Hasta La Ideas

If the United States is the place for cars, Asia is definitely the place for motorcycles. Thailand sells double the number of bikes as the United States, but with only a quarter of the population. The story is similar around the rest of Southeast Asia, China and India. Surprising to me is the popularity of customizing. However, it isn’t entirely what we North Americans are familiar with. The shops are usually 2-3 man garages with incredible craft skills: welding, sheet metal working, painting, pin stripping, air brushing, etc. Sadly, the designs are mostly copied directly from western magazines with an Asian motor (the Honda Boss 400cc being particularly popular) being substituted for convenience.

Thai Bike

Bandit9 wants to change that copycat reputation.

Bandit9 was started by Daryl Villenueva, a rabid motorcycle fan from the Philippines. He first started riding on the humble 50cc Honda Cub while living in Saigon. It wasn’t long before he modified it: he simply painted the multi-colored bike white, giving it a sleeker and cleaner appearance.

Now living in Beijing, Daryl has found new inspiration. “Beijing is a wonderful place to own a motorcycle. On one block you see the futuristic, contemporary side of the city and on the next [block] you’re in the epicenter of the hutongs—a labyrinth of narrow alleys surrounded by Beijing’s traditional homes,” he shares.

As a response to the lack of custom bike builders in Beijing, Villanova decided to open his own shop. Bandit9’s first project starts with a Chang Jiang, a bike popular with the Chinese military. Like other communist era relics, it found its way to China via the 1956 Soviet IMZ M-72, which in turn, is an old BMW design, the R71 from 1938. It’s heavy duty, solidly built with function before form. It’s also unknown outside of China.

Bandit9 tries to build on this functional aesthetic by stripping the bike down and then tweaking the design to make it more muscular. On their first bike, named Loki, the process starts by slimlining the body: a custom slimmer gas tank with subtle pin stripping, new, smaller fenders that hug the tires closely and a lower seat. They also increase the performance by fitting bigger brakes and better suspension. Finally, the muffler is removed and the exhaust angle cut to give the motor a beastly growl. As he mentioned in an interview with Pipeburn, “One of the most important things for me is the roar of the bike – it sounds like an animal. What’s cool about China is there are no noise regulations. I chopped off the muffler and reshaped the exhaust pipe to look like a bamboo shoot.”

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