EXCLUSIVE Shinya Kimura is probably the world’s most famous custom motorcycle builder right now. But despite this fame, he’s a somewhat enigmatic figure. He studied insects at college, but chose motorcycle mechanics as a career. It was a smart move: he quickly shot to fame in the 90s building ‘samurai choppers’ at Zero Engineering, a…
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There’s a certain blacksmith shop feel to Shinya Kimura’s motorcycles, and I mean that in a good way. Looking at the bare aluminum bodywork of his latest creation, this cafe Harley Sportster, you get a sense of the heat and noise and sweat—the sheer effort and long hours—that went into its making. This is an…
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This bike is called ‘Hoon’ and it was created by Shinya Kimura, one of the champions of ‘Zero Style’ – minimal interpretations of vintage motorcycles, with low-key paintjobs and Harley-Davidson springer front ends. Kimura set up Zero Engineering in Japan in 1992, but now runs Chabott Engineering in Azusa, California. Like Chicara Nagata, Kimura is…
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