When Shinya Kimura makes things, it's the pure inspiration that comes first and foremost. Millions of bikers stood up and took interest when he was the man designing and building the Zero bikes. Now that he has launched Chabott Engineering he is back to basics making custom bikes with a flair all his own.
Once the dreaming about his next creation is set aside and Shinya actually builds what is conjured up, it must be completely functional. Even in the static design stages, purpose is held to the highest regard. Well before style rears its ugly head.
The Needle is Shinya's two-wheeled case study wrapped around a '57 650cc Triumph engine. It's stripped to the hilt style shows what can be done when the chopper rulebook is burned at the stake. Shinya built the needle as an experiment in design and as a way to test his own theories and further push his own beliefs of how bikes could be built and ridden. Since this bike was more of a design exercise Shinya could free his mind and put more emphasis on designing than riding, which he has never really done before.
"If I had to focus on cornering, then (the) Needle would be a different design. I know how motorcycle(s) work, so I would say (the) Needle was the one to satisfy my curiosity of straight-line speed trials design and (it) led me to the next level" he told us.
While designing and riding the Needle, Shinya was bitten by the land speed bug and has been seen on both the dry lake at El Mirage and on the salt flats at Bonneville. The Needle's design proved certain ways to squeeze speed out of thin air and we have it on good accord that with his design prowess Shinya will be seeing a few BUB and SCTA speed records coming his way very soon.