Bosozoku biker gangs once ruled the streets of Japan, these days though they are more of a nuisance than anything else, revving their engines and riding like lunatics through quiet neighbourhoods. While this doesn’t sound all that cool the Bosozoku style is about as individual as you could imagine and it was only a matter of time before someone outside of Japan added a bit of Bosozoku to one of their builds. Andy Carter owner of workshop Pangea Speed is just the sort of tradition breaking builder to do it and what better time to unveil such a ride than at Born Free 4.
Previously Andy rolled up to Born Free riding his Triumph ‘Speedmaster’, a WWII military inspired motorcyle powered by a late model Triumph engine (above); and before that on his “out of this world” Zion Express Ironhead (below), so he’d set the bar pretty high for himself this year’s round.
As you can see he certainly didn’t disappoint. Not only does the bike look like nothing most people would have ever seen before but it also performs nothing like a stock Harley would. The bike uses a ’75 Shovel frame with a ’92 FXD motor with FXR transmission and a great big GT17 Turbo boosting power way beyond the factory 67bhp!
Andy and his mates fabricated most of the bike themselves including the full exhaust, mounting gear for the turbo, air box, dash and the oil bag. Coincidentally the Harley now rolls on Japanese made rims from a Yamaha DT400 dirt bike which may be another nod to the Bosozoku style.
“You’ll have the people who don’t really get it…but hopefully there’s some people that think it’s awesome”
Here’s Andy’s builder profile video released prior to Born Free 4.
Born Free from Jmills ENT. Jeremy Miller on Vimeo.
It’s a bike that like many of his other builds, will be met with varying opinions. But just like watching a movie you know it’s done it’s job when you everyones talking about it after the show. This won’t be the last time you see this bike doing the blog rounds.
