Midnight Dancer: A customized BMW HP2 Sport by Cherry's Firm

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Customized bikes come in all sizes and shapes. However the extra model variations a customized store provides to their portfolio, the extra they run the chance of watering down their work. This isn’t the case for Kaichiroh Kurosu, higher often known as Cherry’s Firm.

Kurosu-san not solely does all of it, however he does it on the highest degree too. From sportbikes to choppers, we’ve watched him produce persistently gorgeous work, 12 months on 12 months. And he’s even capable of mix a number of kinds right into a single bike; no marvel he’s one of many main lights of the Japanese customized scene.

His newest venture, ‘Midnight Dancer,’ began out because the unlikeliest of donors: a 2008 BMW HP2 Sport. When you’re unfamiliar, the HP2 Sport was a hardcore sportbike with full carbon bodywork, placing out a claimed 130 hp and weighing in at 397 lbs dry. On the time, it was the lightest and quickest boxer BMW had ever produced.

Costing round $26,000 when it was new, and extremely collectable now, the HP2 Sport shouldn’t be a motorcycle persons are usually lining as much as chop. However this one had been in an accident—leaving the bodywork wrecked, however the chassis and operating gear intact. The selection was clear, and the bike was delivered to Cherry’s Firm for a makeover.

For the reason that donor bike was initially wrapped in carbon fiber, Kaichiroh felt compelled to execute his customized work in carbon too. He’d been utilizing the light-weight materials on his made-to-order ‘Freeway Fighter’ BMW R nineT builds, however these kits have been laid up by hand. In the hunt for a greater technique, Kaichiroh found Vacuum Infusion Expertise.

We gained’t get into the technical particulars, however the finish result’s elements which might be greater high quality and stronger than hand-laid items. And the method permits for types and shapes not in any other case doable, liberating up new prospects in design.

“Once I exhibited the Midnight Dancer on the Yokohama Scorching Rod Customized Present, many journalists requested me why I used a carbon exterior,” Kaichiroh tells us. “Evidently they felt that the new rod scene and carbon elements, or resin elements for that matter, weren’t a great match for one another.”

“Nevertheless, the new rod scene has been customizing with resin elements for the reason that Sixties, exemplified by Tracy Nelson’s Fiberglas Works customized bikes with their one-piece fiberglass our bodies. And now, greater than 50 years on, even the growing old of Tracy’s customized bikes, with their chipped fibers and light paint, is a part of the customization course of, I suppose.”

As soon as the manufacturing technique was established, design might start. The preliminary concept was to construct an 80s-style Grand Prix bike with a big fairing and considerably exaggerated proportions—a minimum of in comparison with the GP bikes of in the present day.

Kaichiroh deliberately went for a design with overlapping elements. That allowed him to construct his new fairing and gasoline tank part over the BMW’s unique internal gasoline reservoir, and to make use of the present mounting factors. He even included an aluminum consumption simply behind the fairing, to direct air into the inventory airbox.

Carbon fiber was additionally used to create new fenders, and an in depth stomach pan. However when it got here to the tail part, Kaichiroh modified tack. “I used to be going to complete the rear cowl in carbon too,” he explains, “however in the course of the manufacturing course of I began to suppose that I wished a method that mixes metallic and carbon.”

“Even these days, MotoGP or WSBK race bikes typically use aluminum as-is just for their gasoline tanks. Within the low season, when no sponsor or livery has been selected, the racing groups take a look at bikes with an aluminum tank, which is uncooked, and a carbon cowl. And it’s cool.”

The naked metallic creates a stark distinction agains the mostly-black HP2 Sport. The one paint comes within the type of gold leaf scrollwork across the fairing, fender, and fuel tank shroud, including a little bit of present and end. Look intently, and also you’ll additionally spot recent nickel plating on the body.

Smaller particulars embody a customized license plate holder on the rear, an aluminum encompass for the headlights, and aluminum fairing braces that connect with the tank cowl.

The HP2 Sport got here from the manufacturing unit with cast aluminum wheels, top-spec Brembo brakes, and Öhlins shocks mounted to its telelever entrance and paralever rear suspension. Kaichiroh properly left that every one one, together with the inventory digital elements, including solely a recent set of Michelin Energy Cup 2 tires.

A closing contact comes by way of the customized exhaust silencer. The HP2 Sport’s inventory unit is normally mounted slightly below the rear cowl; right here, it’s hidden inside it.

The mixture of BMW engineering and reimagined HP2 elements, with Kaichiroh’s sculptural imaginative and prescient and the contrasting finishes, is totally transformative. The ultimate product is a machine that’s nonetheless, 25 years later, acting at a really excessive degree—however now seems to be like one thing solely Cherry’s Firm might produce.