Cherry’s Company turbocharged Harley Street Fighter
Spend some time reviewing the creations of Kaichiro Kurosu of Cherry’s Company and you realise this Japanese craftsman doesn’t do things by halves. When tasked by Harley-Davidson with customising the 750cc version of their Street v-twin, he didn’t just customise it; he pretty much rebuilt it! In fact, if it wasn’t for the identifying tank badge and signature v-twin under that sinuous polished framework, most would fail to pick that this creation started life as a Harley-Davidson at all.
A History in Harleys
Cherry’s Company has been around since 2000, but founder and owner Kurosu has been servicing, repairing and modifying Harleys for even longer. While his imagination and abilities were exposed to a wider audience in 2014 thanks to the BMW R nineT-based ‘Highway Fighter’, he’s been something of a rock star in his native Japan since taking out the ‘Best of Show – Motorcycle’ award at the Mooneyes Yokohama Hot Rod & Custom Show three years in a row.
Before you say “big deal” about that, consider that, on most occasions, Kurosu-san was up against more than 650 other entrants, including European and American builders.
Reflecting his passion for the bar-and-shield brand, all of Kurosu’s winning creations have been based on Harleys; starting with ‘Freiherr’ from 2012, a Knucklehead-engined creation, then ‘Lefty Bond’, a ’67 XLCH Ironhead Sportster that won in 2013, followed in 2014 by a ’75 Panhead/Shovelhead hybrid dubbed ‘Chronos’.
Kurosu-san confesses a preference for classic Harleys over Japanese machines, European sportsbikes and even modern Harleys, as he says that more of the engine is on show with the older bikes and more can be made of them in terms of customisation. That’s been evident in his initial Harley-based creations, where the engine is absolutely front and centre in the build. But Chronos showed an evolution of the Cherry’s Company style; one that’s been further explored with this most recent Harley custom.
It should be noted at this point that Harley-Davidson HQ’s request for a new take on the Street 750 wasn’t limited to Cherry’s Company. Kuroso-san was one of five Japanese builders that Harley tapped for the ‘Street Build Off’ a little over a year ago. Luck Motorcycles, Custom Works Zon, Asterisk and Duas Caras Cycles were the other companies invited to take part.
Maximum Performance
Abundant use of hand-made parts is common to most Cherry’s Company builds, but that approach was taken to the extreme with this creation, which carries the name of ‘XG750 Turbo Street Fighter’. Obviously, that label is a giveaway to one of the main changes made to the Street 750 base unit.
According to Kurosu-san, the addition of a turbocharger was part of an idea to “maximise the performance” of the Street 750. It also reflects race-inspired changes applied to past Cherry’s Company creations, particularly Lefty Bond, which had a drag bike look.
However, saying you’re going to add a turbo is a lot easier than actually doing it. No factory or aftermarket turbo kits are currently available for the Street 750, so Kurosu had to make one from scratch: “It was so difficult, because it was unprecedented.”
The starting point was a small, automotive-type turbocharger that’s more common in Japan than here. In its original form, this turbo would have been fitted to a small car subject to the ‘Keijidosha’ restrictions for road use in Tokyo and other large Japanese cities. To this compact turbocharger, a bespoke intercooler, air surge tank and oil-cooling system for the turbocharger were all hand-fabricated to suit.
Boost can be dialled up or down via a knob on the near side, and while the Street Fighter hasn’t actually been put on a dyno, there’s no doubt that power has been increased from the Street 750’s (estimated) maximum of 43.3kW in standard trim. Enhancing the mumbo even further is a Cherry’s Company exhaust system that’s entirely bespoke, including the silencer.
While adding a turbocharger to the water-cooled 750 v-twin – and making it work – was a serious departure from stock, it’s far from the most significant change on this build.
Steel Cage
Like past Harley-based builds from Cherry’s Company, the Street Fighter has been treated to some serious chassis work, but unlike previous creations that used completely bespoke frames, some of the factory frame has been retained for this build. According to Kurosu, around 50 per cent of the stock chassis remains, mainly on the backbone, headstem and front downtubes.
“If you use the standard frame, you will be subject to various restrictions for customising,” Kurosu-san explains. Like the addition of the turbocharger, retaining elements of the factory frame was a challenge Kurosu-san deliberately set himself with this build; a build he calls an ‘homage to Harley-Davidson’.
The remnants of the factory frame are hard to spot, though, largely due to the abundance of additional framework surrounding it, most of which was hand-shaped from 5mm carbon steel tubing. Wrapped around the engine like a cage, that extra tubing gives the XG750 Turbo Street Fighter a trellis frame look, but using the same tubing for both the front suspension and rear swingarm unifies the whole design.
When the Street Fighter is viewed in profile, the positioning of the framing creates a noticeable arc from rear hub to front hub, accentuated by the bespoke turbo cover and broken only by the necessary clearance for steering. A similar soft curve on the bespoke girder fork front end gives a look of grace and lightness to the build, despite the chunky wheel and tyre combo.
New Front, New Rear
That girder fork, hand-made by Cherry’s Company, is developed from a similar front end applied to Chronos. In this instance, the 5mm tubing has been paired with solid-looking triple trees that were CNC-machined from aluminium, with connecting bearings press-fitted to the factory headstem. The fork spring and linkages are one-offs, too, while a steering damper has been added.
Reconfiguring the front end give this build its ‘sports’ rather than ‘cruiser’ stance (a deliberate move on Kurosu-san’s part), with the change in geometry aided by the rear end re-design. Like the front, the back end is fully bespoke, with an all-new rear frame section, subframe and swingarm crafted from the same 5mm carbon steel tubing used in the front that’s braced, and bracketed as required.
The factory Street 750’s twin rear shocks have been replaced by a single side-mount unit from a Ducati Monster that’s attached to the custom subframe and swingarm with gusseted brackets for extra strength. Kurosu-san said the Monster shock was selected simply because its length and characteristics best-suited the all-new frame and swingarm. If the wheels look unfamiliar, it’s because they’re one offs, made by Cherry’s Company and given a blackout treatment that serves to further highlight the polished framework.
The ‘black chromate’ finish on the aftermarket brake discs has the same effect, leaving only the pads’ swept area in bare metal. Front brakes are a combination of Nissin (master cylinder) and Harley (calipers), matched to braided lines, while the rear combines the master cylinder from a Harley Tour Glide with an H-D caliper. Those bespoke rims are shod in Dunlop Racing slicks: 120/70-17 on the front and 195/65-17 on the rear.
Bubble Body
The BMW-based Highway Fighter from 2014 showed that Kurosu-san understands aesthetics as much as he does engineering. And while the bodywork on the Street Fighter may not be as extensive as it was on that previous creation, it’s no less impressive.
Complementing the curves in the frame, the bike’s smoothly-rounded tank is, believe it or not, hand-beaten from aluminium, with the colours, trim and graphics lending the Street Fighter an old-school racer look. Paint was laid down by Nomad Concept in Yamanishi, west of Tokyo.
Featuring a scalloped front to allow the repositioned factory speedo to be seen, the “tank” is actually a cover for a smaller slab-sided fuel carrier underneath that’s also hand-made. The low-slung headlight mount is another hand-formed piece of aluminium, fitted with a custom halogen headlight and housing aftermarket tacho and boost gauges. Topping this is a screen that looks like an old-school bubble visor.
A custom bellypan continues this build’s ‘sports’ look. Like the other aluminium bodywork, this also combines painted sections with bare metal areas to visually link it to the frame. The clip-on bars are one-offs made by Cherry’s Company, fitted with Ariete grips and Tommaselli levers. Rearsets and pedals are modified Tarozzi units, while the leather saddle is a one-off from ‘Skunk’, a seat maker based in Saitama prefecture that Cherry’s Company has used for all its builds to date.
At first glance, the ducktail looks like a helmet perched on the back of the seat, but it’s another bespoke piece of hand-formed aluminium, underneath which sits the battery and electronics, held in place by custom-made brackets.
Moving Ahead
While the aesthetics of Street Fighter may not be to everyone’s taste, there’s no denying the visual impact of this build. But then again, we’ve come to expect nothing less from Cherry’s Company! And like all of Cherry’s Company past builds, this bike was also built to be ridden, so it goes hard. In a video showcasing the Street Build Off contestants (look for it on YouTube), Street Fighter looks pretty damn handy on the race track.
Interestingly, Cherry’s Company didn’t win the Street Build Off competition. The judges, made up of Harley-Davidson design personnel, selected the creation from Custom Works Zon; a drag bike-inspired take on the Street 750 dubbed ‘Zonnevlek’.
Since completing the Street Fighter in 2017, Kurosu-san has continued to forge ahead with new projects. A more recent build, based on a BMW R 1200 GS, pushes the boundaries even further. We’ll feature that in a future issue, but for now, just take some time to absorb this creation – it deserves a second look… And a third… And a fourth, for that matter! Thanks to Tadashi Kohno for assistance in compiling this article.
Words: Mike Ryan. Photos: Hiromitsu Yasui
