Speed Fetus < EFab< August 2010

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Speed Fetus
The Speed Fetus is my homage to the Japanese Harley scene. A few years ago I started reading (or looking at, anyway) Japanese chopper mags. If you haven’t seen what they are doing with Harleys over there you need to get to a computer and start researching! They have a style that is hard to put your finger on, but imagine a very compacted, intricate, cartoonized version of our 1960’s and 70’s style chops. That doesn’t really scratch the surface of the amount of tiny detail, and most importantly, soul, that they engineer into their bikes. Certainly Shinya Kimora from Zero, Keiji from Hot Dock, and a few other OG’s helped to forge this movement, but it has taken off big-time and there are hundreds of little shops turning out incredible bikes. The Speed Fetus is my attempt at making a cartoon out of their cartoon! I made a very small machine with very exaggerated features. Everything was modified, big parts made bigger, small parts made smaller, inside out and outside in. I used a lot of parts not meant to go together, such as the Indian trans with the Harley motor, or the Moto Guzzi fork with the Triumph brake. I made the frame tubing and handlebars smaller diameter to make the bike seem “under developed,” hence the fetus in the name. The insides of the engine were also lightened. Flywheels were shaved to half of their original mass, giving the bike a very quick revving, mosquito type sound. I was very intent on engineering in a sense of history to the bike. In other words, it had to seem as if it were ancient, yet perfectly maintained, like an antique gun. To achieve this I used a combination of copper plating, brass, bronze, and blasted stainless treated with etching acids, then waxed and oiled. This gives it a very deep finish, one that is hard to pinpoint. When someone rides it past you on the street it looks like a speeding insect. That seems fairly Japanese to me.
-Lock Baker

images: stephen berner