Harley-Davidson Captain Cruise Is a Road King With the Perfect Touch of Custom

Because of the segment it plays in the bike already comes with all the gear a rider would need for long trips cross country. It has a powerful Milwaukee-Eight 114 engine in its frame, floorboards, a saddlebag, and even a sound system. And of that makes further customization kind of useless.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t riders out there who wouldn’t like a bit more from their motorcycle. And that’s when they turn to specialized custom garages for that extra touch of coolness.

That’s what one Road King owner did with his Road King when he turned it over to German specialist Thunderbike for a little nip’n’tuck. What resulted is far from being the most spectacular transformation of this kind of bagger you’ve ever seen, but it’s effective nonetheless.

In a bid to remind people of the “classic Harley way of riding” the garage made only small modifications, most of them targeted at the way the rider and passenger experience the bike.

Up front, the Road King received new handlebars from a series Thunderbike calls Flip 2. They are 32 cm (13 inches) high, impacting the position of the rider. Custom mirrors were installed on both sides, on the underside of each handlebar.

The opposite end was gifted with a sissy bar because Thunderbike felt Harley “made the seat of the Road King a little too sloping for the sake of a flowing rear line.” Additionally, a set of almost invisible turn signals were installed.

Thunderbike made virtually no change to the ride’s powertrain, and that means the performance numbers remain the same as in stock form: 95 horsepower.

The most striking change is however the color the bike wears. For the 2024 Road King Special Harley offers four color choices, namely Bliard Gray, Vivid Black, Red Rock, and White Onyx Pearl.

The color on this custom kind of resembles the latter, but it’s far from it. In this version the bike wears something called Olivgrau, offset by wheels in champagne beige, and that gives it a sort of military feel.

In this modified form the bike is called Captain Cruise, for the simple reason “the Road King is still the king of all cruisers.”

Thunderbike does not say how much the entire project is worth, but the few pieces of added hardware amount to just a little over 1,000 euros (about the same in dollars). That, of course, does not include the paint job and man hours.