Japan Bike Scene

Japan Bike Scene

I bet when you hear Japan your first thought is about metric bikes, well, these guys dig American made motorcycles, better say, old, American made bikes. Besides the Bozosoku (Japanese street gangs) who modify their Japanese made bikes to be obnoxious, loud and gaudy as shit....

I did not know much about Japan and their bikes, sure I knew Chica (my official japanese teacher, yes I know all the filthy words) and had seen a book a few years ago about some guys called Zero Engineering, but other than that, and the seldom issue of Vibes, courtesy of Yass, maybe once a year in Daytona, I knew nothing. As what we do became more popular it gave me the chance to go places, to visit, to know people, soon more Japanese magazines started showing up at the shop, I was shot a couple times for Vibes, so I guess some people knew who I was. Later on Sherriff came over and was ranting about the time he had in Japan, about the Vibes Meet and Cool Breaker show, he sent me a disc of photos, and needless to say I was fucking blown away.

Some years ago I was in California at an event and a couple of shy, respectful japanese guys walked over to me and simply asked. ChopperFreak San? I shoot the shit, as limited as I could, and we exchanged biz cards. One of those guys happened to be Daisuke from Cosmic, little did I know is that he built some of the coolest bikes in all of Japan, from then on we became friends, I received tons of links from Japanese bike builders and got to enjoy and absorb what these guys are doing... I fucking really dig their work.... Shinya Kimura from Zero became a really good friend, I still feel inspired by his work, it's nothing but amazing.

The shops and scene in Japan is rockin' , Cool breaker show and the Moon Eyes show are the top places for oggling cool custom bikes.. Since i have been trying to make it there for the last four years, these shots are from their websites, I really do hope that this year I will finally make it there...