Shinya Kimura
Adding Up to Zero
Perfectly Imperfect Motorcycles
The veneration of ancestors is a familiar tradition in Japanese culture. So, too, is respect for material objects presumed to possess a spiritual guise, a duality that often confounds Western observers. With that in mind, Shinya Kimura pays homage, both material and spiritual, to the antecedents of modern Harley-Davidson motorcycles by reviving examples considered obsolete or moribund. More than old and classic vehicles, they are sacred objects to him — to be reborn.
Kimura rescues run-down, superannuated Harleys from their fates as decorative objects hanging from ceilings in saloons or, worse, their dispersal as derelict parts throughout a backwater of garages to become novelty paperweights, ashtrays, and doorstops. Zero Engineering, the company Kimura-san founded in Japan, in 1992, emerged from a small gathering of his acolytes who chose to keep these machines alive by riding them.
“I chose the word Zero,” Shinya said, “because it can mean literally nothing. I believe the word holds an endless possibility. It reminds me not to conform but to always challenge my way of thinking.” Of course it also alludes to that infamous Mitsubishi marauder of the skies from World War II. But it is a fair symbol to use, today, to represent the concept of bushido, a behavioral code practiced by the samurai warrior class emphasizing self-discipline, courage, and loyalty. Zero motorcycles were often referred to by cognoscenti as samurai.
In 2006, Kimura physically moved Zero from East to West, from Japan to Azuza, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. There, he opened a new workshop and called it Chabbot Engineering. Chabbot, after maneuvering through a convoluted translation, means something like getting back to basics.
The Western view of civilization celebrates humankind’s ascendancy over nature, bending it to suit the economic will of the species. Eastern philosophies seek…
