"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."
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...The hardest working people at PJD are; the T-shirt Guy, Painter, Plater, UPS guy, and now.... the nanny.
There was a show about the Sturgis bike rally a few weeks ago which spent a little time on this particular bike builder competition. It is one of the most difficult to win awards in the custom bike industry. Maybe on the same prestige level as the "Ridler" award in the hot rod industry. The public is invited to watch, but judging is done by a completely impartial committee of bike building professionals who could care less what the contestant's personal politics are or who they choose to sleep with. They only concentrate on determining the best built machine. In this contest they don't give a f**k about what the social media thinks.