Editor’s Choice - Thunderbike, Germany – Andreas Bergerforth’s ‘30th Anniversary Pan’
By Mala Malk, Kopteri Magazine, Finland
www.kopteri.com
There are always lots of journalists around on the set-up and press days at the AMD World Championship and ‘INTERMOT – with the debut of ‘INTERMOT Customized’ this was even more so in 2016. It has always been of interest to us to know what other custom magazine editors think of the bikes at ‘The AMD’ and in a new idea last year, we asked some of them to make an ‘Editor’s Pick’ for us to use in AMD Magazine, and it is our pleasure here to showcase the ‘30th Anniversary Pan’ built by former AMD World Champion Andreas Bergerforth and the team at Thunderbike to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Andreas’ opening his showroom …
“I was honored to be asked by the AMD team to pick my favourite of the bikes at their 12th AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building, but it was a dilemma for me.
The show entrants included two of my close friends - Johnny Martinsson with “Jolly Jumper”, an S&S 93” engined Panhead with a 4” over Springer by Mr Moore; and “Hard Soup”, an 80” 1974 Evo/Shovel FLH hybrid Juho Rouhu of Finland with his own frame and a lot of his own parts and work.
Both are great bikes and just to my taste but since they were built, owned and ridden by my personal buddies, I decided to put personal favouritism to one side and from the 80-other bikes settled on another that appealed to my personal tastes – I asked myself which bike would ride out of here if I could get away with it and the one that appealed to me most was the ‘30th Anniversary Pan’ by former World Champion Andreas Bergerforth of Germany.
Built to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his Thunderbike dealership, it looked to me like Andreas had also decided to honor his own personal tastes with a bike that was a classic homage to ‘Seventies Cool’.
It’s an old-school bike that drips with passion and authenticity, with certain things and decisions that really lift it above the average level. It manages to walk that thin line between being really specific without being ‘kooky’ – it is real rather than cliche. It bears several very cool ideas that add rather than detract and it is elevated to its full worth with the glorious finishing. I like that!“
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| Lonehog “Jolly Jumper” |
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| Spok Moto “Hard Soup” |
A former World Champions
returns, again …
Andreas Bergerforth has had a remarkable career in the motorcycle industry. When he opened Thunderbike in 1986 it was as a Suzuki dealership and he was at the cutting edge of building Suzuki customs and showing the ‘art of the possible’ that the Japanese power plants had within them.
He then switched completely and opened up as a Harley-Davidson dealer and now, some 20 years or so from that fateful decision Thunderbike is reputed to be the largest Harley-Davidson dealer by new unit numbers in Europe.
Andreas has always been a custom bike fanatic at heart though and that is displayed graphically in his career involvement with the AMD Championship program.
He competed successfully several time in the European Championship when that was staged in Germany, and took two bikes to the AMD World Championship in 2006, the first year the event was at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and spectacularly scooped-up a second place with ‘Spectacula’.
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| ‘Spectacula’ |
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| ‘Open Mind’ |
That was the good news – the bad news was that he was hooked. As pernicious as any drug, he couldn’t let it rest there – he had to have a win and after scoring a 5th place in 2008 with ‘Open Mind’ he nailed in 2012, the last year the event was at Sturgis, with the universally acclaimed ‘PainTTless’.
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| ‘PainTTless’ |
Having scratched that itch we figured Andreas would chill and take a step back, but oh no, this is one stubborn and natural born competitor.
Of course it is a lot easier for him now that the AMD World Championship is just “down the road” from his Hasmminkeln, Germany dealership but we are delighted to be able to see a former World Champion, someone who has graced our stage with so many fine bikes, come back again.
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| 'Unbreakable' |
In 2013 in Essen Andreas had ‘Radical Over’ in the Production Manufacturer class; in 2014 he scored a 6th place in the FreeStyle class (his natural habitat!) with ‘Unbreakable’, and in 2016 it was a pleasure to be able to welcome back to the awards stage for a 5th time (if my math is right) with a second place in the Retro Mod class for his ‘30th Anniversary Pan’.
