April custom roundup: Three winners from the Speed & Crafts Show

After attending numerous custom bike events worldwide, Winston was inspired to create Speed & Crafts to stimulate the scene in his home country. "Due to strict regulations and annual motorcycle inspections, many young builders in Taiwan were giving up," he explains. "Speed & Crafts is my answer — not just a show, but a competition designed to push builders to their limits."

Thanks to strong support from sponsors, Winston elevated the 2025 edition of Speed & Crafts to new heights. Alongside an impressive lineup of locally built custom motorcycles, the show featured a panel of industry-renowned judges. This year's event also welcomed several award-winning motorcycles from other Asia-based events, including two winners from the 2024 Mooneyes Yokohama HRCS show in Japan and the winner of Harley-Davidson Thailand's Custom Kings Asia contest — all aimed at inspiring the next generation of Taiwanese builders.

Every motorcycle on display at Speed & Crafts is handpicked by Winston, with the number of entries limited by the venue's capacity. Unlike a typical custom automotive show, Speed & Crafts is curated as an art exhibition, so there aren't any flashy distractions, just motorcycles displayed on blacked-out plinths. Beyond the bikes, this year's event also featured sponsor exhibits, live custom helmet painting, and interviews with special guests, including esteemed Japanese builders Kaichiroh Kurosu (Cherry's Company), Yuichi Yoshizawa (CW Zon), and Shiro Nakajima (46Works).

Of course, no build-off is complete without trophies. This year's special guests were responsible for selecting the winners from a range of different categories. In this edition of the roundup, we're showcasing the top three builds from the Speed & Crafts Freestyle category.

G.D. Custom BRAMMOX Harley-Davidson Sportster

Taking first place in the 2025 Speed & Crafts freestyle category was the G.D. Custom Brammox. Built around a carbureted Harley-Davidson Sportster V-twin, this bike was an undeniable standout at the show.

The fundamental design element of this bike is its classic look. To the unenlightened, Brammox will likely appear to be a vintage motorcycle, but it's all smoke and mirrors. To create the look, G.D. Custom (Instagram) has combined vintage-styled components, such as the girder-style front end and hard-tail frame, with old-world materials like brass and wood. What seals the deal, though, is the craftily applied faux patina, which adds decades to the motorcycle's outward form.

"The handlebar and footpegs are made from wood, adding warmth and tactile feel, echoing the operational levers of early industrial machinery," says G.D. Custom. "This not only exemplifies the wild character of the chopper but also showcases the craftsmanship that went into making it."

Beyond the styling, there's no shortage of custom components here. The fuel tank is a one-off that features sight gauges for inspecting the gas level. The front end is made up of hand-cast steel, hand-bent pipes, and brass fittings turned on a lathe. The engine's performance remains stock, but the V-twin has been dressed up with vintage-look ribbed cases, a brass air cleaner housing, and custom exhaust pipes. The drivetrain has also been converted to a chain setup, and the oil is stored within the tubes of the frame. The seat and tail are entirely bespoke, too, so in summary, there's very little here that came straight off a shelf.

As is always the case with choppers, Brammox isn't going to be to everyone's liking. However, there's no denying that the work that went into creating this bike deserved all the recognition it got.

NEMOTO/JZO crafts NJRaptor Honda Dax125

They say good things come in small packages, and that certainly rings true for Honda's latest Dax 125.

This Dax, coined the NJRaptor, is a collaborative build between NEMOTO's Kunimoto Hidetoshi and Jie, otherwise known as JZO masterpiece manufacturing. Described as having "avant-garde technology" styling by the builders, most everything aside from the DAX's backbone frame is custom.

Kunimoto's NEMOTO company specializes in parts for minibikes. As a result, the NJRaptor features an extensive list of aftermarket add-ons. Standouts in the inventory include Brembo brakes, clip-on bars wearing custom levers and reservoirs, an OVER Racing extended swingarm, GTR CNC triple clamps, and a custom Airoid digital gauge. There's also plenty of NEMOTO's own bolt-on Dax 125 parts gracing this bike, such as rearset footpegs, fork covers, and a rear sprocket holder.

At a glance, the NJRaptors engine looks like a standard DAX 125 unit. It is, in fact, the engine is from a Honda Grom. Although the performance of the two engines is essentially identical, the reason for the swap was to convert the bike to a manual five-speed transmission rather than a twist-and-go. The conversion also adds a clutch to the handlebar and a shifter peg, which are bound to make riding this Dax vastly more entertaining. The new engine also benefits from a custom-made, pie-cut titanium exhaust that snakes its way through the body before exiting via the tail.

Jie's aluminum work is commonly seen on Rough Crafts projects, which is a testament to his handiwork. Here, it can be seen in the form of the polished seat pan, exhaust tip, custom aluminum fuel tank, and racing-style number plate front cowl. Qi Rui leather was tasked with upholstering the seat to complement Jei's work, and local paint shop ONEWAY laid the grey-blue paintwork and classic Honda branding.

One rather unexpected feature of this build is the addition of 12-inch disc wheels and Racing Bros. air suspension. Using a remote control, the Dax can be lowered to sit on its center stand or raised in preparation for riding. It's a feature that won't provide any real performance benefit, but it sure does amp up the fun factor.

Faber Studio x Rough Crafts YenereZ

Third-place honors in the freestyle category went to the YenereZ, a highly modified Yamaha Ténéré 700 by Rough Crafts frontman Winston Yeh and Faber Lai of Faber Studio (Instagram).

"The YenereZ project originated from my daily conversations with Winston," says Faber. "We often love to discuss the possibilities of various custom motorcycles, exploring all sorts of crazy and unrealistic ideas. We admired the Ténéré's excellent off-road bike structure and that CP2 engine, which always brings a smile when riding. This sparked a crazy idea in our minds!"

The concept was to transform the Ténéré into a road-going flat-tracker. After studying the bike's chassis, the duo had a realization that set the tone for the build. "We drew inspiration from modern flat-track race bikes, using Yamaha's own off-road bike, the YZ450F, as the blueprint for modifications," Faber explains.

After putting together a digital render of their vision, the pair reached out to Yamaha Taiwan, who graciously provided them with a bike on the promise it would go on display at Speed & Crafts 2025.

Once the bike arrived at his workshop, Faber began the transformation by removing the Ténéré's subframe. This allowed the fitment of the YZ subframe and then a complete set of YZ450F plastics. Rough Crafts' go-to fabricator, JZO, was then recruited to build the custom aluminum fuel tank.

"The biggest highlight of this bike is the uniquely shaped fuel tank," says Faber. "To create the appearance of a modern off-road bike, fuel tanks typically do not rise much above the seat. This design allows the rider more freedom to shift their weight and control the bike, and we put significant effort into achieving this look on the YenereZ."

After the Ténéré had taken on its new look, attention was redirected to finessing its race-inspired styling. Heading up the changes are a set of Flat Track rims by Roland Sands Designs wrapped in Dunlop K180 Dirt Track tires. A Renthal flat-track handlebar wearing Domino grips and Beringer controls sits atop a premium Öhlins front end. A matching, fully adjustable shock sits in the rear, mounted to a custom-made rear linkage of Faber's design. Supermoto yokes by FAOR hold the fork in place, Zeta pegs help keep feet firmly planted, and stopping power comes courtesy of Beringer. To ensure the bike could be ridden on the street, it wears LED lighting by Koso and Rough Crafts, but you'll need a keen eye to spot them, making this bike's appearance all the more believable.

To complete the Ténéré's new look, Winston commissioned MTR Wrapping to apply the racing-style livery in Rough Crafts' trademark black-on-black style. The CP2 engine is essentially unchanged because it's so good out of the box. The only modification to its performance comes from a free-flowing DNA filter, fueling remap, and a trick exhaust system.

"As the saying goes, 'Only Children make choices, adults want it all!'" Faber jokes. "So the exhaust features both the routing configuration from off-road bikes and the commonly used low-slung setup from flat-trackers."

If Yamaha announced the addition of something like this to its 2026 range, there'd be no shortage of pre-orders.