Report from Japan: Custom World Scrambler

12 Custom Scramblers from Heiwa Motorcycle!

Words and photos by Kazuo “Kaz” Matsumoto (@steeldog_photo)…

From July 16th to August 28th, “Custom World Scrambler” was held at the large commercial facility “Pacela” in Hiroshima, Japan, for about a month and a half. On display at the venue were 12 custom scramblers customized by Heiwa Motorcycle.

Pacela is located in the center of Hiroshima City and is popular among young people with many shops and restaurants. Pacela has exhibited a motorcycle display called “Custom World” several times in the past. This time, they held an exhibition specializing in the Scramblers that Heiwa Motorcycle has built over the past few years.

Kengo Kimura, the owner of Heiwa Motorcycles and a world-famous customizer, owned a license as a motocross racer in his youth. Although he retired from racing due to an injury during his active career, he still participates in amateur races and has a deep knowledge of off-road racing.

A few years ago, BMW asked him to do a custom project for the R nineT. Many people probably knew the BMW Scrambler he made then.

However, Kimura had not made many Scramblers until then. His turning point came when he built a Scrambler for himself. At that time, the Scrambler was released by Ducati and Triumph, but they were all big displacement motorcycles.

“I wanted to build something fun for myself. I wanted to create a motorcycle with a small engine displacement that could be ridden off-road easily and looked cool even when parked on the street. So I decided to build a Scrambler that looks like a VMX.”

Kimura test-rode the completed machine on Japan’s most famous forest road. There, he realized that this was a great machine that could go off-road just fine.

His new machine, the GT-004, was much more popular than he expected. Not only in Japan but also overseas media praised his new machine, and his shop was flooded with orders to make a bike with the exact specifications, and it continues to this day.

At this event, “LOU,” who undertakes the painting and pinstriping of Heiwa’s bikes, and “FLAVOR,” who produces seats for Heiwa’s bikes, also had a pop-up store at this venue. All of them are artists riding one of Heiwa’s Scramblers.

“This event is held by me, LOU, and FLAVOR — three scrambler riders.”

HEIWA’s newest Scrambler is the TU250, owned by LOU. It has almost the same specifications as Kimura’s TU, but has original customizations based on LOU’s ideas, such as pinstripes, paint, and thunder-designed heat guards.