AMD 252 July 2020 American Motorcycle Dealer 252 July 2020 | Page 59

gearbox covers in the "10-Gauge" style, including
a much admired M-8 rocker cover design that
transformed the look of the unimaginative, bland
stock heads into a cooler "Ness look".
Dublin, California based Ness Enterprises are a
fellow 50th anniversary celebrant. Arlen Ness
opened his first (initially evenings-only) store on East
14th Street in San Leandro, California, in 1970 - just
some 40 miles down the San Francisco Bay from the
Coast Cycles store in San Jose that eventually
became Custom Chrome. So it was entirely
appropriate that Thunderbike and Custom Chrome
Europe embraced the "Ness dressed"
engine/drivetrain look as a fitting homage to
another 50 year old company - especially one whose
own history has seen it closely associated with
Custom Chrome for so many decades.
To finish off the package, the "Air Perform" air filter
is a new design from Bike Shop Linz (BSL) in Austria,
who also took care of the characterless sound
associated with the stock M-8 platform with one of
its Euro 4 compliant 'Top Chopp Staggered' exhaust
systems, with CCE able to offer dealers a combo
approval certificate for the air filter and exhaust setup.
The concept and design for the 50th anniversary
bike was by then CCE Managing Director Andreas
Scholz, who worked out the details with Andreas
Bergerforth in collaboration with the CCE 'New
Products' team and corporate design manager
Carsten Behrens, who developed the 50th
anniversary logo and paint scheme for Ingo Kruse to
execute.
TECH SPEC
Thunderbike: rear fender - Shorty GFK,
seat shell - Shorty, fork - radical 2.0, front
fender - radical 2.0, headlights -
unbreakable, grips - Phantom E, Toppers -
base smooth, speedometer riser kit, side
license plate holder - medium, license
plate light, license plate inside plate,
brake anchor PM Radial 340 mm, footrest
set - drilled, shift peg - Base Alu, indicator
front - Stripe LED.
Arlen Ness: rocker box cover, pushrod cover,
tappet block cover, side gear cover, ignition
cover, clutch cover - all 10-Gauge.
RevTech: Velocity Midnight wheels (21 ×
3.5 & 18 × 5.5), front wheel hub, rear
wheel hub 25 mm, pulley - Velocity 1"
66T, front brake disc - Velocity, rear brake
disc - Velocity.
Santee: standard ape hanger 1 1/4 .
Legend Air: mono airride.
Rebuffini: mixer set.
Highsider: Proton 3-1 rear LED indicator
set, Montana mirror.
BSL: air filter "Top Chopp Staggered".