Harley-Davidson is an icon of American culture and the most popular marque for custom builders. Shortly after the company was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, customizers started bobbing, chopping and dirt tracking the famous V-twins.
After WW2 Harley motorcycles were at the center of the bobber craze, and kept their lead as Californian bikers turned to choppers in the late 1950s. The 45-degree engines have their own nicknames and folklore: from flatheads, knuckleheads, panheads and shovelheads to today’s Evolution and Milwaukee-Eight motors.
The Sportster is the basis for more Harley-Davidson customs than any other model. Originally fitted with an ‘Ironhead’ motor, it turned 60 years old in 2017. It’s probably the single most customized motorcycle on the planet, and certainly has the largest supply of aftermarket parts.
There’s a new tradition at Harley-Davidson. Each year, The Motor Co. dives deep into their archives, finds a bike that set hearts ablaze in its heyday, and releases a modern replica of it. They call it their ‘Icons Collection,’ and it’s now in its third year. This year’s Icons Collection bike throws it way back,…
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$20 grand, winner takes all—that’s the philosophy behind the Lightning Bolt custom motorcycle build-off. The regional, invitation-only event attracts bike builders from every corner of the hobby, from scramblers to choppers, for a chance at the biggest winner-takes-all prize in the country. There’s a catch though—qualifying bikes have to be rideable, and you’ll have to…
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“All motorcycles are adventure bikes,” the intro of Biltwell’s Operation Numbnuts blog reads, and it takes no more than a second to get the innuendo. Photos of mud-covered Pans and Shovels, juxtaposed perfectly with Harley’s new Pan Pam ADV bikes, immediately spells out the message. It takes more than a few loose screws to do…
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“Fender and Firestone police, here I come,” Winston Yeh quips, as we discuss the latest custom motorcycle to roll out of the house of Rough Crafts. Based on a 2020 Harley-Davidson Fat Bob 107, it’s a stripped-down, low-slung bobber, swathed in typical Rough Crafts finishes. And yes, it has no front fender and it wears…
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A Harley-Davidson with sport bike goodies either trips your trigger or crosses your wires, but in our case, it’s almost always the…
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If you’re a classic watercraft aficionado, this custom Harley-Davidson Sportster should feel familiar to you. That’s because it’s modeled after one of…
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Big auto auctions are good at a few things, namely presentation and drumming up some serious dream machines. But in the case…
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Classic silhouettes are the theme of this week’s Speed Read. From Unikat’s Harley-Davidson’s Sportster 883, to RF-Biketech’s Kawasaki Z1000R and a beautiful…
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If you’ve ever fantasized about building a Harley-Davidson Sportster flat tracker, there’s a good chance that you’ve pinned a couple of Richard…
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There’s not much reality in reality TV these days. But there are still shows out there that are more interested in their…
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Yuichi Yoshizawa is a rare custom builder that can conquer multiple styles, while still giving each build an organic and immediately recognizable…
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WE LOVE CAFÉ racers, we love bobbers, and we love a killer scrambler. But we also love great classics, and sometimes they…
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