Tokyo’s little Thunderball – The Honda V-Twin Street Tracker Build Report
“Full speed ahead and don’t spare the horses” could be the sign above the door at Deus Japan’s workshop today. With only days to go before its debut, it felt like time to share some of the hard yards that have gone into this little Tracker seeing the light of day.
Over the past months, Matt Roberts, the man behind Deus Japan’s two-wheeled vision, has sketched, shaped, cut, milled and welded his way from forgettable factory model to corner carving, head-turner hopeful.
It feels like another age ago that the sketch concepts were flying like leaves in the wind around the shop before that moment of eureka when the 1:1 drawing was rolled open like a map, revealing the path forward for the build and the shaping of the new form.
Since then the journey has seen woven glass and carbon fibber cloth lovingly tailored. Looking more like the pattern for a bespoke suit than a motorcycle part, it would’ve made Tracy Nelson proud. Each piece then carefully laid throughout the form of the body before meeting their epoxy counter part for the formation of this one off composite monocoque unit.
Alloy sheet has been coaxed and massaged to its final form by hammer and firm hand, its curves too fine for the rollers of the English wheel this day. In the corner a growing mound of bright off cuts and errors lay as our offering to the go-fast-gods of old.
Lighting duties have been delegated to a row of blindingly bright LEDs that now sit along the bottom edge of the front fairing, Seeing the hand hammered metal cradling such high tech should make for an anachronistic object ‘d art.
As the buzz of the TIG arch still hums from the workshop and fresh painted parts are painstakingly assembled on the now spartan trellis frame, watch this space for the full story over the coming weeks.
Now back to finishing stainless exhaust….
