MELVILLE – FORTY-EIGHT KING OF KINGS FROM JAPAN
The Melville based on the Sportster Forty-Eight from Japan
KING OF KINGS SERIES – MELVILLE
From Japan from Harley-Davidson Shizuoka comes a spectacular Sportster conversion based on the Forty-Eight. The device was built by the Japanese Hiromi Arai , he is the head of Harley-Davidson Shizuoka, which is located southwest of Yokohama. The owner is Kenji Watanabe, he gave Hiromi the honorable task of building a Japan-style bobber out of the Sportster.
Last week Hiromi told me that he had received information from the company that he had achieved fourth place with his conversion.
He's really very proud of it, because ultimately all of the participants in the King of Kings are really good customizers. He has already won the “Battle Of The Kings” in a row in 2018 and 2019.
Not only was something screwed together in the workshop, but the team spent a lot of time thinking about it until the basic idea was in place and then we worked intensively together on the project.
JAPANESE CARE FOR THEIR TRADITION
It was already clear to the Japanese that they wanted to transfer the spirit of their Japanese tradition into the custom bike. The ornaments convey “prayer,” “death,” and “reverence” from the old Japanese school. You have to say, Hiromi really succeeded in this, the Japanese have a knack for it.
The Harley conversion stands out, it is not oversteered and you can still see the basis of the Sporty-Eight . From the parts list you can see that many OEM custom parts from Harley-Davidson were installed and that it was not a bike made entirely of special parts.
Despite the renovation, the Forty-Eight genes can still be clearly recognized
The color balance is deep black and almost silver-colored with the silver-colored ornaments. But even almost, with good lighting it has to look incredibly good. This combination of eye-catching ornaments matches the Old Shool saddle and the Springer fork. He didn't tell me why some of the Bar & Shield logos are upside down, but maybe it's a sign because everything is going topsy-turvy right now.
The narrow line of the Sportster has remained
The built-in chizeled handlebars maintain the narrow line of the Sportster, the suspended mirrors are on the handlebars and the small LED indicators indicate the direction. All around it's a nice bobber style that the Japanese built.
I'm sure that if Hiromi Arai in the bike show at European Bike Week be on the podium Forty-Eight , despite the usually very strong competition
Japan generally has very good customizers, especially in the area of old school bikes, your eyes sometimes open to what's going around there and can be seen at the well-known trade fairs.
Hiromi chose the Sportster Forty-Eight as the basis for the conversion, the first thing you notice is the thick tires around which the design is basically built, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to use the Forty-Eight.
The land of the rising sun
In the land of the rising sun, they have put all their energy into creating a strikingly beautiful Sportster. I don't want to rate them because all of the participants in the King of Kings built beautiful Harleys at a high level, and some of them got very different results. And that's the real fascination, basically they're all winners.
Some of the conversions can be easily recreated, as various parts come from the accessories catalog. With de Melville the costs could be a bit high, with a springer fork and the paint set you'll definitely end up with more than €20,000, but that's what happens when you build a custom bike without any limits.
In any case, they did an excellent job of building a traditional Japanese bobber out of the Forty-Eight!
MELVILLE – PARTS LIST
| 25700533 KIT-CAM CVR,GLOSS BLACK,MACH. |
| 25700600 KIT,ROCKER ARM CVR,LWR,GLOSS B |
| 25700531 KIT ROCKER COVER,GLOSS BLACK,M |
| 25700532 KIT-PRIMARY CVR,GLOSS BLACK,MA |
| 25600060 TIMER COVER, XL |
| 25700541 DERBY COVER, RAIL COLLECTION |
| 17900083 KIT,PUSHROD COVER, XL, GLOSS B |
| 17900084 KIT, TAPPET COVER, XL, GLOSS BL |
| 52000277 BOBBER SOLO SADDLE – DISTRESS |
| 54074-10B SPRING SADDLE INSTALL KIT |
| 63140-10A KIT,FUEL CAP,FLSH MNT,XL BLK |
| 43896-99 HEADBOLT COVER – GLOSS BLACK |
| 33778-09 KIT, SHIFT LINKAGE, BLK SLOTTE |
| 41700335 COVER MSTR CYL,DOT4,EDGE |
Image credit: Copyright Shizuoka – Text: Harleysite
