there are 21 in all, each

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Vagabund 07 The Whale Is All About the Fuel Tank

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Because of the way in which motorcycles are made, the fuel tank is one of the main elements that can be customized to relay the most important message of a build: uniqueness. And in the case of this bike, that message is definitely heard. The motorcycle in the gallery above was once a BMW R100 R. This motorcycle family was the Germans’ last breed of air-cooled two-wheelers, and they date back as far as 1976. That makes them very old, and in the case of this one here, born in 1991, not particularly appealing in stock form. Not the same can be said about it customized like this. The bike is called The Whale, or 07, and is the work of an Austrian custom garage that goes by the name of Vagabund. The group is behind some of the craziest motorcycle designs on the market, and that’s not necessarily because of the final shape of the projects, but also thanks to the manufacturing processes it uses, like 3D printing. In the case of The Whale, the focus went into making the fuel tank unique. Vagabund calls it a handmade aluminum monocoque that extends all the way to the back to support the seat. It also includes a mini speedometer and warning lights. Visually, the build is miles away from its former, original self. The wheels are the original ones, only knocked down, the exhaust likewise but are now fitted with a pre-silencer, and the front fork has been shortened by 70 mm. Not many modifications were made to the engine, which is pretty much the same one fitted by the Bavarians decades ago, only serviced and painted black. The Vagabund 07 The Whale is listed on the garage’s website as sold, and this is not

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Harley-Davidson Razorback Is a Sharp, Low and Loud Breakout

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Harley-Davidson describes its Breakout model as a “muscular modern chopper with pure stop you in your tracks attitude” and by all accounts they are right. But as is the case with most Harleys, the Breakout too can be much more than what stock has to offer. Usually coming to the road as a long ride with round lines, the Breakout was turned into something else, lower and sharper, by a German custom shop by the name of Thunderbike. The group has been in the business of selling both stock Harleys and customized parts for them for the past 20 years, and it is one of the most active such garages in the industry. Their Breakout conversion is named Razorback mostly due to the fact that the soft, flowing fuel tank and rear fender have been replaced with custom hardware, both designed with edges sharp enough to give the motorcycle a whole new shape. Aside from the tank and fender, the Breakout has been fitted with the usual Thunderbike styling kit, which includes anything from the headlight to the license plate mounting. New matte bicolor wheels, sized 18 inches rear and 21 inches front are of a special Thunderbike design, and to make sure anyone can admire the wheels in their full glory, a left side pulley brake system was fitted. Also, the shock at the rear was swapped for an Air Ride suspension that can bring the bike much closer to the ground than what Harley originally intended. Also at the rear, a new Jekyll and Hyde exhaust system has been included to make sure the motorcycle has enough decibels on its side. We are not being told what happened to the bike once the build was completed, but as with all other Thunderbike designs,

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