Written by Andrew Jones
When the new wave of Japanese customs rocked up in the late noughties, it was like the 70-odd years of custom bike history before that point didn’t exist. We barged into the room  with our new-fangled cafe racers, brats and trackers and turned up our noses at pretty much anything that wasn’t ordained as that month’s hot new trend. But as many shops now ponder their 142nd cafe racer build, the trends that prevailed in the 70s, 80s and 90s are now being seen with new, more forgiving eyes. In that spirit, New Jersey’s BCR Designs set themselves a challenge; go back to the future with a classic Harley Softail bobber. Here’s the results.

It’s clear that for some custom shops, it’s about quantity and throughput. For them, reproducibility is a good thing. But at Benjie?s Cafe Racers ? aka BCR Designs ? they believe that a proper custom bike shop should always be challenging themselves. ?When we started the business, we mostly built cafe racers, scramblers and dirt track-style bikes,? says Benjie. ?We were recently asked to build a bobber-style bike from a ?97 Harley Softail Fatboy. Though bobbers aren?t part of the typical BCR style, we accepted the challenge and embraced a new frontier for us in design.?
?When we first received the bike, it was wearing some custom work from the early 2000s; it had bright orange and black paint with lots of chrome and some huge ape hanger handlebars. The owner ? an avid rider ? ...