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Harley-Davidson Hot Rod Looks Colder, Less Cool Than the Car Next to It

Generally speaking, the words "hot" rod are associated with four-wheeled contraptions, designed as to be reminiscent of a time long ago in the auto industry, yet packing the most modern of technologies. Ford is the main moniker used in the segment, but we see no reason why Harley-Davidson wouldn’t fit the description.
Harley-Davidson Hot Rod 18 photos
Photo: Thunderbike
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When one goes out and slams the hot rod designation on a bike, we come to expect something really out of the ordinary to come about, a motorcycle so different from stock it would seem pulled out of a distant past, and brought into our time packing extreme hardware. But what we have here only meets the hardware criteria.

What you’re looking at was once a stock Harley-Davidson V-Rod from 2002. The general lines are still there, even if they are hidden under a paint scheme so metallic it almost looks cold at the touch, and it’s far from what our minds would have conceived a hot rod bike to look like. Yet this is the name chosen by German custom shop Thunderbike for this build.

As usual with most of their projects, the Germans cut no corners in fitting the proper mix of their own hardware and Harley-sourced parts, combining them in a very aggressive-looking end product.

For this particular machine, Harley supplied the base bike, but also things like the carburetor, ignition, and suspension. The original engine remains, and so does the 5-speed transmission. On top of that, the shop slapped its own, in-house-made parts, including the front and rear ends, front fender, and headlamp. Mechanically, the pulley, brake disc, and exhaust system are also of Thunderbike make.

The whole contraption is wrapped in a color scheme designed by Kruse Design, and, as said, it’s meant to make the two-wheeler look cold to the touch. It does, but as far as the name given to it, it looks nothing like the real hot rod you can see in the background of the photos in the gallery.

Generally, we are able to estimate how much a build such as this cost, but given how this is an older Thunderbike project, we are unable to do so this time.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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