Vida Motorcycle has been building Euro-style choppers from their workshop in Fukuoka, Japan, for 17 years. But they’ve also found their groove with high-performing Harley-Davidson FXR and Dyna builds in recent years. So when their latest customer wanted a bit of both in one bike, Vida was poised to deliver.
The commission came from the owner of For Life—an import store that sells American fashion out of the same building as Vida. With Californian style specifically on his mind, Shimazaki-san (known as Shima to his friends) asked Vida to build him the ultimate Harley-Davidson FXR chopper, with no compromises in performance.
“I’ve known Shima for about 15 years, since he first came to our house,” says Vida’s founder, Taku Okubo. “He’s been riding custom FXRs and Dynas, but he has always admired our choppers. So we got to talking; ‘Let’s make a chopper using an FXR!’”
Okubo-san took a 1993 Harley-Davidson FXR and started with the frame; the first port of call for any great chopper build. The tubular backbone was cut and reconfigured with round pipe. It was stretched to mount the fuel tank nice and high, then joined to the extended downtubes with a new neck gusset.
New forks were installed, measuring 8” longer than before. The internals were replaced with upgraded fork springs and preload adjusters, and the lowers were smoothed down. The wheels were swapped out for 19F/18R Sundance-Enkei rims with Bridgestone Battleax rubber, Galfer discs, and four-piston Brembo calipers.
While the front of the frame was stretched, Taku chose to keep the rear end uncut to maintain the twin shock, triangular frame, and short rear guard setup that so many people love about the FXR. “That’s the golden rule for this category,” he adds.
A Sportster-style tank sits up top, massaged by hand to widen the top section and narrow the bottom. The petcock is neatly molded into the tank, feeding fuel into a new S&S E-Carb that sucks air through a Vida velocity stack. The engine was bumped up to 85 cubic inches and now runs with a sportier cam and a semi-open primary from BDL.
Vida based the FXR’s seat on the original design but with more of a gunfighter silhouette. It’s finished with contrasting diamond stitching and an embroidered Vida Motorcycle logo on the back.
Tall Kraus risers were installed, along with a new set of bobber bars, ODI grips, and a pair of Brembo master cylinders. Vida deleted the switchgear and integrated a tiny digital speedo from Motogadget into the Harley’s headlight nacelle. The throttle runs internally, leaving the cockpit super sano.
The ignition barrel and the buttons for the Motogadget gauge were relocated to the side panel on the left of the FXR. Burly Kraus footpegs do duty lower down.
Other finishing touches include a glorious alloy swingarm from Chopper Guys, a pair of Öhlins S36E shocks, and a high-mounted ceramic-coated exhaust system. But this build is as much about what isn’t there, as it is about what is.
The impossibly intricate paint job was laid down by 420 Customs—a regular Vida collaborator. The workshop’s name is emblazoned across the front of the fuel tank, as requested by Shima.
Eagle-eyed readers will spot how the wiring disappears ‘into’ the frame just in front of the tank, minimizing visual clutter. And when you take a step back from all of the bike’s incredible details, you’ll notice a lot of open space around the forks, engine, and even the rear end with the slotted swingarm.
By cutting away the fat like this, Vida has exposed the most beautiful parts of this machine. And by sticking with well-judged top-shelf components, they’ve built a chopper that should perform better than most.
We’re not the only ones smitten with this radiant custom FXR either. It recently took home the ‘Club Harley Pick’ at the Joints Custom Motorcycle Show in Nagoya earlier this year… and Shima sure seems happy with his new bike.
Vida Motorcycle | Facebook | Instagram | Images by, and with sincere thanks to, Kazuo Matsumoto
