Damn! Damn! Damn! I really don't know how to feel and all those three damns were for absolutely different reasons for the way I felt when I saw Whitehouse's latest creation of the eternal legend, Honda CB750. The first damn was because how on earth can they keep on doing such fantastic jobs, one after another, never ever failing to raise my salivary hormones with their mouth watering beauties! The second damn s just for being such a no good at anything. I see creations so beautiful that can probably bring peace in the Middle East and here I am, if only I could match up to even a single percent of their talent, I would have been so proud of myself. The third damn is because I am not born in Japan and so cannot understand a single damn word what is written on the website. Good'ol google was not of much help either. I guess there is not much to know except the design details which are obvious but still...
Anyway, really, their designs are so simple in a way that there is nothing out of the world extraordinary but everything is so beautifully fused, that you just get mesmerized. The bike here is a CB750 that Whitehouse has initally designed and now redesgned by Motorimoda. Japanese Custom designers usually focus more on bobbers, but Whitehouse specializes in Honda CB750, one of the favorite bike that goes under the knife for cafe racers to bobbers to what not. Motorimodo, by the way is a Japanese house that specializes in bike accessories. Actually, it is not that simple as it looks to create something this stunning. I guess we all know that or there would have been custom shops all around. I remember some years back reading somewhere that the girl was very impressed by the ‘casual’ look her date sported on their first date. The guy mentioned that it took him almost 3 hours to get the perfect ‘casual’ look.
What I mean is that for WH, what looks like a very simple neat and decent job is actually not that simple. To give that appearance, you have to make every bit of the bike gel with the other components perfectly or it will sport a ‘done-in-the-backyard’ look. From the hand made aluminum fuel tank which by the way is elongated to give a more sleeker look than the factory designed bulky look to the original Ekipai 4-2-1 stainless steel mufflers, everything is carefully planed out. That incredible looking front body casing is made of carbon fibre and has in hose painted graphics. The headlight casing is anodized black. Every bit of extra body waer is made of carbon fibre and so the result is actually a decrease in the total body weight of 15 kgs from 235kg to 220 kg. The twin tail lights complimemting the twin headlamps and lots of other things are all of course made in house. The grips on the handle bar has been designed by MOMO Design, sister concern of Motorimodo.
You can see all of White House high technology and design skills in the bike. The colour scheme is based on Motorimodo’s brand colour, brown. Both side of the bikes project different colour combinations at the seat and a different look to the tank as one side is without decals. Due credit goes to Mr. Shinichiro Arakawa, owner of ShinichiroArakawa designs who took the reins to give the bike a truly remarkable finish. Also the engine output of the bike has increased by a remarkable 20 bhp from the standard CB750 thanks to the redesigned mufflers and carburetor settings. The seat height has also been decreased from 795mm to 770mm to give the café racer feel which I feel with the change of riding position would also help in pepping up the speedometer due to decreased wind resistance. It has a single seat, a true café racer and the bike has got a all black finish including the alloys. This specially designed black café racer has been made for one Mr. Okabayasi. The cost of the bike is $28, 625 USD. It is not cheap, but looking at the finished product, this is really a bargain. You might remember the original Whitehouse CB750that they have initially designed with a white colour layout scheme. Some of the pictures from the original creation is attached below. Check the above link to see their pther colour schemes.
Yet another one of those magnificent Japanese Custom builders and dare I say, probably the best among all those featured here till now even though not by much. The post will be relatively short as I am spending too much time just drooling at the images. And boy! there are a whole lot and I mean a whole lot of motorcycles to drool over.
HIDEMO, short for Hide Motorcycles are basically in Harley Davidson custom building. And they are so good at it that their custom Harley won 'Best Of The Show' Motorcycle in Yokohama's Hot Rod Custom Show in 2006 and again in 2007 and was placed second last year.
Mod Cafe 2, based on a 1998 XL1200S. It has customized Hide Motorcycle paint and the concept for this tank was an old German BMW motorcycle and an old YAMAHA D.T. trail bike. The second is Mod Cafe 1, based on a 1996 XL1200S with concept based on ols British Cafe Racers. It has original tank and fender, seat, frame meter system, muffler, oil tank, swing arm system, handlebar. Both the bikes took 3 months to build.
There bikes has also won at various shows like getting to the second place in Jammer Cycle Award 2007, second place in New Order Chopper Show at Kobe in 2009 and not to forget getting to the top ten in AMD European World Championship 2007. Now thats quite a long list of accolades. Gracing the covers of many bike magazines worldwide, their choppers and hot rods and bobbers follow the typical Japanese lingo of designing, simple but stunning.
The name of the founder (to the best of my knowledge of translation and of course with google language tool) is Hide and thereby Hide Motorcycles.
Narrow Chopper, based on a Sporster XL 1200S with a beautiful 2in1 muffler, cutting short the normal R fender, original HIDEMO paint, the frame is modified, and switches in the wiring around the steering wheel or through a simple MMB meters. The other is
Mod Chopper II, based on 1975 XLCH. Thats one ravishing in a stylish design unlike any other bike with drop handle, aluminum gas tank, saddle seat and look at the front fork's compact and simple style.
Anyway, he has been into this business for over a decade and a half and has a particular fascination for vintage American racers and he used to satisfy his initial crave from old magazines and photo books and liked their designs which he thought was "rare, warm, natural and interesting". Finally he thought of building an original himself which will have all the cultures of those vintage American racers. So he formed a team of like minded individuals and opened their in Yokohama in 2001. And that was it. What started coming out from that factory is a sight to behold, one after another, just visit the website, you just cannot ignore any of the bikes.
Mod Cafe 3, based on a 2006 XL883 which took 2 months to build with customized Hide Motorcycle original gas tank, seat, fender, oil tank, steps , air cleaner cover, number plate support, muffler. The design has a really clean, unique and fantastic line. The Tank logos were designed by the bikes owner. Then there is the Mod Cafe 2, based on 1998 XL 1200S with drive chain & K & N Filter Power. Actually, the concept was derived from a mixture of YAMAHA DT series and BMW cars! Weird!
Now they are fully eqipped and has the best of machines and technology. They can make your customized dream bike exactly the way you want it. And being Japanese, they make excellent hosts. So as the webpage says "You are very much welcome to visit us any time"
With that kind of work, they are now internationally well known and has included working for different projects like Cafe Racers also and also in other brands like Kawasaki.
Hidemo is now selling a range of custom and vintage motorcycle parts for your own project which can be purchased through their website and as such you dont have to make that long trip to Japan.
The IZO, not based on HD, but on a 1982 Kawasaki H2 (Whoa!) with customized aluminum gas tanks, which won an award in Custom Styling at the NEW ORDER CUSTOM SHOW at Kobe in 2008. The second bike is named Genuine Speed, based on 1982 FXWG, also with customized aluminum tanks and HIDEMO paint.
They have also been in recent news for a project named GLORY, an awesome unlike anything before Cafe racer, built on a 2005 Buell XB9S Lightning, if it was not for the engine, there is no way you could recognize the donor. The headlamps, the dial board, its really unique. As of now, the bike is listed as available for sale, so you jut might like to... you know! Also to add to your cause, there is a video posted below. I really wanted to post all the bikes here, but I am sure you would like to see the bikes at the website. So, visit HIDEMO for lots of custom built motorcycles and dont forget to put your eyeballs back in the sockets once you leave their website.
There is something very ... how to say... Japanese about Japanese customization. I mean their concept of customization to Cafe Racers with keeping things simple works with all the custom designers. It hardly means that they resemble each other, everyone is unique in their style, yet the simplicity which they maintain is signatory Japanese. Its elegant to say the least. I have made a few posts under Jap Customs previously and now joining the list is Mr. Ritmo Sereno. Although their focus or so to say, donors come from the Japanese market, with Sereno, you get a European market as his focus is mainly BMW along with Moto Guzzi and BSA.
Just to repeat myself, I really need to learn japanese as all these wonderful creations are featured in websites that I am just not able to decipher. So here goes again, whatever I could make out from the website.
From the website, I could let you know that they are Japan based (you probably expected that) and one more thing Ritmo Serono may be the founder of the organization (thats what I could make out) and Siroh Nakagima is the CEO as given on a blog of the website. One more thing when you look through the website, try vivting all the links on the CUSTOM section, Man! I am telling you, you are gonna enjoy the beauties, each one!
They as mentioned customize the bikes and also manufacture their own parts and also source the spares so you might just want to purchase parts individually also. For a complete selection of bikes, go to your CUSTOM section where they have listed the entire catalogue of BMWs, BSAs and MOTO GUZZIs and I tell you there are quite a number of BMWs. Elaborate photos of before and after shots and all the inputs on what changes they have made are given {although in japanese :-( } They have a huge selection of photos in their custom file section. Well we all know how a 60s or 70s or80s bike look like, but the finished product is drool worthy to a T. Featured images here comes from a Moto Guzzi LeMans III, BMW R800, BSA A70 among others. They make both street and race versions which means they do the tuning bit too. I was especially fascinated by the BSA A70, a MOTO GUZZI Le Mans 1000 and a BMW nicknamed Rocket R.
Acording to the translated version of the website, they will "work wholeheartedly to any request", and it shows! They will also see that all the papers are clear and clean. Their motto is giving the original vehicles a get up to enjoy the modern benifits of mechanics while enjoying the old world charm. So, what are you waiting for, get your passport ready and visa in order, just rush to the Japanese embassy and thats it. And if you are thinking what are you gonna do if you so as to even think of getting bored watching them turn their beautiful craftsmanship on your old bike to a sexy beast, relax, as the store is attached to the café with the same name, just have a cup of japanese tea to soothe your tight nerves and that dropped jaw of yours!
If you have stopped drooling at the customized Yamaha SR400 & Yamaha XS650SPL, go and learn some Japanese or atleast teach me. We all really need to learn Japanese. You see everytime I come across Japanese customization, I am amazed by the simplicity they maintain in customizing their bikes and still yeilding out such stunning bikes. You might have probably gone through some previous Japanese customization featured here in the blog like the Bratstyle, Whitehouse, or Official. Welcome to another club... GRAVEL CREW
Beside the fact that they stress a lot on Yamaha SR400, the other thing you will notice is how they keep it so simple. For example look at the two models above, again another Yamaha SR400 and a Yamaha XS650SPL. I dont know about the 650, but the 400 has absolutely no altered frame or chassis. Whatever has been done in only kind of add-ons, Chop off the back mudguard, put thick rubbers both at the front and back while totally disposing off the front mudguard, get new handlebars, thats it! Even the seats have the original plates.
That was easy, but then why do you think they look so cool? My guess is that the finishing job they do, that is the painting is absolutely A class top of the line. Also the chrome or black paint on the engine is just too good. The second thing is (probably) that they just know the perfect combination of the paint scheme, that is what can be the best combination of the colours of the tank, the engine and the seat? No really, what else is there? The work is so simple, but the end result is so stunning. Just look at the Honda CB500 & the Honda CB500T above and tell me if I am wrong.
The above 2 bikes are Kawasaki Z250LTD & Kawasaki 250TR respectively. Please note that all the names are according to the website. Anyway, look at the Kwackers, exactly the same thing except the former which have alloys. Anyway, visit their website GRAVEL CREW and Yes! please translate anything you understand. The whole website is in japanese fonts which I see as boxes. Even google was of no help. The website does have a lot of images to drool. Even if you dont understand Japanese, atleast there is enough 'Visual Gratification'! Although the stress is on mainly Yamahas and Kawasakis. they also work on Hondas. The website also features a Suzuki BigBoy and a Harley Davidson as picturized below. Link through The Kneeslider(Dont know what would I have done without them!, they find such wonderful links from God knows where. Thanks Mr. Paul Crowe).
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