The phenomenal success of MTV's "Pimp my Ride," a show in which everyday folk have their unglamorous vehicles jazzed up with chrome wheels, fancy paint jobs and state-of-the-art sound systems, has sparked huge interest in the art and practice of motor-vehicle customization. So it wasn't long before a show emerged that focused on two-wheeler makeovers. "Biker Build-Off" aired on the Discovery Channel and featured America's top custom-bike builders competing to create the most impressive ride. Among the contestants were two Japanese builders, Shinya Kimura and Chica.

While Chica builds flashy, ultramodern bikes not dissimilar to the work of popular American customizers, Kimura's creations are radically different. Some observers have even gone so far as to label them "rolling works of art," and that is a label this innovative creator is trying to burnish through an exhibition of his work currently on show in Tokyo's fashionable Harajuku neighborhood.

American bike customization enthusiasts credit Kimura with originating the now hugely popular grunge look, or retro-classic style of bike-building, using assorted scrap parts from vintage Harley-Davidsons and pre-'60s Triumph and BSA engine components, which he finds at swap meets or junkyards. Also fashioning some parts himself, Kimura spends around four months creating each of his "old-school choppers," often building almost everything, from the engine to the transmission, and even the wheels, from scratch, using junk metal and salvaged parts.