Harley-Davidson “Black Hole” Is a Breakout So Dark It Makes Light Disappear

All of the above make the machine quite the proposition for people on the lookout for a modern Harley to put between their legs, but that doesn’t mean older ones, restyled at the hands of a talented workshop out there, can’t hold a candle. Especially the Breakouts handled in France by a crew called Melk.

The one you’re looking at now was born in 2014, but made to look like this much closer to our time. In Melk’s 36-bike strong portfolio, it is number 18, and it’s a type of conversion that can be had by any Breakout owner out there, provided they’re willing to pay the price.

And that price would be 28,000 euros, which is about $29,500 at today’s exchange rates. To put it in perspective, that would translate into just $8,600 over the price of the new version.

What does that difference bring? First up, of course, a completely different look than the stock one. What Harley presently rolls off the assembly lines is offered in four colors, namely Vivid Black, Black Denim, Baja Orange, and Atlas Silver. They all look great, especially the orange hue, but none of them seem to match the impact of the Melk build we have here.

Primarily a paint shop, the garage went for this build for a combination between Vivid Black and two shades of gray called Anthracite and Gunship. The resulting effect is stunning, with the bike showing up as a speck of darkness so deep it looks like it’s gobbling up light itself - hence the name we chose for it.

The paint job is not the only change made to the 2014 Breakout, of course, as Melk usually cuts a lot deeper. For this project, a wealth of custom parts from Europe’s most high-profile shops were chosen and slapped onto the ride.

We get, for instance, a lot of Performance Machine gear, in the form of the air filter, grips, or footrest. Thunderbike supplied the LED turn signals, and Metzeler the rear tire, with its width increased to 260 mm. Harley-Davidson itself contributed some aftermarket parts, mostly the covers slapped here and there, but also the ride’s wheels.

Propped on an adjustable lowering kit, the bike spins the rear wheel under the power of its original engine. It was not left as is, though, but remapped and fitted with a Bassani exhaust system so it now develops slightly more power than it did in its stock form, which would now be 78 hp and 128 Nm of torque.

The Melk-modified Breakout you’re looking at now showed just 13,700 km (8,500 miles) of use when finished, but mileage is of little consequence: if you have such a two-wheeler sitting around, you can have it turned into this, and possibly turn more heads on the road than on the back of a brand new one.