2018 Battle of the Kings winner crowned

Andy HHarley-Davidson Leave a Comment

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If you ever doubted the International pull of Harley-Davidson – or indeed the battle of the Kings event – news that Bangkok Harley-Davidson has won the 2018 competition will finally lay that to rest.

“The Prince” is based on a Street Bob, and there will be people looking at the wheels’ five skinny spokes and getting wistful about the days when Invaders were about as radical as you could get. These – a 21-inch front and 16-inch rear – were custom built and are typical of the lean, clean and nostalgic lines of the black and gold theme, which is said to reflect a black leather jacket and chopper style.

It is certainly wasn’t the biggest budget bike in the competition, using a lot of refinished original parts – like gold powder-coating the chrome pushrod tubes and rocker box insert, as well as the chrome mesh in the S&S Stealth air cleaner, to carry the shine through – or in the case of the original seat, reshaping and recovering, stitched with yellow thread to pick up the accent colour.

It was the first time that Thailand had competed in the Battle of the Kings, and The Prince won by a single vote from one of the other two runners-up, judged by an expert panel from the Harley-Davidson styling team lead by VP of Style and Design* Brad Richards:“It was so close, deciding the winner. In the end the clean lines and beautiful engineering of “The Prince” took it. This really demonstrates what is possible – and what are dealerships are capable of delivering. A huge congratulations to the team at Bangkok Harley-Davidson, particularly as this is their first time in the competition. Congratulations from everyone here!

Director of International Marketing, Steve Lambert presented the trophy, adding “Battle of the Kings is a phenomenal display of the custom expertise available in Harley-Davidson dealerships around the world, and with over 300 entries from 30 countries this year’s competition has been the most amazing yet. We’ve got three fantastic finalists here, each very different, all built to the same basic competition rules. When you look at the diversity of entries from around the world it’s an incredible modern-day example of our custom heritage. Huge congratulations to all of the finalists, and especially to the team at Bangkok Harley-Davidson. What a fantastic achievement!

The two runners-up – and we are not advised of the order – were Adelaide Harley-Davidson’s race-faired “Back to the Track” and Bologna Harley-Davidson’s much more agricultural “Farm Machine” … use your skill and judgement to work out which is which:

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* and FXS Low Rider owner

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