ROM has five different types of steel alloy. Second, I had to choose the blade material. I don’t have any little kids at home, so there’s no real threat of injuring anyone (except myself, I suppose). First, I had to choose whether I wanted the blade to be sharp or not, and I chose sharp. There are ten choices that I had to make when customizing my katana. If not, then click on the custom katana link and get ready to have some fun designing your own. If you find one that’s exactly what you want, then great, as you can save a little money this way. If you go to ROM’s katana page, you will find a host of katanas that are ready-to-go. “Will it survive low orbit?” Kurt wonders.The katana I designed is 48.3 ounces, which is just over 3 pounds. And of course, being ICON, they’re not taking that side too seriously. We dig the looks of the stock bike, but love the way the Slabtown workshop has amped up the 80s vibe.
The new Katana has drawn generally positive reviews from road testers, who love the GSX-R1000 running gear and enjoy the more relaxed riding position. (“Word is that it’s space-flight rated!”) The new bars come from Driven Racing, and keen eyes will spot a lightweight Magura Hymec hydraulic clutch and a Magura HC3 brake master cylinder. The irony wasn’t lost on us, but at least 25 pounds was.” “You’ll also notice the complete lack of a cat on the Kat. “If memory serves me right, most of a Yamaha MT-07 unit made the cut,” says Kurt. Leo Vince sent through a batch of different potential setups, which were cut and spliced into the underbelly of the Kat. Completing the circle are Avon’s top-shelf 3D Ultra Sport tires. “The ‘look ma’, no holes’ design isn’t a performance upgrade, but rather just something we do because we can,” says Kurt. The solid rotors are custom units made by EBC specifically for this application. When it came to the rotational aspects of Brand New Jack, the crew went deep into their stash of parts and salvaged a set of forged 17-inch Galespeed wheels imported from Japan. “Nitron delivers our preferred bouncy bits,” says Kurt, “with a remote piggyback shock, and a cartridge kit for the grafted-on 43 mm USD forks” (which come from a 2017 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10). No ICON bike leaves the garage without a premium suspension upgrade. “The good news on the Katana is that the tank cover is plastic, so any explosions were kept below deck and invisible to the naked eye!” “Typically this involves lots of cutting and grinding and praying the tank doesn’t explode in the process,” says Kurt wryly. The original Hans Muth-designed GSXS1100 Katana is one of the most iconic 1980s bikes, so Kurt and his crew decided to channel the 80s on the aesthetics by tweaking the bodywork and using punchy neon colors-but balancing that with serious performance upgrades.īrand New Jack sports the several hallmarks of past ICON builds, including a penchant for multiple fueling options via twin endurance-style fuel ports. But the styling has drawn mixed emotions: some folks love it, whereas others feel like it’s in a slightly awkward no man’s land. The new Katana has the specs to succeed, not least because it’s sporting a 150 horsepower engine and is basically a riff on the very accomplished GSX-R1000. Let’s face it, who doesn’t want their literbike to evolve into a flying robot lion at the touch of a button?”
Our goal was to up the uber-mechanized facade of the new Katana into full transformer. “The Katana, then and now, has always been a starship. “Most of it stuck, and what didn’t was quickly cleaned up with a damp mop,” says Kurt. In this case, an affinity for Gobots, Gundam, and the tight cybergirls of Robotech was pulled from ICON’s pubescent id and slung face-first at the Kat. Like any build, it started with the concept. To fully bake a custom in 30 days was going to be a significant challenge. “When Suzuki asked us to cut into a virgin Katana, we were like, ‘Hell Yeah!’ But then Suzuki told us it had to be fully built in 30 days…” Typically an ICON custom bike is cooked on low over a 12-18 month period. But ‘ Brand New Jack’ is different: it’s based on a current spec, 2020-model Katana dropped off by Suzuki USA. Not that he’s complaining: his crew have served up some monster hits in the past, using the most unlikely material. “Our usual meals consist of antiquated metal, served with a healthy dose of aged mechanicals,” says Kurt Walter, design director for the Portland outfit. It’s not often the ICON crew gets fresh meat.