Tavax Engineering: A long road to travel

< News & Press Releases

Sunday 7th Aug 2011Filed under Bike Features Competitors

Ken Tabata

Not only did Ken Tabata travel a long way to attend the World Championship of Custom Bike Building, he took a long time to get there too. Japanese custom builder Ken began work on his Championship entry, Tavax 2011V, 3-1/2 years ago.

Working under the name of Tavax Engineering, in Yao City, Osaka, Japan, Ken set out to build a bike that represented, in metal, a cheetah chasing its pray across the African Savannah. The bike has been designed to look as if it has muscles rippling under its metal skin as it travels down the road.

It was not only Ken's artistic talents that where tested during his time building the bike but also his skill as an engineer. At the front of the bike, the suspension begins as a trailing link, similar to that found on many European scooters in the '60s, before it goes through a further set of linkages to finish with a centrally mounted shock more usual on a Springer style fork.

This attention to detail is continued at the rear where the high and forward position of the swingarm pivot left just millimeters of clearance for the linkage activated single shock.

z1.itrobo.net/tavax/

Comments


Official Partners
Upcoming Events