Words by Andrew Potash;

After an amazing weekend in the mountains of Maniwa watching a hill climb race, we headed to visit the chopper boys in Nagoya. Nagoya is like the Detroit or Milwaukee of Japan—it's the automotive and motorcycle capital of the country, with Toyota and many other brands hailing from the Aichi region. The streets are unusually wide for Japan, and the strict regulations of Tokyo are a lot looser, allowing for a thriving custom car and bike scene. We linked up with Nagoya/Japan chopper/tattooing OG Masato and Taiho of Dazzle Sugar, the next generation of the Nagoya chopper scene, for the first day’s tour.

We first headed to visit Ryo of Stance Motorcycles (@stance_ryo). Stance Ryo is known for his amazing award-winning show bike builds for both Mooneyes and Born Free—such as the “Orange Bang”—that he does EVERYTHING on: full fabrication, show paint, and upholstery. After the recent birth of his second daughter, Ryo is taking this year off and is not building a bike for this year’s HRCS, but we still got to see his amazing knucklehead-heavy collection—survivor knuckle choppers and stock bikes, knuckle show choppers, XLCRs, custom KH, BT flatty bobber, and an impressive parts stash accumulated over years of AMCA swap trips.

Next stop was the one and only Kosuke of The Fever Inc. (@thefeverinc — formerly Sunrise Cycles/Chopper Fever). Kosuke had an amazing shop on Sunset Blvd, but after winning Born Free and showing his bike at Mooneyes, he ended up having to move back to Japan. In true Kosuke fashion, his Japan shop is doing everything these days as well, with walls covered in awards: complete show bike builds, Invader wheel manufacturing, parts casting, paint, hot rod work, and pretty much anything else he puts his talented hater mind to. We got a sneak peek at his knuckle show bike that will be revealed at Mooneyes next weekend, and you know it was top notch!

From there we went to visit Harlem Store (@harlem_store_official), the spot in Nagoya for premium Japanese denim (Iron Heart, Western River), fine leather goods (Trophy Clothing, Buzz Rickson, Real McCoy’s), souvenir jackets from Toyo Tailor, rad chotskies, and chopper soft goods. Shun has created a fixture of the Nagoya scene, and we ran into Snow from Pride Rock Motorcycles in his beautiful Nova SS, picking up some winter gear. After a feast of Nagoya’s famous miso tonkatsu—fried pork cutlets with a sweet miso sauce… oishi desu—we went to visit Take of The Roost (@ruthless_the_roost), the new generation of the Nagoya chopper scene. Take is known for his badass “Tiny the Beautiful”–inspired knuckle chop with drag tanks and his store The Roost, creating a variety of rad clothing and accessories. He also runs the Bigfoot Land event with Taiho, and they will be launching a new helmet brand at Mooneyes.

The next day we were supposed to cruise to the Toyota Museum with Take, but it was closed, so we visited the magical Atsuta-Jingu Shrine, where you can feel powerful energy in the beautiful tree-filled grounds. Then the chopper tour continued. First was Hedgehog Motorcycles (@hedgehog_motorcycle)—you might not know the name, but you’d recognize the bikes: the “Guilty Razor” with its blue louvered tanks, and the Nostalgia Cycles–cased blue cone shovel with dual magnetos and louvered tank with a chromed-out version of the Harley eagle. In true Japanese style, the amazing Guilty Razor was completely stripped down to the frame and is being fully redone for this year’s Mooneyes. Only the old tank remains, but we got a sneak peek at the new version and it’s looking amazing and radically different.

After an amazing unagi lunch—one of the best meals I’ve ever had—our final stop was Pride Rock Motorcycles (@priderockmotorcycle), where Snow-san turns out some of my favorite classic early-60s-style candy-coated choppers. His bikes have won the Ampal pick at Rumbling Wheelers multiple times, along with awards at Joints, Mooneyes, and the New Order Chopper Show. The collection of survivor and show bikes is deep at Pride Rock, as seen in the pics. Snow also runs Dope the Wheels motorcycle camp-out. We could’ve kept going and still need to visit Vise Clothing, Bankara Motorcycles, and more, but we had a Shinkansen to catch and saw an amazing array in 36 hours of Nagoya. Great food, great bikes, and great people… Nagoya rules!