Shinya Kimura is one of the most enigmatic custom motorcycle builders working today. His bikes have zero respect for conventional styles, prevailing trends or the laws of symmetry, and are instantly recognizable by their organic shapes. But how does that approach gel with BMW’s monstrous retro cruiser, the R18? To answer that question, BMW Motorrad…
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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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