Cherry’s Company’s “Drag Queen” Is A 1948 Harley-Davidson Panhead
As we head out to Yokohama, Japan, for the 2018 Mooneyes bike-stravaganza, we thought we’d take a look at one of Kaichiroh Kurosu’s (a.k.a. Kross) badass metal creations (Kross is one of the most recognized custom builders in Japan and has won the Best of Show at Mooneyes multiple times, including back-to-back victories in 2013 and 2014). He says, “I love old fast vehicles, and so I get many ideas for designing custom motorcycles from the old racing culture. For this particular bike, I wanted to build an old-style drag racer for the street.”
“Drag Queen,” as he named it, is not a Rocky Horror Picture Show-theme chopper, and that’s probably for the best. Not that we have anything against the movie, we’re just sick of theme bikes at the moment. For the frame, Kross wanted it to look as if it was made from a sand casting, as many old bikes were done in this manner. “Because I feel the CNC process doesn’t impart a human personality into the finished pieces,” he says, “I choose to make as much as possible entirely by hand, which has taken me many years to learn how to do. This is what you see when you view a raw bike—the skill and talent that have taken so long to acquire is right in front of you.”