Photo: Thunderbike
There’s not much of an European custom bike industry, and that is even more true when talking about Harley-Davidson. If we are to compare the number of custom shops handling Harleys there with that in the U.S., one might even say the European one doesn’t even exist.
But that’s not entirely the case. As revealed by the bike maker’s King of Kings competition earlier this year, there’s plenty of talent to go around in good old Europe, with shops from Greece, UK, or Germany entering incredible projects into the competition.
There is one particular name there that is incredibly active in turning stock Harleys into incredible one-offs, but also in fitting Harley engines inside its own custom frames. The shop is called Thunderbike, and there are literally hundreds of builds in their portfolio, all completed over the past 25 years.
From the custom frame side of the business comes the bike featured in the gallery above and called Mystery. In the shop’s own words, this was a build “originally created as a personal bike,” one that draws a lot of inspiration from another build called Spectacula.
Mystery has been created around a frame the shop calls Dragster RS, that has been used on a number of other projects. Complete with fuel tank, oil tank, CNC-milled aluminum swingarm with battery holder, rear section, rear wheel axle, motor bracket, and seat plate, it only needed an engine to get it going.
The engine of choice in this case was a Screamin’ Eagle 103, and it was not left stock, but received the “special Thunderbike cure.” That means it was fitted with a carburetor fuel system, 5-speed gearbox, and a custom exhaust system.
We are not being told how much the bike cost to build, but for reference the frame alone is worth over 11,000 euros ((around $12,500). It took the shop six months to put it together, but we have no word on what happened to it after it was completed.
There is one particular name there that is incredibly active in turning stock Harleys into incredible one-offs, but also in fitting Harley engines inside its own custom frames. The shop is called Thunderbike, and there are literally hundreds of builds in their portfolio, all completed over the past 25 years.
From the custom frame side of the business comes the bike featured in the gallery above and called Mystery. In the shop’s own words, this was a build “originally created as a personal bike,” one that draws a lot of inspiration from another build called Spectacula.
Mystery has been created around a frame the shop calls Dragster RS, that has been used on a number of other projects. Complete with fuel tank, oil tank, CNC-milled aluminum swingarm with battery holder, rear section, rear wheel axle, motor bracket, and seat plate, it only needed an engine to get it going.
The engine of choice in this case was a Screamin’ Eagle 103, and it was not left stock, but received the “special Thunderbike cure.” That means it was fitted with a carburetor fuel system, 5-speed gearbox, and a custom exhaust system.
We are not being told how much the bike cost to build, but for reference the frame alone is worth over 11,000 euros ((around $12,500). It took the shop six months to put it together, but we have no word on what happened to it after it was completed.
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