Vacationers flock to Indonesia for its seashores, volcanoes, and temples. However our curiosity within the Southeast Asian archipelagic state is extra mechanical in nature. The Indonesian customized motorbike scene is brimming with creativity and expertise, and the nation’s high customized builders have grow to be a pressure to be reckoned with on the worldwide stage.
Andika Pratama is without doubt one of the Indonesian scene’s shining stars. He runs Krom Works—a three-man operation in South Jakarta. However the fee for this elegant customized Harley Sportster got here from 7,000 miles away in Geneva, Switzerland.
The mission kicked off when Andika bought a name from the M.A.D. Gallery in Geneva. It’s an artwork gallery run by MB&F—a watchmaking firm that creates intricate and neo-futuristic timepieces. Sharing that ethos, the gallery homes rigorously curated items that epitomize the intersection between artwork and machines.
In case you’re aware of Krom Works’ portfolio, you’ll know that that just about describes Anika’s signature fashion. Utilizing expertise handed down from his father, he’s a grasp of manipulating steel into natural types to create extremely imaginative machines. However this construct isn’t any static sculpture; peruse the Krom Works Instagram feed, and also you’ll see images of it out on the street.
Andika picked a Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200 as a donor for the construct, however he hasn’t used a lot of it past its drivetrain. The V-twin motor is now cradled in a bespoke body, crafted out of stainless-steel plates. The body sashays its means over the engine and between the break up tanks, with brass cladding so as to add distinction.
“When making a customized bike,” says Andika, “crucial factor is to have a robust fundamental idea, as a result of that’s what determines the ultimate consequence. In case you look carefully, there’s a line that connects from the entrance to the again of this bike, and a mixture of traditional and futuristic design.”
The entrance suspension is customized; a girder-style association pieced collectively out of handmade aluminum elements. Customized-built handlebars swoop out from the highest of the fork, carrying little greater than leather-wrapped grips and trimmed levers. Andika once more used brass so as to add tasteful contrasting particulars—just like the concave grill over the recessed headlight and the tidy fastener caps on the pivot factors.
Hardly something on this Sportster is plug-and-play. Even the girder’s shock is customized, made up of elements salvaged from a number of bikes.
It’s the identical story out again, the place Andika constructed a braced aluminum swingarm with a novel linkage system. True to kind, you’ll discover extra brass particulars right here, and one other hand-built shock that’s tucked right into a break up within the rear a part of the body.
Bolted neatly into the swingarm building is a good rear fender. It’s flared on the finish, the place an built-in taillight sits behind a brass grill, mimicking the headlight design.
The wheels are notably trick. Andika picked 21F/18R spoked rims, then laced them to a set of mid-80s Honda CBX550F hubs. They appear to be drum brakes from afar, however they’re truly inboard ventilated disc brakes; a great-looking design that by no means caught on for Honda.
“I used spoked rims in order that the looks stays traditional,” says Andika, “however the drum-and-disc brakes add a contemporary ingredient.” Firestone and Coker tires spherical out the package deal.
The bike doesn’t have an excessive amount of in the best way of bodywork. The handmade stainless-steel tanks maintain gas within the left half and oil in the precise half, each by way of pop-up filler caps. Copper piping carries oil to the place it must go, routed to hint the silhouette of the body.
The break up tank design is echoed within the skinny V-shaped seat, whereas the considered use of brass on the body’s spine and the seat pan ties the entire design collectively. Different neat particulars embrace the quick (and little doubt raucous) exhaust system, the sprocket cowl, and the brass air consumption. All of them put on the identical louvered design, complementing the head- and taillights.
Andika pitches his creation as a neo-futuristic riff on traditional board trackers, and he’s nailed it. The truth that it might look simply nearly as good in a gallery as it might out on the road is a testomony to Krom Work’s skill to experience the road between artwork and motorcycling.
