Written by Andrew Jones
Ostentatious oil coolers have been a stock-in-trade item for Japanese car customisers for decades. Lifted from racing car stylings of the 70s and 80s, the more ridiculous its placement and the route the oil lines take, the more street cred the cars seem to have. Now an essential part of the Japanese ?Shakotan? style, it’s part of a plethora of cool custom ideas developed in Japan since the dawn of time. But has it ever been attempted on a custom bike" Well, it has now. Meet the ?Zumax? Suzuki GSX750 racer from France‘s Banb Motorcycles.

Shop owner Alban Jaunay works as a freelance product designer in Marseille, in the south of France. He’d been thinking of building himself a custom motorbike for a few years, but he really got serious after he went with his girlfriend to the Café Racer Festival near Paris. ?While we were there she asked me, ?Why don’t you build yourself a custom bike like these" I’d rather see you spending hours wrenching on a bike than browsing Pipeburn.? And so it began. This is the point in my life where my passion for creation and motorbikes would become a reality. So, I launched my own custom motorbike workshop. I call it Banb Motorcycles.? ?Why don’t you build yourself a custom bike" I’d rather see you spending hours wrenching on a bike than browsing Pipeburn.?

Blurring genres, Alban tells us that he considers the bike to be a cafe racer, probably thanks to the fact h...