Thunderbike

Harley-Davidson Custom King Is the Iron Beast Milwaukee Should Be Making

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Harley-Davidson is many things, both good and bad, but for the custom bike industry it certainly is godsent. The Milwaukee company is responsible through its products for the existence of countless garages across the world, and for what it’s worth, it never forgot that. For a number of years now, Harley has been holding a build-off competition called Battle of the Kings. BOTK in short, it is dedicated mostly to the international dealer network, and calls upon interested partners to come up with stunning designs based on production motorcycles, while following a rather strict set of rules. BOTK culminated this year with a mammoth iteration called King of Kings, pitting 15 of the best previous participant garages against one another. The winner was crowned the Apex Predator, a Sportster XR1200 modified by a Mexican shop called Harley-Davidson Queretaro. We covered all those bikes extensively back in May (you can see them all at this link), but there are incredible creations made for earlier BOTK events worth talking about as well. One of them is this Iron 883 called Custom King. Modified by German garage Thunderbike, it won the third place in the 2017 BOTK. The build was inspired by drag-style motorcycles on the 1970s, says Thunderbike, and it all came down to “the love of detail and hand-crafted parts.” Wrapped in a black and red livery to die for, the bike is one of the most uncharacteristic in the Iron family. The race-inspired look is enhanced by a wealth of custom parts. Air filters, special covers all around, high-performance brakes, a fork brace instead of a front fender, lamp covers, the chain conversion kit, the turn signals, the ignition coil set, and even the side license plate holder have been created with a single goal […]

Harley-Davidson Custom King Is the Iron Beast Milwaukee Should Be Making Read More »

Harley-Davidson Breakout CVO Gets an Extra Touch of German Custom

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com In the world of Harley-Davidson, CVO stands for Custom Vehicle Operations. Going further, that means motorcycles specifically created by the American bike builder with the custom industry in mind, for garages all across the world to tweak even further. The program was born at Harley in 1999 and each year a small batch of bikes was chosen and gifted with limited edition runs that were all about customization: bigger engines, crazy paints, and a wealth of accessories one usually didn’t get with the road-going versions. Among the motorcycles chosen by Harley to go down the CVO path in 2014 was the Breakout (it was offered alongside the Ultra Limited Electra Glide, Softail Deluxe, and Road King). And since this model is a favorite of a German custom shop that goes by the name Thunderbike, it of course didn’t escape some further upgrades. Thunderbike’s interpretation of the CVO Breakout comes with a more radical look, achieved especially because of the deployment of bigger wheels, a new exhaust system, and a polished paint over the bike’s main parts. The motorcycle rides on Harley Turbine wheels (sized 21 and 18 inches), but with the rear one wrapped in a Metzeler tire that is 20 mm wider than what came standard. Additionally, a pulley brake kit was deployed on the rear wheel to allow a clear view from one side at the design. The engine, which was lest pretty much stock, breathes through an electronically adjustable exhaust system from Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde. A wealth of other parts, smaller in size and impact, are also custom: the rocker boxes, oil tank, turn signals, mirrors, and even the license plate bracket and frame. We are not being told how much it cost the Germans to put the entire build

Harley-Davidson Breakout CVO Gets an Extra Touch of German Custom Read More »

Anthracite Grey Harley-Davidson TB-2 Is the Unlikely Low Rider S Superbike

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com As part of autoevolution’s Custom Builds Month, we talked aplenty about a number of customized Harley-Davidson motorcycles handled all the way in Germany. The country is home to a very active shop called Thunderbike, who over the past 25 years has made a name for itself in the industry with literally hundreds of projects. On Monday, July 13, we talked about the TB-1 Superbike, a conversion of a Low Rider S the likes of which we don’t get to see that often. As it usually happens with Thunderbike ideas, the TB-1 has a sequel of sorts. It is called TB-2, naturally, and is, at least as far as the paint goes, a more conservative approach than it’s older sibling. Most of the changes designed for the TB-1 have been kept on this one. The bike’s stock wheels (19-inch front and 17-inch rear) have been replaced with bigger hardware, namely 21-inch front and 18-inch rear, to give the machine a “slimmer” look. Turning the Low Rider into a racer-style bike was achieved through the fitting of a lowering kit for the telescopic fork, Hyperpro shock absorbers with height adjustment, and of course a custom new front fairing. The listed of custom parts fitted on the motorcycle comprises around 20 elements, and even if we are not told how much the conversion cost, simple math (that is adding the prices of each of those parts) points to it being worth a little over 5,000 euros (roughly $5,600). That does not including the bike itself, the man hours spent on assembling it, and of course the base Low Rider. The thing that sets TB-2 apart the most from its earlier incarnation is of course the paint job. Whereas on the first iteration the shop went for a dark

Anthracite Grey Harley-Davidson TB-2 Is the Unlikely Low Rider S Superbike Read More »

Harley-Davidson GP-Style Is the Radical Way to Make a Breakout

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com “Probably the most radical Softail who saw the light of day” – this is how the Germans from Thunderbike describe one of their builds from two years ago. And just by looking at the two-wheeler, you can tell they’re not far from it. Thunderbike has been in the business of customizing Harleys for more than two decades now. The shop seems to be determined to break some record or something, as they now have in their portfolio several hundred bikes customized in one way or another. For its work, Thunderbike uses both stock Harleys, which it modifies, or custom frames built in-house, which they generally gift with Harley hardware. The one in the gallery above is called GP-Style, and it is somehow related to the Grand Prix we talked about earlier this week – that bike, in turn, is an evolution of another build by Thunderbike, the Outerlimit. The GP-Style was completed back in 2018, and believed it or not, it used to be a stock Harley-Davidson Breakout from that year. According to the shop, “except for the last screw, the Breakout was disassembled; frames and attachments scanned and were taken as a base for our new parts.” And that shows, as this is nothing like what the American bike maker lets loose in Milwaukee. The motorcycle comes with more custom parts that we can count. The wheels – both sized 21-inches – are from the Digger series and come with many spokes – that allowed for the installation of a “huge” perimeter brake from Brembo. The engine is a Milwaukee Eight 114 from the Breakout series, sitting inside a custom frame drawing its fuel from a Thunderbike tank. The entire frame, so different from what Softails are over at Harley, rides on an air

Harley-Davidson GP-Style Is the Radical Way to Make a Breakout Read More »

Racing Red Harley-Davidson Grand Prix Pushes the Outerlimit to the Extreme

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Over the past few months, as part of our various special coverages, we’ve talked at length about certain custom motorcycles coming from Germany. As you can see, we’re not quite done yet, because the number of extreme builds a certain shop there is responsible for is huge. The shop is called Thunderbike, and this weekend we’re showing you a machine it unveiled at the 2016 Custombike show in Bad Salzuflen, Germany. It’s called Grand Prix, and it’s an even more radical interpretation of another build that goes by the name Outerlimit. The Outerlimit was made for one of the shop’s customers specifically to mirror the design and colors of a Lamborghini Aventador. Built on a custom frame, it sports a Harley-Davidson twin cam 120R engine linked to a 6-speed manual transmission, which gives the bike a power output of 140 ps and 190 Nm of torque. Likewise, the Grand Prix too uses the same Screamin’ Eagle, packed in a frame that offers a 1,780 mm (70 inches) wheelbase, 132 mm (5 inches) caster, a steering head angle of 36 degrees. That makes the overall design of the bike pretty similar to the Outerlimit, only there are exceptions, too. The most visible one is the color. Instead of the white used on the Lambo-mimicking bike, this one comes in racing red, hence the name Grand Prix. The wheels on the build are a tad different, too. The custom shop went for a new design, more aggressive, for the rims (they are sized 23 inches at the front and 21 inches at the rear) to give the motorcycle a more racing-like look. We are not being told how much the Grand Prix cost to put together, but we do know that a lot of CNC-machining, CAD design

Racing Red Harley-Davidson Grand Prix Pushes the Outerlimit to the Extreme Read More »

Harley-Davidson Vancy Has Both Thunderbike and Roland Sands in It

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Just like garages specializing in tuning or rebuilding cars, custom motorcycle shops are a dime a dozen. Nowhere in the world are there as many in the U.S., though, and over the years some incredible two-wheeled machines have been revealed here. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is sitting idle. From Asia to Europe and Australia, shops are doing their best to come up with their own worthwhile designs. Most of the time, they fail, and the number of such high profile organizations outside the U.S. is not that big. In Europe, the most active Harley-Davidson shop are the Germans from Thunderbike. Over the past 25 years or so, they came up with literally hundreds of builds, both based on stock Harleys, or using custom frames and Harley engines. Being so active means Thunderbike was quickly noticed by the big names from across the Ocean, and the shop has been a constant presence in the H-D build-off competitions over the years. At times, some collaborations were born. So is the case with this bike here, one the shop calls Vancy. Based on a Harley-Davidson Iron, it came to be as a product that uses parts made by Roland Sands, the American motorcycle racer turned designer of custom motorcycles. Built as “the perfect example for the fact that you can get a new custom Harley with relatively small money,” it features a new suspension system, a new exhaust and a new air filter, but also parts meant to make it look better than stock, such as a new seat, new grips, and of course a custom paint job on the rear fender and fuel tank. We are not being told exactly how much this customization work is worth, but the Germans are know

Harley-Davidson Vancy Has Both Thunderbike and Roland Sands in It Read More »

Harley-Davidson Glamor Is Shovelhead Reloaded

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com There’s something special about older Harleys. Maybe it’s their looks, maybe the engineering, or perhaps just nostalgia, but there are fans out there, not few, who would always choose an aging Harley over a newer one. And the same goes for custom shops. In America, there are countless garages who like to take these old Harleys and customize them beyond recognition, as shown in June’s The No Show online event set up by the Milwaukee bike maker. Elsewhere, however, things are a bit different. Take Europe, for instance. The continent is Harley-friendly, yes, but far less so than the home market. There’s no decades-old tradition there of riding these bikes, not in the way we have it in the U.S., and that means that custom shops, few as they are, usually steer clear of older H-D bikes when it comes to customizing them. Have a look at one of Europe’s largest custom bike shop, Thunderbike. These guys probably have hundreds of customized motorcycles made over the past 25 years, but most of them are recent Softails, because this is what customers in Europe like. But there are exceptions, and this here Super Glide is one of them. Also built by Thunderbike, it comes as a testimony of how older Harleys can be better platforms for customization than newer ones. The bike is an FXE from 1977, and it was given its current shape at the end of a three-month long build that took place in 2016. It sports a Shovelhead engine inside the stock frame, and custom parts all around. An S&S Super E carburetor, custom struts, special wheels and fenders, and of course a unique fuel tank are just a few of the over 20 aftermarket pieces of hardware that went into building the

Harley-Davidson Glamor Is Shovelhead Reloaded Read More »

Harley-Davidson Blue Vegas Is a $15K Bet on German Custom Bike Building

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Harley-Davidson itself has a build-off competition dedicated to its international dealers with a budget cap of around $6,500. The bike maker has this rule because motorcycles can be customized for far less than one would spend on remaking a four-wheeled vehicle, and with incredible results. Over the past eight weeks or so, either as part of our Harley-Davidson Month or Two-Wheeler Month coverages, we’ve talked aplenty about custom Harleys coming out of a German shop by the name of Thunderbike. Diverse as they are, these creations have in general one thing in common: they’re not that expensive to make, provided you already own the base motorcycle. The one in the gallery above is different, though. What you’re looking at is a Fat Boy S (which you can get in stock form today for a little over $20,000) modified so heavily that it’s price has jumped by at least $15,000. That’s the number we came up with after adding all the prices of the over 20 custom parts that have gone into making it. It does not include the man hours put into it, the incredible paint job, and some other parts Thunderbike probably failed to mention. The build is called as per the Germans Blue Vegas, partly because of the unlikely color chosen for the wheels and the flames on the tank. Leaving aside the fact that the custom parts (ranging from the wheels and fenders to the handlebar and tank) fit together perfectly, the paint job is one of the main reasons the motorcycle looks so great. It might seem risky business for the garage to go the blue way, but since this was probably made at the request of a customer, the risk was not really theirs. In the end, the bet paid

Harley-Davidson Blue Vegas Is a $15K Bet on German Custom Bike Building Read More »

Harley-Davidson Billy Bones Is No Pirate, Still Looks Menacing

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Even today, more than a century after the first Harley-Davidson motorcycle rolled, there’s no denying the appeal the Milwaukee-made machines have for the people in the custom industry. First, we have the countless shops and individuals out there who keep working their magic on decades-old HDs, as highlighted by the recent The No Show ran by the bike maker last month. Designed to help all those builders who had no place to show their creations because of the ongoing health crisis, the online event brought to light a number of very unique creations, some of them amazing. At the same time, the bigger and more visible shops have shifted their focus to the more recent models in the bike maker’s lineup. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but these newer machines have some too industrial about them. Take the Thunderbike line of custom Breakouts for instance: the Germans have around 40 of them, and despite each one being made to be unique, they do kind of look the same. The Billy Bones we have here is a tad different, though. Based on the Cross Bones model that was produced briefly not long ago, it has a very distinct look about it, one that somehow links today’s mass-produced Harley’s with the ones of the olden days that are still so appreciated in the modern times. This particular bike came to be in 2009, at a time when the Cross Bones was still around. It packs a great deal of custom parts (over 20 of them, and we’re told not all have been listed on the bike’s official page) that took about a month to assemble in the shape you see here, a shape the guys at Thunderbike call “vintage.” The motorcycle has been christened Billy

Harley-Davidson Billy Bones Is No Pirate, Still Looks Menacing Read More »

Harley-Davidson Top Chop Is a Panhead Ode to Copper, Brass and Nickel

General Posts / By

by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com Nowhere in the transportation industry is metal held in such high regard as in motorcycle manufacturing. When it comes to cars we tend to cover metal in all kinds of colors and paints, as if to hide it, but motorcycles, at least from time to time, proudly display their metal parts with no shame. Sure, there are custom bikes that get painted extensively to cover most of their bodies, but the engine, for instance, almost always remains exposed in its metallic form. And their a sight to behold, because what are motorcycles if not an ode to carefully shaped metal? The build in the gallery above takes pride in the materials it is made from. Sure, paint was used on it, but we’re not talking about colors that remind us of trees or the clear blue sky, but ones that scream metal: copper, brass, nickel, and of course chrome here and there. Initially a 1957 Harley-Davidson EL, the bike was modified at the hands of German custom garage Thunderbike and turned into something they call Top Chop. The idea was to have a motorcycle tribute to the “glittering choppers of the 70s,” and for the most part the Germans succeeded. Just like when it comes to the rest of the shop’s builds, this motorcycle here is packed with custom made parts (that are also available for purchase), ranging from the handlebar to the fuel tank – it is the tank that gives the name of the motorcycle. At the core of the Top Chop’s frame sits a Panhead engine with Shovelhead looks, and gifted with a Magneto ignition and a Mikuni carburetor. We are not being told anything about the bike’s performances. The Top Chop is of course a one-off build (an older one made

Harley-Davidson Top Chop Is a Panhead Ode to Copper, Brass and Nickel Read More »

Scroll to Top