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.
Over the past fifteen years, Martin Becker of MB Cycles has carved out a reputation as one of the best custom Harley builders in Germany. He’s a regular at shows and in magazines such as Custombike, but you don’t need to be a V-twin enthusiast to spot that his work is something special. A few…
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Even though they require similar skills, the custom motorcycle and car worlds are vastly different. But they do sometimes meet. In the Czech Republic there’s a modest garage where Harley-Davidsons and Chevrolets stand side-by-side. Rusty Pistons Garage is a small workshop based in Chlumec nad Cidlinou, a town just east of Prague in the Czech…
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Suicide Machine Company build machines that go fast and turn well. Brothers Aaron and Shaun Guardado have a taste for speed, and it’s right there in their company slogan: “Fast Loud Deathproof.” So when they were invited to build a custom Harley for this year’s Born Free show in Southern California, it wasn’t likely to…
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I didn’t see many motorcycles when I paid a brief visit to Dubai a few years ago. The streets were full of Toyota Landcruisers, growling supercars and Mercedes sedans with black tinted glass. But the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates has a thriving biker scene if you know where to look, and…
Read more »It’s strange times at Harley-Davidson. Earlier this year, rumors and spy shots of a small capacity bike for the Indian market started…
Read more »A rare Harley shovelhead Liberator spotted in France, a punchy Suzuki ‘DR Big’ from Brazil, an enormous Honda CB1300 roaming Bangkok, and…
Read more »The global pandemic hasn’t just shut down big events like Intermot and EICMA—a slew of grassroots custom shows have hit the pause…
Read more »Like many accomplished customizers, Martin Becker has lived an eventful life. For almost twenty years he’s been building bikes in the beautiful…
Read more »The Heritage Softail Classic is the kind of bike most non-riders think of when they hear ‘Harley’—oodles of chrome, saddlebags, riveted leather…
Read more »We’ve never run a feature on a bike from South Korea before. The local custom scene is tiny, and builders are heavily…
Read more »It’s been ten years since Winston Yeh launched Rough Crafts, less than a year after Bike EXIF started up. It didn’t take…
Read more »Custom motorcycles don’t always need to be practical… unless, of course, you need a purpose built machine that can handle a two…
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