Harley-Davidson Big Atlas Is How $65k Hot Rods on Two Wheels Should Look Like

The custom style as we understand it now calls for the fitting of a large engine up front, most of the time not hidden under the cover provided by a hood, to drive the four wheels that are either completely exposed in an open-wheel fashion, or quite the contrary, hidden under extremely large fenders.

Hot rods are always meant to drive fast, but that doesn't happen all the time for the simple reason some of them are so breathtakingly beautiful they deserve to be preserved in a collection somewhere.

Hot rod is thus a term that has always been associated with cars. Some motorcycle makers, including Harley-Davidson, have tried over the years to capitalize on the term's success by slapping it in slightly modified forms on two-wheelers.

Who can forget, for instance, the so-called V-Rods of not long ago, muscle motorcycles meant to take on the giants of the segment, but also cement the bike maker's name as a holy one in the custom industry.

For all their merits, though, no V-Rod model that rolled out the factory doors could even come close to what a hot rod car is all about. Sure, some customs based on them did that, but not the stock machines.

If I were to define how a hot rod motorcycle should look like I'd give you this example: the Big Atlas, made in Germany by custom garage Thunderbike. Although it technically looks too massive for the hot rod term as defined in the car industry, this is probably how hot rod motorcycles should be defined.

The build is based on the most recent incarnation of the Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. It's a kind of conversion we've seen from these guys before, riding on massive wheels from a collection called GP (23 inches at the front and 21 inches at the rear), and with such a massaged body that it's impossible to miss.

Held off the ground by means of an air ride system, it sports a thick handlebar at the front (used by Thunderbike for the first time on such an application) supported by the proper riser, a single-sided swingarm at the rear, and a wealth of covers in all the right places in between the two ends.

Technically speaking, car hot rods are supposed to be very fast, and that almost always requires the fitting of a new engine. This motorcycle still has the stock one, but it was made to breathe better through a Dr. Jekill & Mr. Hyde exhaust system.

The project ate up no over 30 custom parts and systems, whose combined value alone is of about 38,000 euros ($41,000). That's right, $41k just for the extra parts (of which 27,000 were blown on the wheels alone) which probably puts the value of this entire project, base bike included, at around $65,000.