Ping Cars Vol.13: Retro Moto showcases Tokyos custom motorbikes
banzaitokyo
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7 years, 10 months ago
In the late 1990?s Japan experienced a craze for custom bikes called street trackers. Bikers would customize their rides to make them minimal but speedy like dirt biker racers. This was quite distinct from race replica motorbikes where you felt like you were shooting around a circuit, or a chopper bike. No, here the impression the custom bikes left was more refined. Anyone who caught sight of one of the bikes was beguiled. Years have now passed since the height of the craze and it feels rare to see such bikes in Tokyo now. But custom bikes are still alive and well in Japan, so much so that people overseas are talking about them.
Ping Cars went along to meet Matthew Roberts, who runs Speedtractor, a team that creates custom bikes in Tokyo. Speedtractors first bike was the T61 Catalina Special and quickly became a talking point among fans around the globe.
Roberts curated and produced the Retro Moto exhibition, which opened recently held at UltraSuperNew Gallery in Harajuku.
Speedtractors Matthew Roberts
Roberts hails originally from Australia and started off in his career as a product designer. After working on scooter design for the Southeast Asia, he was promoted to a management role thanks to his keen perceptions about design based on shrewd understanding of the market. But this meant he gradually began to move away from direct design work. Later he took up positions in design management for the Australian government and in communications management for luxury brands in Japan. His work days were consumed by constant meetings and he found himself losing touch with his creativity.
But outside of work he devoted himself to his love of customizing bikes, as well as writing articles for leading UK independent bike magazine Side Burn about Japanese custom bike builders.
And what really stirred up his passion? His children. Because he just hadnt been able to show his daughters that energy he knew in his own childhood. And so thats when he decided. He was going to become a custom bike builder.
T61 Catalina Special by Speedtractor
The T61 Catalina Special was Speedtractors first creation. Everything about the bike is stripped down and pure. Theres not a logo or marking on it. The lights and other important parts are not simply placed on the vehicle; theyve been laid out as a single rational unit, all forming part of a crystallized design. As soon as it was released the T61 was featured in bike media and received international attention.
This short film Tokyo Dirt was produced by Matthew Roberts and nominated for an award at the Motorcycle Film Festival.
Customization with retro engineering
Roberts specialty is the scrambler, a type of road bike customized to feel like an offroad bike. This means they are not excessively customized like some other bikes and still feel very down-to-earth. The bikes were going to look at are not bikes from the 1960?s and 1970?s that have simply been restored. Theyve been cleverly updated for todays riders. As Roberts says, Customization is about creating that one bike in all the world that only you have.
Three big Street Tracker bikes
Yamaha RD250 Flat Tracker (M&Ms Motorcycle)
Run by Masaki Mihayashi, MMs Motorcycle is a bike shop which deals with numerous street trackers, such as the Yamaha SR400. It sells vintage 1960?s and 1970?s-style parts, as well as taking part in offroad races. At Retro Moto it showcased this Yamaha RD250 Flat Tracker, a very minimal custom job. We love the double muffler.
Honda CL72 (Animal Boat)
Run by Daisuke Mukasa, Animal Boat is a bike shop that specializes in small-displacement Japanese custom bikes and international vintage motorcycles. This Honda CL72 has been pared down to the bare minimum, one-off handmade aluminum components featured across the tank, exhaust and the headlights.
Honda CB250RS (Speedtractor)
The inspiration for this custom job came from a chance encounter with a Tokyo Metro subway lamp at a Tokyo flea market. The colors feel very modern here, with the yellow light and the green and white tank. Roberts explained why he took a liking to the train light. He said it was because the metal around the light is wider than a regular bike light and the overall form is more curved. A typical designers eye for the small details.
At the frontline of Tokyos custom bikes
Honda C100 / Supercub (Animal Boat)
B.O.B.L is a racing event run by Daisuke Mukai, featuring pre-1964 Supercub and other bikes. The Supercub is much loved for its speed and the knee-down cornering it offers.
Ducati 750 Scrambler (Speedtractor)
A Ducati sports bike has been customized as a Scrambler by Speedtractor. The large feel of the Ducati has been slimmed down to something lighter, with the original blue and brown coloring a world away from the usual Ducati reds. Note the double headlamps and, while you cant see it in the photo, the tail light is a LED designed in the style of the Ducati logo.
Custom bikes you just wanna ride, ride, ride!
Here is the Honda Dream, which Animal Boats Daisuke Mukai made for the De-Tai race.
Roberts chose a gallery space for his Retro Moto project because he wanted to communicate with a variety of creative people. Sure enough, the opening party saw a nice mix of filmmakers, architects and more. Roberts might well be a bike designer now but his sights are always look for inspiration beyond the immediate field he is working in, and thats something Ping Cars also really appreciates.
The bikes at Retro Moto were not exhibits per se. They were genuinely working bikes, not just decoration. All you had to do was start them up and then you could have raced out of the gallery into the streets of Harajuku. Well, we managed to restrain ourselves this time.
Heres a look at the opening party event for the exhibition.
Speedtractor
Photo: Yuya Shimahara. Special thanks: UltraSuperNew Gallery, CHiNPAN