The Thunderbike „Unbreakable“

The idea:

To build a fully functional, easy to ride and yet breathtaking custom bike.

We use the latest Harley technology combined with near-series / earthly chassis geometry.

Suspension front and rear, a decent ground clearance and a 260 tire that runs in the middle.

.....132mm caster ........ 1780mm wheelbase ..... +125mm length .......+ 50mm height (compared to Harley-Davidson Softail) 36° steering head angle.

The fork: We always wanted to build a trapezoidal fork, but we never liked the fact that these forks are so far forward. So we designed the fork to be as compact as possible in the steering head area.

When the fork is fully compressed or lowered, you can hardly recognize the lever mechanism.....like a telescopic fork, the side bars are located directly on the steering head - so it forms a unit with the bike - combined with the stub handlebars, the frame transition and the integrated speedometer, this gives the bike a very sporty line.

The free milling in the side rails and the radial callipers with the ribbed brake calliper mounts emphasize this line.

The bike can be raised 80 mm via the air cylinders. We placed the injection pump in the left half of the tank on the side, which was necessary as the underside of the tank is fully visible due to the shape of the tank.

The manifold with the injection nozzles, wiring etc. was also neatly concealed with the engine mount.

We are particularly proud of the wheel design, which fits perfectly with the bike. To allow the design to run right into the wheel hub, we have dispensed with a conventional brake disk flange and moved the brake disk mount to the outside.

Two 340 mm floating brake discs also ensure very good deceleration with little manual force on the 26“ V-bike.

At the rear, a floating 440 mm perimeter brake disk with 6-piston brake calliper ensures very good braking performance.

In order to emphasize the design of the individual components, all anodized parts such as: Wheels, radiator grille, fuel filler cap, fork bridge, seat, indicators etc. were clamped in the milling machine again after anodizing and re-milled.

This was particularly exciting in view of the fact that it was a specially mixed custom color. 800 liters in an extra dip tank, shelf life of the paint and thus a time window of max. 4 days.

So nothing can go wrong when re-milling. At this point, a huge THANK YOU to the anodizers.

All the other parts were nickel-plated, which goes very well with the anodized color. So that everything fits together nicely, we have also milled a new engine and gearbox cover with ribs.... matching decorations on the pegs and handles round it off.

Text (slight changes) & Photos Copyright Harley-Davidson Thunderbike