Written by Marlon Slack
From their base in Hiroshima, Heiwa Motorcycles produce all manner of drop-dead gorgeous bobbers. And we never see them coming. They have an uncanny ability to pitch motorcycles in our inbox out of thin air, with little pomp or ceremony. And every single one leaves us flabbergasted. None more so than their latest creation, a gorgeous low-slung 1981 BMW R100 bobber.

Unusually for Heiwa, their latest boxer came to their small workshop already customised – a rare sight in Japan. The BMW ?R? range are relatively uncommon and tend to be kept stock. But this R was already modified. Badly. By someone a lot less capable than Kengo Kimura and his team. And as a result, it had more issues than a stripper with BPD.

?When we first came across the bike the parts, the paint and customisation was terrible,? Kengo states. ?The paint had been laid on too thick, the seat was tattered and it wasn?t running very well at all?. I think he?s been typically polite – the bike sounds like the second biggest disaster Hiroshima has seen.
So the first thing Kimura San did was pull apart and refresh the engine – being handy with mechanical work as well as fabrication. ?We overhauled the contents of the engine and cleaned up it?s appearance perfectly?.
It’s a masterclass in colour choice
So with the engine completed and ready to last another eight million miles Kengo and his crew turned their attention to the motorcycle. Kengo is famously a man of few w...