The Bike was commissioned by a very good friend of mine who owns a clothing brand “TAKI” (https://www.facebook.com/TAKI.DESIGN), he was never really into bikes before but he likes to travel with us and done several trips to MOONEYES and JOINTS show, custom bikes grew on him very fast, this year his brand has a series of biker influence theme called “The Road Leader”, he can’t help it anymore, he need a bike, so naturally he came to me. He want a café racer, he want it clean and grey-ish color, that’s pretty much it, I knew him for years and the idea comes together fast.
The key component is the vintage replica Dunstall GT half fairing by GFTP (http://www.caferacingparts.com/), looks perfect for sizing but the vintage windscreen was too high for the slick look I’m after, so I heated the screen and tilted it way lower. For the tank, it was actually a super heavily modified sportster tank, the Rough Crafts signature cut from the center perfectly created that café tank look while the interesting wider front wrap around the front cylinder head while the rear was narrowed and cut out to accommodate the rear cylinder head, which is one of the most interesting shape I created for this particular bike. Now to the matching tail section, I want the clean lightweight look of the empty bally space, an under-tail oil tank was made, the custom RCE lithium battery was tucked in under the gas tank, and the stainless steel bally pan was only for ECM and fuse etc. The Speed Merchant (http://www.thespeedmerchant.net/) provided the riser-less billet triple tree, lower legs from a 883R for the dual caliper mounts and a pair of Brembo made HD Touring calipers, SAN DIEGO CUSTOMS (http://www.sandiegocustoms.com/) and LYNDALL RACING BRAKES (http://www.lyndallbrakes.com/) teamed up with this SPEEDLINE wheel/discs/pulley set wrapped with FIRESTONE Deluxe Champion tires, the rear was PROGRESSIVE SUSPENSION 15” shocks. Our very good friend BACK DROP CUSTOM LEATHER (http://www.back-drop.com/) from Japan wrapped that beautiful seat for us, SPARK (http://www.spark.it/) provided us the tail pipe and we made a full stainless header to run it, rearsets was custom made, the custom full silver push rod collars was again made by our talented friend from 2 Abnormal Sides (http://www.2abnormalsides.com/), and of course, the paint was handled by none other than AIR RUNNER CUSTOM PAINT STUDIO (https://www.facebook.com/AIRRUNNER.C.P)
The Bike actually has nothing to do with Aston Martin, but when I was planning for photo shoot, Aston Martin Taiwan called me and says they want an interview of me in their magazine for their VIPs, so I thought it's a cool idea to shot the bike in Aston Martin show room with one of their cars, we still got enough shots without the cars, so your choice if you like the shots with the car or not.
photo by Bobby Ho
