Full out: the 2022 Chirihama Sandflats vintage beach race
Of the 800,000 miles of thoroughfare winding across the islands of Japan, there’s only one five mile stretch where you can drive…
Read more »Harley-Davidson
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.
Evo ain’t dead: A Harley Sportster chopper from China
It’s barely been a month since Harley-Davidson announced they were ending the Evolution-powered Sportster line, but great custom examples continue to roll…
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Game On: Rough Crafts builds a gaming-inspired Street Bob
The Harley-Davidson Street Bob is one of the most stripped-down big cruisers that The Motor Co. sells. With trimmed bodywork, little to…
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Modernized: OWM’s custom Harley Softail Standard
During his first decade of building custom bikes as One Way Machine, Julian von Oheimb worked exclusively on older Harley-Davidsons. Then, about…
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Asphalt Glider: Rough Crafts’ menacing Harley Breakout
Black. Menacing. Muscular. Three words that describe the quintessential Rough Crafts custom build. This long and lean Harley-Davidson Softail Breakout, nicknamed ‘Asphalt…
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Sportster d’eleganza: A slick 70s Harley ironhead bobber
Copper Chopper wowed us earlier this month with an impossibly elegant SR400 bobber, built from scratch and laden with tasty handcrafted bits.…
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Rare Bird: A 1970 Sportster XLH Turned Desert Sled
You’ll find no shortage of custom Harleys on builder Kento Oketani’s home streets of Long Beach. But you won’t find anything quite…
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Gleam Machine: Rodsmith’s Ironhead Sportster café racer
A sleek frame, a mechanical aesthetic, a distinct lack of plastic and a lot of polished metal. This Harley-Davidson Ironhead Sportster café…
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Going Pro: A Harley flathead bobber from a shed builder
There’s usually a little trepidation when we hear from a custom builder that we don’t know. Is their work any good, or…
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By the Book: A Sportster street tracker from Mule
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…
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Gelände/Strasse: The Dyna Low Rider S, done two ways
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…
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Speed Read, May 15, 2022
Meet the new LiveWire S2 Del Mar—a bike so hotly anticipated, the first 100 sold out in 18 minutes. Then peruse a…
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