Knight Takes 女王

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Channeling some Dead Poets Society... “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” ― Henry David Thoreau

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This is how I did Cherry Blossom Viewing (in 2018). I've always dreamt of doing this.

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Went to the 2018 Tokyo Motorcycle Show. So many bikes, too little time.

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Riding to see the very first Sakura (Cherry Blossom) blooms of 2018 (in Yokohama).SHOW MORE

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Is the Harley Davidson Iron 883 fast or slow? Here's what I think. (And that bridge to Daikoku again).

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When you ride through a place for the first time, but it looks so familiar because you've driven through it in a video game.

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Ars Ex Machina (Art From The Machine)

This film is about Japan and the culture built around robots, cars, and motorcycles. Filmed on location at the Robot Restaurant, Odaiba, and on my bike.

If you’re interested in more content from me, feel free to subscribe to my Youtube channel, Tommy Rides Japan.  

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Harley Davidson Sportster Iron 883

This is old-school rock-and-roll.The Harley Davidson Sportster is the 1960s Ford Mustang of motorcycles. It's may not be the absolute fastest, biggest, most expensive, or most high-tech of rides out there, but It is, however, one of the most iconic, and as long as there is a road, it can take you wherever you want to go.

When the original Sportster with its Ironhead engine was introduced in 1957, it was a response to the smaller, lighter, and faster British bikes that were invading the American market. It was considered to be one of the fastest bikes of its day, certainly the fastest Harley Davidson motorcycle at the time.

Something that that can be felt while riding it, rather than read on a spec sheet, is that after 60 years of production, Harley Davidson knows how to put this bike together. It got a proper left foot shifter in the 70s (it predates the time when left foot gear shifters became standard on motorcycles). In 1986, the original Ironhead engine was replaced with the more powerful Evolution engine. In the 90s, its 4-speed transmission was upgraded to a 5-speed, and its final drive was switched from a chain to a belt drive. After the turn of the century, the frame was redesigned to accommodate rubber engine mounts to reduce vibrations (2004), switched from carburators to electronic fuel injection (2007), and anti-lock brakes became available (2014). There were other mechanical and cosmetic updates, but underneath it all, is essentially the same 1957 motorcycle design. It may not be wicked fast or high-tech by today's standards, but like an aged whiskey, it feels smooth and well put-together.

In contrast, many of the British legends from the 1930-1950s, such as the Brough Superior and the Vincent Black Shadow are now collectible and exorbitantly priced unicorns. Unlike Brough and Vincent, Harley Davidson didn’t go under, and they’ve been building Sportsters continuously the entire time.

At this Sportster’s heart is the 883cc Evolution engine, which replaced the original Ironhead engine in 1986. With a push of the starter button, it rumbles to life like a 1950s warplane. There’s that angry galloping horse exhaust sound from the single-crankpin V-twin that is quintessentially Harley Davidson. Heavy metal thunder. It’s like music. There is no point in rationalizing what isn’t rational to begin with, only in the realization that it matters.

(Even stock, it is loud enough to frighten old ladies and small dogs as I ride through quiet neighborhoods. I’m fine with it the way it is. With an aftermarket exhaust, it could probably shake the gates of heaven....or, you know, anger the neighbors :)

Performance-wise, there are certainly many contemporary bikes that are faster, but in 2018 you can’t really expect a traditional, low-revving, air-cooled 883cc V-twin to compete with a similar displacement liquid-cooled engine in terms of peak power output. Much less if it’s up against a high-revving liquid-cooled inline four cylinder. More power equals more heat, which would then require the added complexity of water-cooling. The advantage of an air-cooled V-twin design is its simplicity and reliability- no radiators, coolant levels, hoses, pumps, and fans to worry about. This design has less parts to go wrong, and easier to fix when they do. Considering that 80-110 km/h happens to be the top highway speed in Japan and Canada (60 km/h on regular roads), most of the time I'm actively slowing down rather than pushing her to go faster.

Gone are all the chrome and bling that characterized Harley Davidson motorcycles in the 80s and 90s. Code-named Project Blacksmith during development, and part of Harley Davidson’s Dark Custom line, Senior Designer Dais Nagao, takes a very wabi-sabi (侘寂) approach towards the Iron 883s (2016-2018 model) aesthetic, saying “You may put scuffs, scratches, and maybe dings and dents, but that’s okay because those will make the bike look better.”

Yes, the designer who styled this iconic 2017 Sportster Iron 883 is indeed, Japanese. He pulled it off with tastefully blacked-out engine components and chrome highlights. From a design perspective, everything - peanut tank, tuck-and-roll seat, V-twin engine, air filter, frame, and wheels - fits together cohesively. There are small touches, such as the bullet hole design elements and the chrome touches on the wheels, that finish a look that wouldn’t be out-of-place in a custom bike showcase, except that’s the way it rolls off the showroom floor. So while it is impressive that there are so many after-market custom options, what’s even more impressive with the Iron 883, is that it's a lot easier to make it look worse when people try to customize it than make it look better than stock.

A motorcycle journalist once said, ‘Harley Davidson don’t make motorcycles, they make Harleys’. That’s a fair point. Harleys don’t do well on spec sheets and magazine performance comparison tests. But then again, it is 2018. Small (under 400cc) displacement custom bikes, and vintage cars are becoming mainstream cool these days, and along with it comes the realization that there’s so much more to motoring than just speed.

In Japan, I often see vintage Harley Sportsters from the 60s and 70s still running and often being used as the base for some beautiful custom builds. The Japanese have a word to describe bikes like that - shibui (渋い). Without any integrated gadgetry that would be obsolete in a few years, solid build-quality, and a simple, proven design that keeps them running for decades, the Sportster Iron 883 is a compelling argument for the idea that ‘less, done well, really is more’.

Steel for humans. Silver for monsters. Iron for Witchers. I'm naming my bike after the enchantress 'Yennefer of Vengerberg' or just えんーちゃん (ENCHAN) for short.

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“Don’t say a prayer for me now. Save it ‘til the morning after.” - Save A Prayer, Duran Duran

So there I was, thinking I would be some kind of UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) Jedi. Then as the story goes - I met this strange girl in the Cantina and the next thing I know, I’m riding with the Empire. 

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Welcome to the Dark Side! May 4th is Star Wars Day.  

Shirt: UNIQLO Star Wars Collection. Helmet: Arai Rapide IR