After 10 months of intense work, Malaysian Kenny
Yeoh of Kenstomoto is back with the Kenstomoto Valkyrie, a long, low and sleek
custom build reminiscent of Akira’s machine from the manga and anime. Shown to
paultan.org ahead of the 2018 Art of Speed (AoS) at Malaysia Agro Exposition
Park, Serdang (MAEPS), the Valkyrie is on display at the show’s Invitational
Bike Build-off 2018.
As Kenstomoto’s first full custom build, where the
frame and rolling gear are unique to the bike, the Valkyrie comes with a
single-sided front swingarm, and a 240/45 17-inch rear tyre mounted on a 9-inch
wide, eight-stud steel wheel. Taking a standard 2012 Kawasaki Er-6n
parallel-twin engine, Yeoh fabricated a completely new frame to house it.
Exhaust exits through two straight pipes just in
front of the rider and we can vouch for the fact the Valkyrie is loud. Inside
the cockpit is a push-button start and the instrument gauge is a Daytona
Bologna 80 unit from Japan, who also supplied the switches.
Taking the low rider ethos to the extreme, the
Valkyrie’s frame puts the ride a mere 500 mm off the ground. Ground clearance,
as can be expected, is measured in millimetres, in this case some 70 mm. What will grab the viewer’s
attention is the sheer length of the bike, which comes in at 2.89 metres, from
tyre tip to tyre tip. A surprising statistic is the weight of the Valkyrie,
which is about 200 kg, making it something of a lightweight in the world of
custom machines that could be sometimes used as boat anchors.
The steering on the Valkyrie is rather special, with
its welded swingarm structure. In the past, bikes with single-sided front
swingarms used a Heim joint setup for centre-hub steering but the Valkyrie used
a cable-operated system.
Yeoh says he uses a twin cable system instead of
hydraulics or linkage for the sake of simplicity. The drawback of using such a
system, he says, is the rake angle will change when the front wheel is turned
to the left or to the right.
Front wheel braking is with a custom Arlen Ness 380
mm diameter full-floating brake disc with a Brembo four-piston calliper taken
from a BMW S 1000 RR. At the back is a 220 mm brake disc mounted on a Ducati
916 single-sided hub, with the rigid rear end modified to suit.
Finished in Matte Candy Red with Titanium accents,
the Valkyrie is styled after the giant fighting robots from Japan, called
Gundam. This includes graphics on the 90/90 21-inch front wheel with the
Kenstomoto logo and a ’09’ to denote a fictional squad number.
