Years ago, I didn’t want to like European customs just because American V-twins were our bikes and we should be the ones doing them the best, but the builders grew on me with every new bike I saw. Today, I think American builders have rediscovered their mojo and are building some of the nicest bikes ever, but that doesn’t mean the European builders have lost theirs in the least.

 

   Take this little old/new Knuckle built in Slagelse, Denmark, by Lasse Peterson of Toys4Boys as an example of a custom American V-twin that practically any American (except for a few crabby keyboard commandos ones who live not to like anything) would love to have not only parked in their garage, but under their ass at speed on a nice back road. How does a guy in Denmark end up making killer customs any V-twin freak worthy of his salt (or whatever he’s worthy of) would uncontrollably salivate over until it became too slippery to walk by him?

 

    According to Laase, “It all began in 1989 when my family and I moved to San Francisco to work with the Hills Brothers Coffee Company owned by Nestlé. I was going to be responsible for starting a distributorship for automated coffee/cappuccino machines

build by a Danish manufacturer. I traveled to almost all the states in the four years we lived in the States and had a lot of good experiences. After the first year I bought a 1960 Panhead in Fresno, California, and rode it for three years member of a local chapter in San Mateo. I brought the bike back in 1994 with three other bikes, an original 1955 FL Panhead, a 1973 and a 1974 XL Ironhead Sportster. All bikes have now found new owners and are still running in Denmark. In 2005 I quit my job after 17 years and became a full-time professional bike builder in Denmark. We are now one of the most popular shops around and make personal one-of-a-kind bikes in our own smooth design.”

 

   This Knucklehead bobber was a long time in the making with quite a bit of modern history and a long story behind it. The engine is a 109” Flathead Power Knucklehead hand-built by Anders Nygren who was the original Swedish owner of Flathead Power before S&S acquired the rights to his company. “He built an engine with good torque and reasonable horsepower as it was important for me to get a good running engine that was going to be easy to kick start and be a very reliable engine.” If you ask anybody what’s the prettiest Harley engine design ever, you’ll almost universally hear “a Knucklehead” and whether it’s an original or a modern version, you’ll still hear the same. Laase wasn’t afraid to buck tradition a bit while still maintaining the Knuck’s inherent beauty by Having Anders build his with a dual Weber updraft carb jutting skyward from the left side Indian-style just to make sure you noticed it. Somehow a dual-throat Weber on a Knuckle is something you’d have to be pretty drunk or blind to miss, but it doesn’t look out of place. Is there anything a Weber or two or three or four or more (like a 289 Cobra or an early Ferrari V-12) doesn’t look good on?

 

  Anyway, Lasse had this completed little beauty of a mill lying around his shop for almost five years before he decided what to do with it. “I found a ’47 Knucklehead project in Holland and got the idea to build my dream bike. Half-way through the project, a friend of mine, Lars Ringsted, visited our shop on his new Street Glide. I have had many custom bikes, mostly hardtails, over the 25 years I’ve been riding and my wife and I were looking for something bigger and more comfortable to ride through Europe. I took it for a ride and was sold on it,” said Laase. “Lars was in love with the Knuckle I was in the middle of building so we agreed to trade bikes with the stipulation he would work on it with me. Lars is a very good welder and did most of the fabrication on the tank, fender, and made his own set of pipes.”

 

  The original ’47 frame was left stock but glass beaded and painted before the engine was installed.  The 109’s gobs of torque was passed along by a Rivera-Primo 3”- belt drive to a 6-speed LSD (left-side drive, not Timothy Leary’s favorite pastime) BAKER tranny that has a big ol’ kicker hanging off it (there is also an electric starter for those times when kicking just isn’t cool). Nothing wrong with a modern reliable drive train that looks old if you want to ride it as well as stare at it. As a matter of fact, I think that’s the very definition of a motorcyclist having his cake and eating it too.

 

   A DNA springer along with a set of DNA’s Mammoth 16” fat spoke wheels with Performance Machine brakes front and rear completed the rolling stock. Paint and graphics are courtesy of a fellow (I presume a fellow as women are usually too smart for silly nicknames) known only as “Capper” who sprayed on the black and light brown finish capped with graphic graphics on the tank making sure you know this is powered by a Flathead Power engine and not some old Milwaukee mill. Laase and Lars did their best to keep things period=cool correct looking without overdoing it. Personally, I think they did a damn good job of it and I can only wonder how Lasse feels when he sees and hears Lars rolling along on what was going to be his dream bike. Hey, at least he can always build another one if he gets tired of fiddling with the stereo on his new ride.

 

  For more info on Toys4Boys, please punch up www.t4b.dk.