Top 3 in the 2012 AMD World Championship Freestyle class: Jeremy Cupps of LC Fabrications (left) (2nd place), newly-crowned World Champion Andreas Bergerforth of Thunderbike (center) and Samuele Reali of Abnormal Cycles (3rd place).
For the first time an authorized Harley-Davidson dealer has scooped the custom motorcycle industry’s top design and engineering prize.
Thunderbike, of Hamminkeln, near Essen in Germany, was chosen by fellow competitors and selected VIP judges to have built the stand-out ‘class of 2012’ custom motorcycle with ‘PainTTless’, a hand crafted one-of-a-kind tour de force that oozes stunning design and engineering craftsmanship from every angle.
Using a restored and modified 1000cc Harley-Davidson Ironhead Sportster engine in a one-off, hand-built custom swingarm frame, Andreas Bergerforth and the dedicated team at Thunderbike (www.thunderbike.de) have cemented their reputation as being among the world’s foremost motorcycle customizers, following up on their multiple AMD European Championship wins and AMD World Championship top-five placings.
Their work received widespread acclaim for its attention to detail, originality, quality of execution and design harmony, beating off stiff competition from a field of top quality examples of custom motorcycle craftsmanship from all over the world.
Freestyle 1st place, World Champion, Thunderbike (Germany)Thunderbike, of Hamminkeln, near Essen in Germany, was chosen by fellow competitors and selected VIP judges to have built the stand-out ‘class of 2012’ custom motorcycle with ‘PainTTless’, a hand crafted one-of-a-kind tour de force that oozes stunning design and engineering craftsmanship from every angle.
Freestyle 2nd place, LC Fabrications (USA)Second place went to noted up-and-comer Jeremy Cupp (LC Fabrications – www.lcfabrications.com) of Crawford, Virginia. Jeremy came to AMD World Championship program prominence in 2009 with a 6th and 14th finishes.
Freestyle 3rd place, Abnormal Cycles (Italy)Third place was taken by Sam Reali and the team at Abnormal Cycles, near Milan, Italy (www.abnormalcycles.com) with ‘Speed-Demon’, a lovingly recreated homage to the days of Harley-Davidson board track racers. Featuring a 74 cubic inch Harley-Davidson JD engine from 1919 in a 1930 VL frame.
Freestyle 4th place, Kreater Custom Motorcycles (Canada)Fourth place went to George Tchor, of Kreater Custom Motorcycles, Toronto, Canada (www.kreater.com) with ’18’, a 96 inch Harley-Davidson Twin Cam engined rigid in a Kreater ‘Steam Punk’ hardtail custom frame.
Freestyle 5th place, Claes Wärefors (Sweden)Fifth place was scooped by Sweden’s Claes Warefors and his collaborators KDK Performance with ‘Gryphon’, which features an 88 cubic inch Swedish built Mectec engine in a KDK built custom swingarm frame.
Freestyle 6th place, KW Customs (USA)Sixth place went to Kenny Williams, KW Customs, of Angier, North Carolina, with ‘Tantalizer’, the much admired Mike Garrison 120 cubic inch engined ‘bagger’ with which he scooped the 2011 US Championship at Daytona Bike Week.
Freestyle 7th place, Moore Customs (USA)Seventh place, and the third of the ‘Team USA’ qualification places, went to Larry Moore, Moore Customs of Wichita, Kansas, with Bad Influence, an 80 cubic inch Harley-Davidson engined, Redneck Engineering rigid framed stretched-out Pro-Street style chopper.
Freestyle 8th place, Kreater Custom Motorcycles (Canada)Eighth place was taken by fourth placed George Tchor with his second entry in the field this year, ‘Vitalogy’, a Zipper’s Performance Modified 124 inch Harley-Davidson TCB engined trike – one of two trikes to make it into the top ten at the AMD World Championship – the first time any three-wheelers have done so well.
Freestyle 9th place, RK Concepts (USA)The second of those trikes was World Championship regular Rafik Kaissi’s 1000cc Aprilia engined ‘RK Thing’ in ninth place (RK Concepts, Round Rock, Texas – www.rkconcepts.com).
Freestyle 10th place, Hoosier Daddy Choppers (USA)The top ten in the FreeStyle ‘Class of 2012 was rounded out by Jon Shipley, of Hoosier Daddy Choppers of Bloomfield, Indiana with ‘Whiskey Bent’, a 1977 Ironhead Sportster engined, Dirty South Choppers Pro-Street style rigid retro chopper – making it six out of the top ten in engine terms for Harley-Davidson – three of them Ironhead Sportsters!
Photography credit: Studio bike shots by Onno Wieringa and Frank Sander.
 (2nd place), newly-crowned World Champion Andreas Bergerforth of Thunderbike (center) and Samuele Reali of Abnormal Cycles (3rd place).){kind=link}