KC Kawano's Knucklehead Bobber

After I assume of a bobber, a “bob-job,” a “cut-down,” a “chopper,” or regardless of the hell you wish to name it, that is what I consider: simple, low-slung, highly effective, knuckles up, harmful as all fuck, and American as a coronary heart assault.

This wonderful specimen was constructed by KC Kawano over the course of 1 winter to exacting specs: his personal. He’s a person of few phrases, however his work speaks for itself. He didn’t construct the bike to speak about it. He constructed it to experience it.

Once we keep in mind that KC is an old-school hot-rod builder, and we stand that subsequent to the Knucklehead, we will surmise a reasonably good thought of the intention: construct an American customized that may seize the spirit of the Nineteen Fifties.

What we now take into account the bobber was born within the Thirties. These early customs, often known as “cutdowns,” started as a option to breathe new life into getting old bikes and mimicked the types seen on the race observe. Melancholy-era riders stripped the bikes of their accouterments, tossed the fenders, and junked all the things else that didn’t both make the bike run or roll. This resulted in a a lot quicker and rather more trendy experience. All it took was just a little little bit of inspiration and a few elbow grease. Moreover, at the moment, elbow grease and inspiration have been about all anybody had.

When individuals are compelled to rethink the issues they’ve, not the issues they need, an in any other case inaccessible nicely of ingenuity turns into accessible.

The years that adopted the tip of WWII noticed a marked rise within the recognition of the customized bike. Troopers returned from the conflict, the economic system rebounded, and the “cut-down” developed into the “bob-job.” The additional scratch gave builders the means to use extra distinctive paint jobs, add chrome, and make different distinctive customizations to their bikes. This gave rise to what we see right here – a near-textbook instance of the “bobber.”

Clear, easy, crisp – adjectives which might be so ubiquitous that they might be used to explain absolutely anything. An apple. Perhaps a chilly pop on a sunny day. And undoubtedly this ’50s-inspired Knucklehead bobber. It’s not meant to set the world of customized bikes ablaze, to take house trophies, or to bolster KC’s “insta-fame.” It’s meant to be the sort of bike the place the query of whether or not or not there ought to be a entrance brake was by no means a query in any respect. How else would it not earn its identify?

KC’s White Knuckle is a mirrored image of himself. No frills. It’s the alternative of grandiose, long-winded, and hyperbolic. So when KC solutions the query of the place the bike got here from with a terse, “from right here and there,” it’s a refreshing honesty. Perhaps issues simply aren’t that sophisticated typically. And perhaps, simply perhaps, many extra issues in life can be higher off thought-about simply the identical.