The Indonesian custom scene is a rich seam of gold, and this compact chop from Tole Motorworks is 24-carat perfection. It?s based on the Kawasaki W175, and not surprisingly, picked up an award at the huge local show Kustomfest.
The W175 is one of those bikes from the big Japanese manufacturers that we never see in the West. It?s a step up from the usual no-frills commuter machines, and blends old school styling with a reliable 13 hp air-cooled single.

A lot of W175s in Southeast Asia get customized after the warranty has expired, usually with paint-by-numbers ?cafe racer? makeovers. But there?s also a thriving chopper subculture for W175s, and that?s the direction Tole has gone in.
The workshop is based in the mountain resort city of Bogor and is a one-man operation run by 25-year-old Febrian Ramadhan. He doesn?t have a laboratory-level workshop or a CAD workstation, but he knows how to weld frames and beat metal.
Febrian is helped by his English-speaking brother Ghifara, who gave us an insight into how Tole started. ?He was homeschooled because got he bullied, and then went to the Hendriansyah Speed Shop for training in engine mechanics.?
?That was where he got the nickname ?Tole,? which means ?Boy? in Javanese. He was the youngest trainee there; the others were in their late 20s or early 30s.? Febrian actually built his first bike when he was 15 (and we?ve seen the snapshots of him working at home, welding sparks and all).

But back to this Kawasaki. It bears littl...