Black. Menacing. Muscular. Three phrases that describe the quintessential Tough Crafts customized construct. This lengthy and lean Harley-Davidson Softail Breakout, nicknamed ‘Asphalt Glider,’ is Winston Yeh’s newest creation—and it checks these bins more durable than the rest that he’s constructed thus far.
Don’t get us unsuitable; Winston’s Taipei, Taiwan-based store has turned out some shiny builds in its day. However you possibly can rely them on one hand. We wouldn’t have it some other method although, and apparently his clients really feel the identical—which is why he repeatedly will get orders for “Tough Crafts model” builds.
“Individuals are all the time interested in how we construct a motorcycle that’s by no means been accomplished, for a buyer that doesn’t essentially know tips on how to describe what they need,” Winston tells us. “This time the duty was quite simple: the client beloved our World Championship bike, ‘Stealth Bullet,’ however he needed one thing extra excessive, extra exaggerated.”
Take a look at Stealth Bullet, and also you’ll perceive that these two bikes are minimize from the identical fabric. They share the monochromatic black therapy that Tough Crafts has turn out to be identified for. They usually each profit from such a restricted palette, combining a various assortment of hues, textures, and finishes.
Additionally they share an immediately recognizable sampling of customized components that would solely come from the Tough Crafts catalog. Deep, darkish fins adorn the whole lot from the headlight cowl to the rocker bins, and their menacing uniformity seems to be like one thing pulled straight from an H.R. Giger exhibition. The affect is obvious, however the bikes are vastly totally different if the place to look.
Asphalt Glider’s suspension is a chief instance of this. Just like the bike that impressed it, it wears a girder fork up entrance. However this explicit girder is nothing just like the minimalist model that adorned Winston’s earlier present winner.
As a substitute of constructing one thing in-house, Winston sourced a whole fork setup from FG Racing—an Italian elements model that focuses on excessive efficiency girder designs. The FG unit is made fully from billet aluminum, and incorporates trendy geometry with an equal eye towards efficiency and aesthetics.
A set of customized handlebars are mounted on to the forks, fitted with Tough Crafts x Arlen Ness grips, and plug-and-play Rebuffini switches. Elsewhere, Winston added Thunderbike Customized foot controls, a Tough Crafts headlight and Koso flip indicators. There’s additionally a Tough Crafts exhaust, and a Rebuffini hydraulic clutch slave cylinder.
Asphalt Glider’s rear suspension can also be a pointy departure from the twin-shock simplicity of Stealth Bullet. You may’t inform by it, however the Softail’s mono-shock has been eliminated fully. As a substitute sits a efficiency air shock from the parents at Legend Suspension, full with an onboard air compressor neatly tucked away behind the transmission.
Winston says the choice to go together with air suspension was born of necessity. He needed the rear fender to take a seat as tight as doable, however the bike nonetheless wanted to experience properly out on the street. The Legend unit permits the meaty 230-wide rear tire to tuck neatly contained in the fender when parked, however could be raised on the fly for driving with the contact of a button.
The Breakout’s chunky Avon Chrome tires are wrapped round an unconventional pair of wheels. Out again is a regular 15” Harley wheel, a veritable mass of strong steel with a Roland Sands rotor and Beringer caliper nestled tightly inside. Up entrance, it’s the precise reverse; an enormous 23” Arlen Ness wheel seems skeletal by comparability, dominated by the identical placing detrimental house because the girder it’s bolted onto.
The stark asymmetry of the Glider’s wheels give the construct simply the appropriate “bizarre stability of visible weight,” in accordance with Winston. Open and stripped down on the entrance, dense and muscular on the rear; if exaggerated proportions had been what this buyer needed, he’s acquired them in spades now.
Ending off the construct are a signature Tough Crafts gas tank, and a deeply scooped tail part. Each are completed in carbon fiber textures, punctuated by delicate white pin striping. Tank badges and pushrod collars from 2Abnormal Sides additionally adorn the bike.
Winston turned to his Rolodex of normal collaborators to push this one over the end line. Rover Works Customized Paint dealt with the paint job, whereas SFC Simon Fiber Craft took care of the fiberglass and carbon fiber work. Fabrication was accomplished by MS Professional, and CT-Storage did the ultimate meeting.
Along with Asphalt Glider’s placing look, the client had one different particular request: he needed the bike accomplished “shrimp model.” You is perhaps questioning what the heck meaning—and also you’re not alone. Winston wasn’t too certain himself at first, however his buyer defined that shrimp model means long-reach drag bars paired with ahead foot controls.
In different phrases, the client needed to take a seat low over the tank, legs ahead, folded across the entrance of the bike, leading to a physique place not in contrast to (you guessed it) a cocktail shrimp.
Personally, we favor the identify Asphalt Glider to different potential seafood-inspired options. ‘Darkish Shrimp,’ ‘Midnight Crustacean,’ ‘Prowling Prawn;’ none of them fairly seize the character of a correct Tough Crafts machine.
However no matter you select to name this explicit rose, there’s no denying it’s fairly candy.
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