Kymco isn’t a huge identify within the West, exterior of scooter circles. Nevertheless it’s a special story of their house nation of Taiwan, the place this practice Kymco KTR 150 hails from. The KTR is certainly one of Kymco’s extra standard fashions there—and as you may inform, it lends itself pretty effectively to customization.
Taiwan’s {custom} scene is quickly increasing, and the store behind this KTR 150, Twentytwo Customized, is devoted to the trigger. They’re the {custom} department of Persist Bike Firm—a Taiwanese motorbike tradition and attire model. Collaborating with Robust Tracker from Taichung, they set about creating this cute avenue tracker, which they’ve named ‘City Drifter.’
The shopper gave Twentytwo principally free rein over the bike’s design. “He had solely two requests,” says Twentytwo’s lead designer, Dong Lin. “A motorcycle appropriate for his peak; 1,82 m [6,1 feet], which is above common right here in Taiwan, and black as the general coloration.”
“The remaining was as much as us to get inventive. We determined to construct a motorbike that represents a contemporary, city life-style. We saved the unique mainframe and entrance suspension however all the opposite components on the bike had been redesigned and changed.”
Given the KTR’s recognition, discovering a donor was straightforward. Because the plan was to customise it, they landed on a relatively tired-looking carbureted mannequin from 2007. Dong mockup up the design and laid down a battle plan, then handed the bike over to Robust Tracker to deliver his imaginative and prescient to life.
Proper up entrance is a Bates-style headlight, bolted to a neat bracket from one other Taiwanese outfit, 2LOUD Customized, which additionally holds the brand new entrance indicators. Behind the lighting setup is a Daytona digital speedometer and a handlebar of Twentytwo’s personal design. And the highest part of the fork tubes have been blacked out to mix in with the brand new fork gaiters.
Up high is a Suzuki BS125 gas tank, modified to suit the Kymco. It fits the bike completely, plus it carries extra gas than the unique tank—and no one ever complains about additional gas vary.
As Dong alluded to earlier than, the entire again finish of the bike was chopped off and discarded. The brand new subframe package got here from one other Taiwanese motorbike store, Kick Storage. However Dong and the staff needed to put some effort in to make it mix with the remainder of the bike.
“For us, the problem was to keep up the visually compact really feel, and check out to not make the bike look empty with the larger body,” he says. “So we welded two additional bars to the subframe.”
The brand new bars are slightly below the 2 aspect covers and cleverly fill out the detrimental area beneath the seat. These aspect covers had been made by hand out of aluminum sheet, as was the rear fender with its built-in tail mild.
Changing the forged wheels on the unique bike is a set of spoked gadgets, measuring 19” on the entrance and 18” on the rear; actually leaning into the road tracker vibe. Wrapped in Firestone-esque rubber, they appear very slick (pun meant), particularly in opposition to the brand new black rims.
There isn’t a lot on this bike that wasn’t made by hand, and the seat is not any totally different. Constructed on an aluminum pan with a custom-made suede cowl, it’s quite a bit taller than on most builds of this type, with nearly desert sled-like proportions. It not solely ties into the design of the bike effectively, however it will certainly even be extra comfy for the long-legged proprietor.
The relatively curvaceous exhaust can be handmade, and, together with the froth filter on the carburetor, ought to extract just a few additional horses from the 150 cc single. New shock absorbers from the Taiwanese model MJP do responsibility out again.
The Marques Brownlee-approved ‘matte black every part’ theme is sustained all through the whole bike. The one exception is the gloss black gas tank, including simply the correct amount of shine to the construct.
There’s a shift in sentiment in direction of smaller, lighter bikes and that’s an excellent factor. In spite of everything, it’s extra enjoyable to journey a small bike quick than it’s to journey an enormous bike sluggish. The Kymco’s perky 150 cc single is greater than sufficient to propel the fortunate proprietor across the streets of Taiwan, particularly on a motorbike that appears this good.
Our solely grievance is that the Kymco KTR 150 will not be available exterior of Taiwan.
