Customized bikes come in all sizes and shapes. However the extra fashion variations a customized store provides to their portfolio, the extra they run the chance of watering down their work. This isn’t the case for Kaichiroh Kurosu, higher referred to 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 constantly beautiful work, yr on yr. And he’s even in a position to mix a number of types right into a single bike; no surprise he’s one of many main lights of the Japanese customized scene.
His newest challenge, ‘Midnight Dancer,’ began out because the unlikeliest of donors: a 2008 BMW HP2 Sport. In the event 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 just isn’t a motorcycle individuals are usually lining as much as chop. However this one had been in an accident—leaving the bodywork wrecked, however the chassis and operating gear intact. The selection was clear, and the bike was dropped at 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 have been laid up by hand. In quest of a greater technique, Kaichiroh found Vacuum Infusion Expertise.
We gained’t get into the technical particulars, however the finish result’s elements which might be larger high quality and stronger than hand-laid items. And the method permits for kinds and shapes not in any other case doable, releasing up new prospects in design.
“Once I exhibited the Midnight Dancer on the Yokohama Sizzling 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 superb match for one another.”
“Nonetheless, the recent rod scene has been customizing with resin elements for the reason that 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 ageing of Tracy’s customized bikes, with their chipped fibers and light paint, is a part of the customization course of, I assume.”
As soon as the manufacturing technique was established, design may start. The preliminary thought was to construct an 80s-style Grand Prix bike with a big fairing and considerably exaggerated proportions—not less than in comparison with the GP bikes of at present.
Kaichiroh deliberately went for a design with overlapping elements. That allowed him to construct his new fairing and gas tank part over the BMW’s authentic interior gas 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 through the manufacturing course of I began to assume that I needed a mode that mixes metallic and carbon.”
“Even these days, MotoGP or WSBK race bikes generally use aluminum as-is just for their gas 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 gasoline tank shroud, including a little bit of present and end. Look carefully, and also you’ll additionally spot contemporary nickel plating on the body.
Smaller particulars embrace a customized license plate holder on the rear, an aluminum encompass for the headlights, and aluminum fairing braces that hook up with the tank cowl.
The HP2 Sport got here from the manufacturing unit with cast aluminum wheels, top-spec Brembo brakes, and Öhlins shocks mounted to its telelever entrance and paralever rear suspension. Kaichiroh properly left that every 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 slightly below 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 seems like one thing solely Cherry’s Firm may produce.
Cherry’s Firm | Fb | Instagram | Pictures by Hiromitsu Yasui
