While it’s no secret that we’re fans of Harley-Davidson’s Milwaukee-Eight Softail range, there’s not a single one in the bunch that we could fairly call lithe or elegant. And yet, that’s exactly how we’d describe this custom Harley Softail from Germany’s One Way Machine.
Appropriately nicknamed ‘Black Phantom,’ it’s an exquisite machine?even by One Way Machine founder Julian von Oheimb’s exacting standards. The brief came from a returning client, and the brief called for something as sophisticated and timeless as a vintage Rolls Royce. No pressure, then.

The easiest job on the list was picking a suitable donor bike. For the first decade of Julian’s career, he favored older Harleys?but he’s shifted his focus to The Motor Co.’s new bikes in recent years. Of all the current Softail models, the Street Bob 114 has the least stuff to take off. ?It’s not that easy to build an old school bike with the modern technology and power of the Milwaukee-Eight engine,? says Julian. ?That’s why 95 percent of customizers who want to build something in a classic style fall back on a basic bike from an older model year. I also like to work on old stuff, but old bikes are often very unreliable?and OWM customers are not mechanics.?

Julian’s built enough modern Softails by now to know how to work around their modern frills. On this project, he sourced a handful of Softail-specific parts that...