Photo: Thunderbike
For the past 20 days or so, as part of our Two-Wheeler Month coverage, we brought you each day a little Harley treat from Germany. It is there where one of the most active custom shops in the world resides, the one that calls itself Thunderbike.
The group has been around for several decades, but have made a habit over the past 20 years of coming up with more or less crazy designs based either on existing Harley motorcycles, or on custom frames fitted with Harley engines.
Thunderbike’s most recent work is based on the more modern Milwaukee machines, and that pretty much means that try as they might, the Germans cannot make a custom Breakout look much different from next one. Sure, the paint may be different, but given how they use the same parts on the same bikes, the results are often similar.
Their older designs, such as the one in the gallery above, are completely different, though. Designed to be an “old school racer,” the so-called PainTTless is described by Thunderbike as the most expensive and uncompromising build they’ve ever worked on.
What’s unique about it, aside for the crazy, nickel-plated looks, is the fact that all the parts fitted on it have never been used in this configuration before.
The engine is an Ironhead, and was tied to a WLA gearbox and a Bosch Magneto ignition system dating from way back in 1928. The assembly is housed in a custom frame that supports the streamlined fuel tank, shortened springs from a Street Bob, and one-piece hump/oil cooler/oil tank.
The bike, as many others in the Thunderbike portfolio, is not for sale. It was used as a show motorcycle here and there, including at Sturgis, the place where some of the photos you can admire in the gallery above were taken.
Thunderbike’s most recent work is based on the more modern Milwaukee machines, and that pretty much means that try as they might, the Germans cannot make a custom Breakout look much different from next one. Sure, the paint may be different, but given how they use the same parts on the same bikes, the results are often similar.
Their older designs, such as the one in the gallery above, are completely different, though. Designed to be an “old school racer,” the so-called PainTTless is described by Thunderbike as the most expensive and uncompromising build they’ve ever worked on.
What’s unique about it, aside for the crazy, nickel-plated looks, is the fact that all the parts fitted on it have never been used in this configuration before.
The engine is an Ironhead, and was tied to a WLA gearbox and a Bosch Magneto ignition system dating from way back in 1928. The assembly is housed in a custom frame that supports the streamlined fuel tank, shortened springs from a Street Bob, and one-piece hump/oil cooler/oil tank.
The bike, as many others in the Thunderbike portfolio, is not for sale. It was used as a show motorcycle here and there, including at Sturgis, the place where some of the photos you can admire in the gallery above were taken.
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