Photo: Thunderbike
The Street Glide has been a solid proposition in the Harley-Davidson portfolio for a long time. It presently sells for $21,699 as “the original stripped-down hot-rod bagger,” but not always its stock form satisfies customers.
Some of these customers turn from time to time to tuning shops to have their touring machines transformed into something else. Generally speaking, they come out the other end of the customization process looking different, but not drastically so. Except, perhaps, when the shop handling the conversion is Germany-based Thunderbike.
In the business of remaking Harleys for decades, these guys have a soft spot for going for serious modification. That doesn’t necessarily mean making only extensive changes to the two-wheelers, but effective ones as well, that can seriously transform the way Milwaukee machines look like.
The Street Glide we have here followed the same path. It was gifted with a custom bolt-on bagger rake kit and slapped with a 26-inch front wheel, shod in Metzeler rubber, to match its new stance. It’s a milled monoblock piece, shielded from the elements by a fender to match.
The look of the bike has further been enhanced at the front with the deployment of a fairing, while the rear was streamlined with something the shop calls a “rear fender suitcase kit” with rounded edges. In between the two ends sits a custom fuel tank.
We are not being told if any mechanical changes have been made except, perhaps, the fitting of new brake discs “for high connection stiffness and very good braking performance.”
Thunderbike is not in the habit of letting us know directly how much their builds cost, but by going through the parts listed as used on each project, we can get a general idea. For this particular bike, one they call Mattglide, the tally would be at least 12,300 euros on top of the base bike, which is about $15,000 at today’s exchange rates.
In the business of remaking Harleys for decades, these guys have a soft spot for going for serious modification. That doesn’t necessarily mean making only extensive changes to the two-wheelers, but effective ones as well, that can seriously transform the way Milwaukee machines look like.
The Street Glide we have here followed the same path. It was gifted with a custom bolt-on bagger rake kit and slapped with a 26-inch front wheel, shod in Metzeler rubber, to match its new stance. It’s a milled monoblock piece, shielded from the elements by a fender to match.
The look of the bike has further been enhanced at the front with the deployment of a fairing, while the rear was streamlined with something the shop calls a “rear fender suitcase kit” with rounded edges. In between the two ends sits a custom fuel tank.
We are not being told if any mechanical changes have been made except, perhaps, the fitting of new brake discs “for high connection stiffness and very good braking performance.”
Thunderbike is not in the habit of letting us know directly how much their builds cost, but by going through the parts listed as used on each project, we can get a general idea. For this particular bike, one they call Mattglide, the tally would be at least 12,300 euros on top of the base bike, which is about $15,000 at today’s exchange rates.
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