We?ve never considered the Suzuki GSX-R 750 as custom material. A classic and soon-to-be collectible 80s sportbike, for sure?but not the sort of machine to take a grinder to.
Kurt Walter begs to differ. He?s the design director at ICON Motosports, and lives and breathes fast Japanese machinery. And he?s got us looking at the Gixxer in a whole new light.

This is ?Major Tom,? the latest ICON 1000 creation. It?s based on a 1986 model, the year the GSX-R 750 was launched in the USA.
?It?s the bike that ushered in a new age of store-bought GP performance,? says Walter. ?Many young men hurt themselves badly on this and similar ?crotch rockets??the ICON team included.?

But it was the Gixxers themselves that would pay the ultimate price. ?There was scarcely a road shoulder throughout the land that wasn’t bedazzled with shards of Suzuki ABS plastic.? ?Major Tom started life as most great bikes do, all shiny and lustful,? says Walter. ?She was high-speed sex delivered to the adoring groins of Middle American teens.?

She started her second life about 15 years after her first ended. ?We pulled what remained of her from a ?barn? in Oregon. This particular ‘farmer’ specialized in one of Clackamas County?s primary crops, meth.?
The Gixxer was in a most peculiar way. The lower fairings had long since been discarded, presumably to increase airflow to oil coolers.

Also spotted were fake carbon turn signals from Lockhart Phillips, a spider-webbed Zero Gravity win...