Led by unconventional visionaries, ICON Motosports crafts motorcycle gear that blurs the lines between audacious and purposeful, while maintaining a casual indifference to conventional opinions. They also occasionally find time to build custom motorcycles—and when they do, the machines they create mirror the bold ethos of their gear.
Meet ‘Gixxer Johnny,’ a “plastic-covered, over-built, and under-thunk” Suzuki GSX-R 7/11 that “puts the ‘ele’ in both ‘gance’ and ‘phant.’” At least, that’s how ICON’s design director, Kurt Walter, describes it.
“Gixxer Johnny is an answer to a question that was never asked,” he adds. “We acquired her third-hand from a repo yard in NE Portland as part of a Jamaican catch and release program. Documentation indicates she is a 1993-era Suzuki GSX-R750 frame with a GSX-R1100 motor—referred to by us analogs as a ‘7/11’.”
“With little regard for period correct and a penchant for cyberpunk, the ICON crew set to refitting her for modern tastes.”
Needless to say, the donor bike was pretty beaten up. So ICON’s first job was rebuilding the motor. A new bank of Wiseco pistons went in before everything was buttoned up again with Cometic gaskets.
ICON deleted the airbox, favoring a set of uber-tasty 3D-printed velocity stacks for the Mikuni carbs. (Although if you scrutinize the action photos, you’ll notice that filters are fitted for dirtier rides.) Bespoke PBI sprockets get power to the back wheel, while a Leo Vince exhaust adds an appropriately rowdy soundtrack.
Not known for leaving well enough alone, ICON turned their attention to the Suzuki GSX-R’s running gear next. The bike had (bizarrely) come with a set of Kosman drag racing triples with a removable steering stem. So the crew pressed the steering stem into a stock first-gen Hyabusa triple instead, making it possible to transplant the ‘Busa’s chromed forks.
The Gixxer’s new wheels are Aprilia units of undetermined origin. The swingarm is the stock GSX-R750 part, but it’s now connected to a swanky new Nitron shock. Custom-made EBC brake rotors and Continental tires round out the package.
As for the brake calipers; “I think they’re the garbage six-pot Tokico Suzuki units,” Kurt says. “I mean, they’re only garbage if you like stopping… otherwise they work great.”
We can’t confirm or deny that, because the calipers are now hidden behind a set of retro-futuristic wheel covers. ICON 3D-printed the foundation for each part, then reinforced it with fiberglass.
Vintage Suzuki aficionados will notice that the GSX-R no longer wears its stock bodywork. The OEM fuel tank is in play, but all of the plastics are new Airtech Streamlining parts. And yes, those are winglets attached to the front fairing; ICON added them using the same 3D printing and fiberglass-reinforcing process that they used to produce the wheel covers.
The way ICON has blended the front wheel scoops with the fender is neat, but there’s even more wizardry just further back. The main fairing is flanked by a pair of inset LED panels, each one controlled by its own Raspberry Pi computer. “To remind everyone that we were raised on Eddy Grant’s dreams,” quips Kurt.
Other details include a customized endurance-style fuel filler, a battery cradle in the seat bump, and a scant cockpit that features little more than clip-ons, Magura controls, and a small dashboard with a tacho and temperature gauge.
The GSX-R’s livery is quintessential ICON; striking colors, throwback Suzuki aesthetics, lightning bolts, “and enough tiger stripe graphics to make a Dokken guitarist jealous.” It’s loud and brazen, but we wouldn’t expect anything less from Portland’s finest.
If you need any more proof that ICON doesn’t play by the rules, get a load of the helmet that the GSX-R’s rider is sporting. Dubbed the ‘Elsinore’ and available in the US from late March, it’s a part-BMX, part-motocross inspired lid that features a flip-up chin bar and a removable peak.
And just like Gixxer Johnny, it colors way outside the lines.
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