KC Kawano’s Knucklehead Bobber

Once I suppose 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: easy, low-slung, highly effective, knuckles up, harmful as all fuck, and American as a coronary heart assault.

This effective 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 have in mind that KC is an old-school hot-rod builder, and we stand that subsequent to the Knucklehead, we are able to surmise a reasonably good thought of the intention: construct an American customized that might seize the spirit of the Nineteen Fifties.

What we now think about the bobber was born within the Nineteen Thirties. These early customs, referred to as “cutdowns,” started as a solution to breathe new life into getting older bikes and mimicked the types seen on the race observe. Despair-era riders stripped the bikes of their accouterments, tossed the fenders, and junked every little thing 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 a little bit little bit of inspiration and a few elbow grease. Apart from, at the moment, elbow grease and inspiration have been about all anybody had.

When persons are pressured to rethink the issues they’ve, not the issues they need, an in any other case inaccessible effectively of ingenuity turns into obtainable.

The years that adopted the tip of WWII noticed a marked rise within the reputation of the customized motorbike. Troopers returned from the battle, the economic system rebounded, and the “cut-down” advanced 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 can be so ubiquitous that they might be used to explain absolutely anything. An apple. Perhaps a chilly pop on a sunny day. And positively this ’50s-inspired Knucklehead bobber. It’s not meant to set the world of customized bikes ablaze, to take dwelling 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 title?

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 possibly, simply possibly, many extra issues in life could be higher off thought of simply the identical.

This text first appeared in challenge 024 of Iron & Air Magazine, and is reproduced right here beneath license.

Phrases by Gregory George Moore | Photos by Jeff Stockwell

*Because the authentic publication of this piece by Iron & Air, KC Kawano handed away in Idaho at 67 years of age. Journey in Peace KC.*