Thunderbike is one of the biggest names in the Harley-Davidson customization business. They may not be as visible as other garages in the U.S., as they’re located in Europe, but we have serious doubts there’s any other shop as lucrative as this one.
For more than 20 years, Thunderbike has been spitting out more or less insane interpretations of production Harleys, and at times they even went for a little creativity by coming up with their own custom frames equipped, how else, with Harley engines.
Over the past few months we’ve talked about probably hundreds of their builds. And not even the global health crisis seems to be stopping the Germans.
Their latest project is based on a Sportster of the Nightster variety, those darkened two-wheelers introduced in 2007. It’s a bike that does not belong to a customer, but one of Thunderbike’s own people, a guy named Nico Carlos Harley Holzapfel. That’s right, even in Germany parents name their kids after the famous American bike maker.
Having started live as a 2012 Nightster 1200, it was transformed into a cold-looking apparition that sits differently on the road than it did when in stock form. That’s thanks to the use of new shock absorbers, shorter dampers, and several other changes that make it stand out.
And its looks is different from stock, too. That’s because of the many new parts added, including custom tank, new fenders, new headlamp, and so on – the full list of modifications can be found at this link.
And if you’re wondering why a guy working for one of the major Harley customizers would go for an eight-year old bike, the German says he prefers the “Euro 3, so that you can do something with the sound.” That something translated into the fitting of a Miller exhaust – you can hear how that sounds like in the video attached below.
Thunderbike is not in the business of saying how much each build costs, so we can’t tell you precisely how much this one is worth. The parts listed by the garage as used for this build amount to around 3,000 euros ($3,500), but that’s only an estimate.
Over the past few months we’ve talked about probably hundreds of their builds. And not even the global health crisis seems to be stopping the Germans.
Their latest project is based on a Sportster of the Nightster variety, those darkened two-wheelers introduced in 2007. It’s a bike that does not belong to a customer, but one of Thunderbike’s own people, a guy named Nico Carlos Harley Holzapfel. That’s right, even in Germany parents name their kids after the famous American bike maker.
Having started live as a 2012 Nightster 1200, it was transformed into a cold-looking apparition that sits differently on the road than it did when in stock form. That’s thanks to the use of new shock absorbers, shorter dampers, and several other changes that make it stand out.
And its looks is different from stock, too. That’s because of the many new parts added, including custom tank, new fenders, new headlamp, and so on – the full list of modifications can be found at this link.
And if you’re wondering why a guy working for one of the major Harley customizers would go for an eight-year old bike, the German says he prefers the “Euro 3, so that you can do something with the sound.” That something translated into the fitting of a Miller exhaust – you can hear how that sounds like in the video attached below.
Thunderbike is not in the business of saying how much each build costs, so we can’t tell you precisely how much this one is worth. The parts listed by the garage as used for this build amount to around 3,000 euros ($3,500), but that’s only an estimate.