Customized bikes come in all styles and sizes. However the extra type variations a customized store provides to their portfolio, the extra they run the danger of watering down their work. This isn’t the case for Kaichiroh Kurosu, higher often known as Cherry’s Firm.
Kurosu-san not solely does all of it, however he does it on the highest stage too. From sportbikes to choppers, we’ve watched him produce persistently gorgeous work, yr on yr. And he’s even in a position to mix a number of kinds right into a single bike; no marvel he’s one of many main lights of the Japanese customized scene.
His newest mission, ‘Midnight Dancer,’ began out because the unlikeliest of donors: a 2008 BMW HP2 Sport. Should you’re unfamiliar, the HP2 Sport was a hardcore sportbike with full carbon bodywork, placing out a claimed 130 hp and weighing in at 397 lbs dry. On the time, it was the lightest and quickest boxer BMW had ever produced.
Costing round $26,000 when it was new, and extremely collectable now, the HP2 Sport shouldn’t be a motorcycle individuals are typically lining as much as chop. However this one had been in an accident—leaving the bodywork wrecked, however the chassis and working gear intact. The selection was clear, and the bike was delivered to Cherry’s Firm for a makeover.
Because the donor bike was initially wrapped in carbon fiber, Kaichiroh felt compelled to execute his customized work in carbon too. He’d been utilizing the light-weight materials on his made-to-order ‘Freeway Fighter’ BMW R nineT builds, however these kits had been laid up by hand. In quest of a greater methodology, Kaichiroh found Vacuum Infusion Expertise.
We gained’t get into the technical particulars, however the finish result’s elements which are larger high quality and stronger than hand-laid items. And the method permits for varieties and shapes not in any other case attainable, releasing up new prospects in design.
“After I exhibited the Midnight Dancer on the Yokohama Scorching Rod Customized Present, many journalists requested me why I used a carbon exterior,” Kaichiroh tells us. “Plainly they felt that the recent rod scene and carbon elements, or resin elements for that matter, weren’t a great match for one another.”
“Nevertheless, the recent rod scene has been customizing with resin elements because the Nineteen Sixties, exemplified by Tracy Nelson’s Fiberglas Works customized bikes with their one-piece fiberglass our bodies. And now, greater than 50 years on, even the growing older of Tracy’s customized bikes, with their chipped fibers and light paint, is a part of the customization course of, I suppose.”
As soon as the manufacturing methodology was established, design may start. The preliminary concept was to construct an 80s-style Grand Prix bike with a big fairing and considerably exaggerated proportions—no less than in comparison with the GP bikes of in the present day.
Kaichiroh deliberately went for a design with overlapping elements. That allowed him to construct his new fairing and gasoline tank part over the BMW’s unique internal gasoline reservoir, and to make use of the prevailing mounting factors. He even included an aluminum consumption simply behind the fairing, to direct air into the inventory airbox.
Carbon fiber was additionally used to create new fenders, and an intensive stomach pan. However when it got here to the tail part, Kaichiroh modified tack. “I used to be going to complete the rear cowl in carbon too,” he explains, “however in the course of the manufacturing course of I began to suppose that I wished a mode that mixes metallic and carbon.”
“Even these days, MotoGP or WSBK race bikes generally use aluminum as-is just for their gasoline tanks. Within the low season, when no sponsor or livery has been selected, the racing groups check bikes with an aluminum tank, which is uncooked, and a carbon cowl. And it’s cool.”
The naked metallic creates a stark distinction agains the mostly-black HP2 Sport. The one paint comes within the type of gold leaf scrollwork across the fairing, fender, and fuel tank shroud, including a little bit of present and end. Look intently, and also you’ll additionally spot contemporary nickel plating on the body.
Smaller particulars embody a customized license plate holder on the rear, an aluminum encompass for the headlights, and aluminum fairing braces that connect with the tank cowl.
The HP2 Sport got here from the manufacturing facility with solid aluminum wheels, top-spec Brembo brakes, and Öhlins shocks mounted to its telelever entrance and paralever rear suspension. Kaichiroh properly left that each one one, together with the inventory digital parts, including solely a contemporary set of Michelin Energy Cup 2 tires.
A remaining contact comes through the customized exhaust silencer. The HP2 Sport’s inventory unit is often mounted just under the rear cowl; right here, it’s hidden inside it.
The mixture of BMW engineering and reimagined HP2 parts, with Kaichiroh’s sculptural imaginative and prescient and the contrasting finishes, is totally transformative. The ultimate product is a machine that’s nonetheless, 25 years later, acting at a really excessive stage—however now appears like one thing solely Cherry’s Firm may produce.
Cherry’s Firm | Fb | Instagram | Pictures by Hiromitsu Yasui
