Icon Motorsports builds Gundam-inspired Suzuki Katana

Icon Motorsports reimagines Suzuki Katana into Gundam on two-wheels

Just yesterday, we showed you a motorcycle inspired by cold-war aircraft. Today we take it a step further and show you one inspired by mecha. And what better mecha than Mobile Suit Gundam?

The pairing is actually quite appropriate as the Suzuki Katana’s 80s throwback boxy looks suggest it could be one of those transforming motorcycle mechs from Macross. But that’s a different mecha anime entirely.

American motorcycle apparel and custom kit maker, Icon Motorsports, was given the opportunity to modify a new Suzuki Katana by Suzuki USA. Though they typically take 12 to 18 months to build a custom bike, Suzuki USA gave them just 30 days for this one.

As such, the Icon team quickly threw ideas around, most of it revolving around robots and mecha, thanks to the Katana’s boxy styling, its 80s origins, and the prevalent form of cartoons and anime at the time. Icon cites TV shows like Gobots, Robotech, and most especially Gundam as their inspiration.

“The Katana, both then and now, has always been a starship,” Icon shared. “Our goal was to up the uber-mechanized façade of the new Katana into a full transformer. Let’s face it, who doesn’t want their liter bike to evolve into a flying robot lion at the touch of a button?”

The result is a conservative but wicked build blessed with wings, overhauled suspension and a new brake system. Icon even threw in the trademark Gundam colors and identifying marks. The team has decided to call it Brand New Jack, as a tribute to an 82 Katana they worked in the past, called New Jack.

Besides the Gundam aesthetic, the build also sports some interesting modifications. The bike has been fitted with twin endurance racing fuel ports, premium Nitron suspension, solid EBC rotors, Avon competition tires, and custom exhaust fitted from various Leo Vince components. There are new hand controls from Driven Racing and Magura. It rolls on rare magnesium wheels from Japan: forged Galespeed.

The result is the bike you see here, which pays just the right amount of tribute to Gundam without going over the top.