Ivory Comet by JSK Custom Design

 

The origin of the name  “Ivory Comet”, where ivory is for the pursuit ofelegance and “comet” for the overwhelming power and grace of a speeding comet.

When building this bike, I wanted to stay with the traditional look of the cafe racer and introduce modern elements for what I call “Modern Retro”. In designing this motorcycle I followed three basic rules of cafe racer. One is to have the front fairing, gas tank and rear cowl with a horizontal line parallel to the ground. Rear axle is aligned with the end of the tail. And of course the duck tailed rear cowl.

 At the beginning there was several designs of the fairing that covered the engine but since I wanted to use a Harley Davidson engine I believed it would be a shame to cover it.  So for the final version of the fairing design I have it completely exposed.

For the colors of this bike I chose: red, white, black, and gold to represent the feeling.  Because I believe the colors red, black and gold colors are too loud for the motorcycle I used white as the main color to tone them down for a more elegant look hence the “Ivory”name.

For fabrication of the bodywork of this motorcycle, I insisted on using traditional methods with having the front cowl, gas tank, and rear section all hand made out of metal.   So used a 1960's method of using wood for the mold and asked a metal fabricator to make it for me.

With a modern retro cafe racer, I wanted a suspension that was unique and stable to this motorcycle.  I chose to transplant the shock absorbers single sided swingarm and the brakes are also from the Ducati 916 because I think there is no need to modify it.  The rims of the Ducati 916 did not match the modern retro theme. So to maintain the theme, I wanted to have wire rims making the bike a “Singlesided swingarm with wire rims”.  Searching someone to make the rim to me specifications was a daunting task.  Many engineers did not make a wire rim that looks good for a single sided swingarm or afraid that it will be too easy to break.  But after spending several months, I located a company in Europe that met my requirements with warranty to boost. 

JSK Custom Design