Thunderbike Customs of Hamminkeln, Germany, has long been a favorite among the European artists whose medium of choice is American iron, so imagine my delight when I discovered that it has released a brand-new model based on Harley-Davidson's revamped Softail platform. Not just any Softail either, but the drag-tastic Breakout no less. My previous favorite was the “Fresh Out,” a kind of trippy paisley cruiser that was also built on the Breakout, but I've only just glanced at the newest effort and already I see some really cool stuff. Is it enough to win me over? That remains to be seen, so let's dive right in and check out what those crazy Germans have been cooking up over there.

Continue reading for more on the Thunderbike custom Breakout.

Custom Breakout

It's probably worth mentioning, you know, just in case some of you have been living under a rock, that H-D has rebuilt its Softail line from the ground up. Everything from the frame to the sheet metal was revised and updated, so necessarily, lots of new custom pieces had to be fabbed/modded to fit on the new product. Custom touches begin right away in the extremely low-profile, cut-down front fender, stylish mini-bullet headlamp housing and blackout treatment at the sliders and tripletree. A chromed flat-riser kit clamps the stock bar down close to the upper tripleclamp for a more aggressive riding position that pulls the rider down across the new aluminum Stretchtank that redefines the flylines.

The deep-scoop seat and custom steel rear fender finish out the upper elements, and as mundane as it sounds the rear fender really sets it off for me. Its cut-down look sells the all-up-front panache, but it's the teeny-tiny LED taillight and turn signals that are incorporated into a very-inconspicuous lip at the edge of the fender for look that goes beyond clean. Street legal? Maybe not everywhere. Cool? Abso-freakin'-lutely. Up front, the LED magic continues with the Blinker Stripe Micro turn signals that all but disappear against the bottoms of the switch housings, well, until they light up, of course, and that contributes to the overall cleanliness as well.

Make It Yours

All of these parts are available for preorder so you can, in theory, build your very own. Of course, Thunderbike gives you plenty of opportunities to make it all your own with a veritable plethora of what I like to think of as the “small bits.” You know; axle covers, chin spoilers and the like. In closing, I'd like to leave you with an observation; American-style customs are definitely a form of artistic expression. Frequently, these expressions take on some of the local flavor, sometimes by design, sometimes not. In other words, I can look at a Japanese- or Italian-made custom and immediately peg its nation of origin. Not so much with Thunderbike's products. Either they've pegged what Americans like to see, or there's a sufficient culture overlap that we just like the same things. Whatever the case, this newest Softail product line is definitely worth a look.

References

See our review of the Harley-Davidson Breakout.