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 usually a little trepidation when we hear from a custom builder that we don’t know. Is their work any good, or are they a prime example of the Dunning-Kruger effect? But we weren’t quite prepared for how hard our jaws would hit the floor, when this Harley-Davidson WLC flathead bobber landed in our inbox.…
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If we had a stock Harley-Davidson Sportster and a hankering for a top-shelf street tracker, we’d probably call Richard Pollock. Better known as Mule Motorcycles, the man has loads of experience and talent—and a knack for building machines that look like they’ve rolled straight off the dirt oval and onto the street. You wouldn’t tell…
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The 2016-model Dyna Low Rider S was the last hurrah for Harley-Davidson’s beloved Dyna. The Motor Co. was on the cusp of absorbing the Dyna range into their new Milwaukee-Eight Softail line, and had time to cram in one last variant. So they restyled the iconic Low Rider, bumped it from 103 to 110 ci,…
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Meet the new LiveWire S2 Del Mar—a bike so hotly anticipated, the first 100 sold out in 18 minutes. Then peruse a tasty club style BMW R18 from California, a Kawasaki KLR from Colorado, and a race-ready Honda GB350 from Japan. We finish things off with a bonafide 1960s motorcycle safety video.
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If there’s a bike that symbolizes the uneasy relationship between Harley-Davidson and sporting performance, it’s the VR1000. Developed in the late 80s…
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With the release of the Nightster, the decades-old Harley-Davidson Sportster has now fully passed the torch on to the next generation. But…
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It’s only three weeks since Harley-Davidson pulled the sheets off the 2022 Nightster, giving us a look at the spiritual successor to…
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Harley-Davidson expands their new Sportster line with the 975cc Nightster. Plus we profile a BMW R18 from Canada, a Ducati SportClassic from…
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The market for modified Sportsters is crowded. Most builders of repute in the USA know their way around the venerable platform, and…
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There are a million ways to customize a Harley-Davidson Sportster, so it’s tempting to look to those that have gone before for…
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The most prestigious custom event in Japan is the Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show, better known as Mooneyes. If you pick up…
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You know you’ve been building custom motorcycles for a long time, when a bike you built two decades ago makes its way…
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