Bernhard Elflein is a guy who had a dream: to build an old motorcycle that would clock 200 kph. So he signed up to study motorcycle mechanics, an essential qualification if you want to run a workshop in Germany.
After searching around for a donor bike in his native Berlin, Elflein heard about a barn find Harley shovelhead—an FXS Super Glide. After the deal was done, Elflein moved to Frankfurt to begin his course and start work on the bike. “A foreign city with no friends has few distractions,” he notes. “I spent a lot of nights reading books, and became obsessed with turning this discarded, original condition FXS into an old fashioned racer.”
The metalwork on this Super Glide is remarkably skilled—Elflein has clearly found his métier. The heavily modified frame cradles an 80 c.i. shovelhead motor, which Elflein rebuilt with an S&S Super B carb and air cover. He also fabricated a huge number of parts, from the exhaust system to the primary cover to the handlebars. The gas tank is from a pre-War NSU motorcycle, modified to fit, and the oil tank is a 70s-vintage custom component.
After seven months, the Super Glide was finished and so was Elflein’s course. He rode back to Berlin on his old fashioned racer, with a degree in motorcycle mechanics in his pocket. The goal is to take the bike to Bonneville and record an official 200 kph—but in the meantime, Elflein has set up his own workshop, Herzbube Motorcycles. You can find him online here.
Images by Sebastian Skiba. Thanks to Andreas of the Wrenchmonkees for the tip.
