First look: Kenstomoto Ju – facing the war elephant

Back in the 1980s, Metzeler tyres ran an advertisement with the tagline, “Fact: over 90% of Kawasaki owners prefer riding elephants.” This was, of course, in reference to the Metzeler corporate mascot, an elephant, and the photograph accompanying the print ad showed a rider in full race gear astride a pachyderm.

So, when Kenny Yeoh, founder of Kenstomoto, and creator of custom motorcycles such as the Demolisher, P650R, BOBR and MechaStallion, told us he had a new machine on the table, we went over to have a look. His new brain child, painted yellow and black, clad in 3-D printed parts and shod with racing slicks, is called the Kenstomoto Ju.

The Kenstomoto Ju – Ju meaning “10” in Japanese – came about in rather tragic circumstances, as Yeoh related to us during the bike’s photo shoot. The Ju started life as a 2004 Kawasaki ZX-10R, and was a racetrack refugee, being regularly tracked at Sepang International Circuit.

Riding home from work on his daily bike, the owner was sadly killed in a collision with another motorcyclist, and the owner’s brother, and Yeoh’s friend, asked if he would take the ZX-10R over, as no one was riding it. Yeoh agreed, and then started scratching his head as to what he would do with a 13-year old machine, outdated by the standards of today’s superbikes.

A full strip-down of the ZX-10R followed, and following the design style he first penned out in the MechaStallion, Yeoh laid out the framework for the Ju. “I went through seven design revisions for the Ju. This bike drove me crazy,” said Yeoh.

Wanting his trademark miniscule seat, but preserving the riding triangle in the interest of ergonomics, Yeoh deleted the entire rear section of the ZX-10R, replacing it with a tight and bobbed seat, with no seat, and more holes than a colander.

When we first saw the Ju, sitting in Yeoh’s work yard, we asked where the seat was. Yeoh replied, “what seat? There is some padding there.” And indeed there was, a collection of four miniature foam pads about the size of a bicycle seat and arranged the same way.

Walking around the front end of the Ju, Yeoh’s trademark collection of LED lights is there, with the original full-fairing and bodywork of the ZX-10R now sitting on a shelf. The twin main projector lights sit on either side of the radiator, with the four miniature LED lights arranged on either side of the Ju’s Ram Air intake.

The honeycomb pattern of the air intake put us in mind of something you might find on a car, except that this thing is 3-D printed by Yeah, and fully functional. A small wind deflector sits on top of the intake, and is painted with the bike’s name in yellow.

Two massive 3-D plates adorn either side of the radiator, and two smaller pieces are installed as fork covers. The stock fuel tank was preserved, in the interests of safety and road-compliance.

Being primarily a racetrack weapon in its previous life, the Ju wears racing slicks front and rear, with the front tyre purloined from a MotoGP Moto2 machine. The rear is a commercially available available racing tyre, and due to the lack of tyre warmers, we declined to take the Ju out for a short spin when Yeoh offered.

However, Yeoh’s next words took us a little by surprise, when he said, “after I’ve finished all the little outstanding bits on the Ju, I’m handing it over to you for some track testing and a proper review. You’ve not ridden one of my machines properly, and I think you’re the best person to do so.”

Feeling a little humbled at Yeoh’s confidence in us, we examined the rest of the Ju a little more closely. Brakes are by Tokico and suspension is by Ohlins, front and back, something Yeoh said he preferred to do, in keeping with the bike’s racing origin.

Retaining the stock frame and swingarm, Yeoh machined up the sub-frame, now a delicate engineering sculpture made from aluminium alloy. “The machined pieces were a nightmare,” said Yeoh, “the quality of the machining work was not to my liking, and I had to spend hours slowly filing and polishing them to a standard I considered acceptable.”

The engine was torn down and refreshed, with a racing wiring loom added. Due to the rush for time, Yeoh did not finish installing the almost invisible rear lights, which are made up of a row of four LEDS.

A first for Yeoh was the installation of a local-made AHM straight-through stainless steel exhaust, something he has wanted to experiment with for a while. When we started up the Ju, the exhaust was nicely loud at about 5,000 rpm, and we declined to bounce the engine off the rev limiter as there were issues with the cooling fan.

Looking at the Kenstomoto Ju from the side, it gives the visual effect of being a lot smaller than the original Kawasaki ZX-10R it was based on. From the front though, the Ju is massively wide, and brings to mind the image of a rampaging war elephant.

As with his previous builds, Yeoh is not satisfied with the completion status of the Ju, saying that there are quite a few things that need to be worked on and improved. One of the things on his to-do list is a leak from the lower engine case, which caused the exhaust to smoke during start-up.

“When I first picked up the bike, I was wondering what I was going to do with it,” says Yeoh. “I finally decided that the Ju should be still a track weapon, but with my own design aesthetic on it,” he continued.

The Kenstomoto Ju, as Yeoh’s fifth build in the series, will be on display at the Art of Speed in MAEPS, Serdang, on July 29 and 30, after which it goes back to Yeoh’s yard for re-work. We have slotted in the Ju for a full review in the coming months, so keep reading.

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