CLASS WITH NO NAME

CYCLE WEST FROM JAPAN BUILDS A NEW BREED OF CUSTOM

Across the great Pacific Ocean on the islands of Japan, a pair of guys have been making waves, which have just started to break on the US coastline—not brat style nor bosozoku, but rather a style all their own. They just don’t have a catchy name yet. Enter Cycle West.

Hiromichi Nishiyama, who goes by Hiro, and Takaaki Katori set up shop about six years ago and have completed more than 20 full custom builds. Last year, Cycle West won a special trophy from the Born-Free Motorcycle Show at the Mooneyes 2016 Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show, awarding them an invite to the Born-Free show this year. That’s where we caught up with them for an afternoon photo shoot.

We met the pair of builders in Costa Mesa, California, along with their American and Japanese friends, together creating this diverse, motley crew, of wide-eyed, happy bikers riding through Southern California. The Panhead was sitting outside a suburban house when we arrived.

They’ve only built Harleys, switching between styles and bikes as they feel inspired. They have created a style that’s often hard to spot, but that’s partly because of their unique pairing. Hiro has worked at a Harley shop since his youth; Katori was a part of a group of local elementary school kids who used to visit the shop after school. Hiro left that shop and became a truck driver but later returned to motorcycling and opened his own shop. Naturally, Katori, who was working in a print shop at the time, started hanging around again. So, about five years ago, Hiro thought he might as well start paying him to help out. Katori is 17 years his junior, but the pair seem to make sense.

When Hiro described the shop’s style, he said through a translator, “I have not changed, and I’m not limited to just this Panhead. I like to make things simple, balanced, and have a nice silhouette— that’s important. I build things using my mind. Each piece adds to the balance and produces the entire silhouette.”

The customer of the Panhead had visited the shop to place a build order for his dream bike: a 1961 Harley-Davidson. He was born in ’61 so he wanted a bike as old as him, but that was about the only instruction he provided—except that the gas tank had to be black. The rest of the style and design was up to Cycle West.

After being given those simple instructions, the Cycle West team began searching for parts, but they also had to find the bike itself. Using their LA connections, they found a 1961 bike with a cut and raked frame and long front end. Immediately, they returned it to the stock dimensions with detailed craftsmanship, closely resembling stock H-D construction.

Along with the chance to attend the show, the Born-Free award also included a specially created coin from Good Art HLYWD (goodart.com), which featured Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers and riders. The coin featured the words: “Godspeed you good rider, Saint Christopher keep us safe.” The team curved the metal coin around the center of the handlebars and riveted it in place— much better placement than hidden away on a fireplace mantle. It fit the intended look of the bike precisely.

“We wanted a bike that fit the owner,” Hiro writes. “We want him to feel cool when he gets on it, like a dirt-track racer or a Spartan warrior. The owner is speed freak, so I think he enjoys it. The Hi-Performance cam and S&S twin-throat carburetor make it very exciting to ride.”

It took the team the next year to finish the project before they presented it to its new owner, Hashiba Kazuya, who is a craftsman himself. “He’s a customer who runs the accelerator fully open,” Hiro writes. “We believe the finished bike fits this image, has a racing atmosphere with a simple, clean design but with some muscle.”

The internals of the Panhead are mostly stock, but it features an Andrews HiPerformance cam and a trick S&S Two Throat carb with custom intake by Natural Steel Works. Hiro said the tuning was relativity simple and it runs strong with the current setup. The velocity stack and exhaust are custom built by Hiro and team.

After the sheet metal was trimmed and fitted, Hiro sent everything off to So Jake

Leather, which sheeted the bottom of the seat and tank dash cover. He was working with 420 Kustoms simultaneously to ensure the graphics matched the leatherwork. “I wanted the tank graphics to work together with the rest of the bike,” Hiro writes. The faint, flowing, and sparkling white graphics match that of the leatherwork, keeping a subtle theme throughout.

Along with the overall style and shape, the bike’s finer details were in the appearance and combination of finishes. The aluminum parts, such as most of the engine, were sandblasted and left unfinished. Steel parts and screws were scuffed and feature a Parkerizing coating. A coating normally reserved for firearms. Parkerizing is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of a chemical phosphate conversion coating.

Cycle West’s Panhead style is raw while having a tight fit and finish—a simple, clean, and cut-down bike with a high level of craftsmanship that shines through a bare exterior. The team doesn’t have a catchy name yet, but maybe that just keeps them from limiting their style. HB

Specifications

GENERAL

OWNER

Hashiba Kazuya

SHOP Cycle West

WEBSITE cycle-west.blogspot.com

YEAR/MAKE/MODEL 1961/Harley-Davidson/FL

FABRICATION Cycle West BUILD TIME 1 year

ENGINE

YEAR/TYPE/SIZE 1961/H-D/FL

BUILDER Cycle West

CASES H-D

CYLINDERS H-D

HEADS H-D

ROCKER BOXES Sandblasted H-D

CAMS Andrews

THROTTLE BODY S&S Twin Throat w/ intake built by Natural Steel Works

AIR CLEANER Custom velocity stack EXHAUST Cycle West Megaphone

TRANSMISSION

YEAR/TYPE 1961/H-D

GEARS H-D

CLUTCH H-D

PRIMARY DRIVE H-D

FRAME

YEAR/TYPE H-D

RAKE/STRETCH H-D 30°/No stretch

SUSPENSION

FRONT END Big Twin/’74 Springer replica

LENGTH Stock

SWINGARM H-D

REAR SHOCKS H-D

WHEELS, TIRES, AND BRAKES

FRONT

BUILDER/SIZE Cycle West/19 in.

TIRE/SIZE Firestone/4.00-19

CALIPERS CCI Minidrum

REAR

BUILDER/SIZE Cycle West/16 in.

TIRE/SIZE Firestone/5.00-16

CALIPER H-D

PULLEY H-D

FINISH/PAINT

MANUFACTURER PPG

COLORS Black w/ Pearl White

PAINT/GRAPHICS 420 Kustoms

PLATING/POLISHING No plating/polishing by 420 Kustoms

ACCESSORIES

REAR FENDER H-D custom modified

GAS TANK H-D custom modified

DASH Cycle West

GAUGES Smith D Shape

HANDLEBARS HWZNBROSS

GRIPS Silicone tape

FOOT CONTROLS H-D

FLOORBOARDS Triumph footpegs

HEADLIGHT Tractor type

TAILLIGHT Lucas 477

LICENSE MOUNT Cycle West

SEAT Custom built by So Jake Leather

Judging by the CMP Turbo on this Softail Slim’s 110-inch Screamin’ Eagle mill, I’m pretty sure it’s as evil on the streets as it is parked. It’s also SOP for any vehicle owner Chris Johnson keeps in his stable. He runs turbo kits on all of them. The sweet music of a Harley motor and a turbo working together is a wonderful thing, and he digs it. Needless to say, he’s got one on the bagger that matches his Softail. That’s not the only cool thing the two bikes have in common. Like his touring bike, Chris’ 2016 Softail Slim is a lay-frame design.

This whole project was born of Chris wanting a bike for those times when he didn’t want to ride said touring scoot. When he came across the Softail Slim, it was mostly what he was looking for. He liked the Softail but didn’t like the Softail; it needed some custom lovin’ to really evolve into the ideal version in his head: something old-school looking yet new at the same time. Hence the lay-frame work and the CMP Turbo.

“I love the sound of turbos,” Chris says. “Mix a Harley-Davidson with a turbo and that’s the best sound in the world to me. With a 110-inch in the bike, it’s a nasty little machine.”

Michael McNamer fabricated the new swingarm that transforms the Softail frame into a lay-frame design. Chris switched over to an SAS air suspension while they were customizing the back end and shaved 2 inches off the fork setup for the low look. A lot of this bike is still Harley-Davidson. Some of it was modified; some was kept stock. Chris knew what he wanted to do going in and didn’t see a whole lot of reason to swap everything over to full custom.

By keeping part of the Harley-Davidson look and feel to the Slim, Chris helped tie it to his bagger in a way. Both have that vibe going for them. What sets them apart from their stock brethren also serves to unite them though: the melding of turbo-powered muscle in a lay-frame chassis. When running turbo kits on every form of transportation you tweak and modify is your signature move, giving them a similar look to go with that move is not just understandable—it’s pretty cool. HB