Thunderbike Speed Glider customized Harley-Davidson Softail Slim

Individualism matters

Others talk about diversity. We prefer to call it crossover, and that’s what we’ve always been building! In Thundertalk, our Stefan Hutmacher speaks the truth: “Nobody can find the right drawer!” He’s talking about our speed gliders, because anyone who wants to classify them has a hard time. But nowadays nobody has to. We are free to choose our gender, and no one has to decide if the Speed Glider is a Bagger or not. Individualism is what counts. Thank you, politicians, but we Harley riders have always known that!

Unwanted pigeonholing

It starts with the dominant batwing fairing in the style of a classic E-Glide. Now an icon of a ’60s design culture where everything was clearly categorized, the E-Glide fairing, for example, represented the class of the tourer, which then became the dresser and finally the bagger.

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So let’s start again, with our 21-inch Big Speed front wheel, which simulates the bagger look because it dominates the front end even before the fairing. Our Recall front fender hugs it, and the narrow flanks of the 130 tires can add to the bagger look. From the front.

There's a lot going on in there.

The Speed Glider’s fairing can be removed with a few pushes of a button. What remains is … well, what then? Is it still a bagger? It wasn’t a bagger before, because we don’t have bags in the back. But with the fairing off, it looks more like a cruiser with the extra-wide Hollywood Light 32 handlebar on the old-style rails. If it weren’t for the sporty Crossfire spoiler and especially the 110cc Screamin’ Eagle engine, whose transparent Clarity cover doesn’t hide the fact that there’s a lot going on inside.

The extra-wide Hollywood Light 32 handlebars turn the Speed Glider into a cruiser when the fairing is removed

In addition, bright red accents on the pushrod covers and pushrod feet, even under the tank logo, always in an exceptionally standardized color: RAL 3000, fire red!

Gone are the running boards of the former Twin Cam Softail Slim, in favor of satin-finish footpegs and handlebar grips. The drilled power filter breathes into the engine, which blows out a totally legal sound through the Jekill and Hyde pipes at the rear.

The transparent covers don’t hide the fact that there’s a lot going on in the 110 Screamin’ Eagle engine

Simply chic at the rear

And in the back… yes, in the back it’s completely different. Neither sporty nor baggy, it is simply chic. A design flow runs from the pop-up fuel filler caps over a fuel tank whose halves were once hidden by an obtrusive dash cover, now ending in a clean-cut surface. We call this treatment Chicano.

Tank is tapered with pop-up lids and “chicano” smoothing between the halves

The pressure gauge shows the pressure status of our air ride. It is currently at zero, i.e. lowered

Our disc brake is hidden in the Crossfire swingarm. It also houses our Medium license plate holder

The elegance continues in the red stitching of the saddle on a steel seat pan. The rear fender is also steel, and the two go together. This fender can be lowered close to the tire with our Air Ride, and a pressure gauge mounted to the left behind the tank tells you how low to go. Just lower it and the 18″ Big Speed rear wheel with 260 rubber is just right.

Kreuzfeuer swingarm

This is what’s inside our Crossfire swingarm. It really is called that, with a German name. We combined it with our disc brake to make the Big Speed wheel really pop. There are no cases on top of it, so we can no longer call it a rear bagger.

The Speed Glider can do everything

So what is all this? Our politicians invoke diversity, and now it should even be possible not to define it at all in our society. It’s been possible on two wheels for a long time, we just never called it that. Maybe it’s more of a crossover, when so many different styles merge into one individuality. But we don’t really want to limit ourselves to one style. The name of the Speed Glider says it all, it can go fast, it can glide, it can be a custom Harley, and it can do it all. That’s what we’ve always built.