Harley-Davidson dealer and customizer Thunderbike, Germany, wins the 9th annual AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building at Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
The team around Thunderbike founder Andreas Bergerforth succeeded in the Freestyle class and prevailed against the international competition. The 2012 vintage racer “PainTTless” tops things off and was elected as the best custom bike in the world. Inspired by icelake racers of the 1930s PainTTless was designed with a very slim shape and received a high gloss finish in polished nickel.
According to Thunderbike “When we decided to build a bike for the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building in Sturgis, it was clear it must be the best we have ever built. Here, the name says it all: no color, no paint, no powder, no fillers, no tin! The groundwork must be absolutely perfect. Everything has to be extraordinary on this build, no part of any shelf or catalog.
“PainTTless” features a very expensive rebuilt 1000cc Harley-Davidson Ironhead driven motor that was installed in early Sportster models. For the primary side there is a new cover, with an adjustable chain tensioner, a new crankshaft sprocket with the stock Sporty and SSC division duplex chain. The ignition system was found on eBay and is a 1928 Bosch Magneto.
They also used a combination of the swing arm made of flat steel and pipe. The fork is one of a kind, a combination of jumpers and forks with two spring legs and it works very well. My favorite parts of this build are the cusps, oil cooler and oil tank – all together in one piece”.
There are so much details on this bike my head is spinning and I am running out of words. You might be wondering what a build like this costs? This bike has an estimated build cost of 150.000 Euros! Congratulations to the Thunderbike team for winning the 2012 AMD World Championships freestyle class!
