What would you call a custom-built, non-cruiser motorcycle in Japanese?

[Dan Lucas]

A friend of a friend is creating some artwork of a bike built by somebody in their garden shed here in the UK. She wants a title for the artwork, something like "shed special", because that is what it is. 

Basically it's a heavily customised Honda motorbike from the late 1970s. However, it isn't a "custom" in the Harley-Davidson-style cruiser in any sense of the word.

The nuance I'm looking for is more "home-built" than "custom" (in English). I don't think "shed special" is going to fly given that "shed" has some specific connotations in the UK that I don't think would work in Japanese.

I'm sort of leaning towards simply スペシャル or カスタム スペシャル, given that カスタム doesn't (as far as I can recall)  have the same nuance in the Japanese bike world, but I may be completely off.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Dan Lucas

[Carl Freire]

Hi Dan--

Caveats: quickie search, and -- as someone whose first thought when they
hear "バイク" is still and always a bicycle despite decades of living in
Japan :-p -- not something I've ever even thought about, but perhaps the
prosaic "自作バイク" is enough?

<https://www.google.com/search?q=%E8%87%AA%E4%BD%9C%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF&gl=us&hl=en&ei=E6p3Y9fXNsal1e8Pneyh6Ao&ved=0ahUKEwiXrbj3irj7AhXGUvUHHR12CK0Q4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=%E8%87%AA%E4%BD%9C%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIGCAAQBxAeMgUIABCABDIGCAAQBxAeMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBggAEAcQHjIFCAAQgAQ6CggAEEcQ1gQQsAM6CAgAEAcQBBAeOgcIABCABBANOgcIABAEEIAESgQIQRgASgQIRhgAULgUWO0bYJ8maAFwAXgAgAFliAGiBZIBAzYuMZgBAKABAcgBCsABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp>

FWIW.

Carl

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[Eri Hara]

Hi Dan,

We often say カスタムバイク.

FYI,

Eri

On Saturday, November 19, 2022, Carl Freire <cpfl...@carlfreire.com> wrote:

Hi Dan--

Caveats: quickie search, and -- as someone whose first thought when they hear "バイク" is still and always a bicycle despite decades of living in Japan :-p -- not something I've ever even thought about, but perhaps the prosaic "自作バイク" is enough?

<https://www.google.com/search?q=%E8%87%AA%E4%BD%9C%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF&gl=us&hl=en&ei=E6p3Y9fXNsal1e8Pneyh6Ao&ved=0ahUKEwiXrbj3irj7AhXGUvUHHR12CK0Q4dUDCA8&uact=5&oq=%E8%87%AA%E4%BD%9C%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQAzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIGCAAQBxAeMgUIABCABDIGCAAQBxAeMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBggAEAcQHjIFCAAQgAQ6CggAEEcQ1gQQsAM6CAgAEAcQBBAeOgcIABCABBANOgcIABAEEIAESgQIQRgASgQIRhgAULgUWO0bYJ8maAFwAXgAgAFliAGiBZIBAzYuMZgBAKABAcgBCsABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp>

FWIW.

Carl


On 11/19/22 12:30 AM, Dan Lucas wrote:

A friend of a friend is creating some artwork of a bike built by somebody in their garden shed here in the UK. She wants a title for the artwork, something like "shed special", because that is what it is.

Basically it's a heavily customised Honda motorbike from the late 1970s. However, it isn't a "custom" in the Harley-Davidson-style cruiser in any sense of the word.

The nuance I'm looking for is more "home-built" than "custom" (in English). I don't think "shed special" is going to fly given that "shed" has some specific connotations in the UK that I don't think would work in Japanese.

I'm sort of leaning towards simply スペシャル or カスタム スペシャル, given that カスタム doesn't (as far as I can recall)  have the same nuance in the Japanese bike world, but I may be completely off.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance
Dan Lucas

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[Dan Lucas]

Thanks Eri. As a motorcyclist myself, I've encountered this quite a lot. I would like to avoid "custom" if possible, but maybe this isn't the issue I think it is.

Dan Lucas

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[mik...@gmail.com]

改造バイク？

 

.

[John Burton]

"改造" often has negative connotations linking to stories about boy racers and other "anti-social (young men's) groups."

 

John

On 20/11/2022 12:07 NZDT mik...@gmail.com wrote:

 

 

改造バイク？

 

.

 

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[John Burton]

A custom-built non-cruiser motorcycle, if for the street, would be a "cafe racer," especially if it has clip-ons (referring to the handlebars) and rear sets (referring to the footpegs and foot control lever linkages). 

 

Ref: cafe racer motorcycle - Bing images

 

 

John

 

On 20/11/2022 12:07 NZDT mik...@gmail.com wrote:

 

 

改造バイク？

 

.

 

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[Loren Seely]

特製バイク？
or how about silly with pun:

俺の特造バイクだ像

On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 8:07 AM <mik...@gmail.com> wrote:

改造バイク？

 

.

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[mik...@gmail.com]

> or how about silly with pun:

俺の特造バイクだ像

はっはっは。それいいわ!

特造sounds better than 特製.

 

I was not familiar with カフェレーサー, but that could be a good title for the art.

If the bike is scratch-built, 自作バイク is also suitable as the title of the art.

But then again, we haven’t seen the bike, nor the art, yet!

 

To carry on without seeing either, now that I think about it, even if the “shed special” is really badass, 改造バイク as the title of the art sounds to me a bit rigid, matter-of-fact descriptive, half-baked, and uninteresting. So, I take it back!

 

[Robert Bailey]

Is the somebody in question Allen Millyard, by any chance? If so, my feeling is that the title ought to be something special. His creations are pretty special, indeed.

革命スペシャル

革命カスタム

裏庭革命

I don't know. Just throwing a few out there, all on the assumption that we're talking about Allen Millyard, which is a long shot.

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[Dan Lucas]

John, I agree with you about 改造 connotations.

I didn't provide a description so you're all groping the dark here on my behalf, but as far as I can tell from the cropped image I have seen, this isn't a cafe racer. Of course, many bikes from the Bike Shed London show and related events are just that, but this seems to be more of a muscle build than your typical stripped-back greyhound machine. I have asked the artist for some better images.

As background, I'm from the UK and I started riding nearly 30 years ago, first taking my CBT in a primary school car park near Twickenham. I still have a bike and I still ride when I have time. I'm not part of the cafe racer scene (which to be honest I feel has been done to death over the past few years) but I follow it casually and I'm also a member of the local vintage motorcycle club, which has  lots of old unmolested Brit and Italian metal.

So I'm au fait with the culture on this side, just wondering how best to express it in Japanese terms!

Dan

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[Dan Lucas]

Hello Robert. No, this is much less adventurous than Allen's work - bog-standard late 70s Honda, and based on limited imagery it seems to have the original powerplant, maybe breathed on a bit.

Regards,

Dan Lucas

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[Dan Lucas]

Thanks Loren. To me 特造 is a potential candidate, and feels better than 特製, which to me at least has foody connotations. All grist to the mill!

Dan Lucas

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[Dan Lucas]

Noted, thank you!

I am leaning towards 自作バイク as well, as it seems relatively neutral.

Thanks

Dan Lucas

On Sun, 20 Nov 2022, at 00:29, mik...@gmail.com wrote:

> or how about silly with pun:

俺の特造バイクだ像

はっはっは。それいいわ!

特造sounds better than .

 

I was not familiar with カフェレーサー, but that could be a good title for the art.

If the bike is scratch-built, 自作バイク is also suitable as the title of the art.

But then again, we haven’t seen the bike, nor the art, yet!

 

To carry on without seeing either, now that I think about it, even if the “shed special” is really badass, 改造バイク as the title of the art sounds to me a bit rigid, matter-of-fact descriptive, half-baked, and uninteresting. So, I take it back!

 

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[BJ Beauchamp]

Since it's something unique, couldn't 専用 work in this case? XXX専用バイク? 

Then again, I suppose that does gloss over the custom aspect entirely. 

BJ Beauchamp 

[Dan Lucas]

Thank you for this. As bike-building is for most people a quintessentially atelic activity, the process is the reward. I feel that 専用 would place the emphasis on the use to which the bike is put, and there isn't one! Well, apart from looking good, of course.

Regards

Dan Lucas

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[Rene]

On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 9:29 AM <mik...@gmail.com> wrote:

> or how about silly with pun:

俺の特造バイクだ像

はっはっは。それいいわ!

特造sounds better than 特製.

Careful. Cafe racer is a specific type of bike. Unless you know that this is what you want, better stick with custom bike.

Rene

[Herman]

On 11/18/22 07:30, Dan Lucas wrote:
> A friend of a friend is creating some artwork of a bike built by
> somebody in their garden shed here in the UK. She wants a title for the
> artwork, something like "shed special", because that is what it is.
>
> Basically it's a heavily customised Honda motorbike from the late 1970s.
> However, it isn't a "custom" in the Harley-Davidson-style cruiser in any
> sense of the word.
>
> The nuance I'm looking for is more "home-built" than "custom" (in
> English). I don't think "shed special" is going to fly given that "shed"
> has some specific connotations in the UK that I don't think would work
> in Japanese.

If "shed special" here is the title of an artwork, シェッド・スペシャル would
work, precisely because it would already imply some sort of special
connotation (the detailed content of which would presumably not be known
to a typical Japanese speaker not familiar with the cultural context and
thus could not be accurately represented in a short phrase anyhow) If
that alone is too unclear, you could add a clarifying phrase, e.g.
英国自作バイク「シェッド・スペシャル」


Herman Kahn

[Dan Lucas]

Thank you Herman, this is a sensible approach. Based on feedback from the list, a few hours ago I made a very similar suggestion to the artist.

Regards,
Dan Lucas

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[JimBreen]

I ran some of the contenders through the Google n-grams, which give counts of occurrences in the WWW.. Here are the counts:

改造バイク    3314
特製バイク   37
自作バイク   111
カスタムバイク   27397

The lookup page is at: https://www.edrdg.org/~jwb/ngramcounts.html

Jim 

[jbc0...@moon3.gmobb.jp]

改造といえば、
魔改造
という表現を最近、ちらほら耳にします。

https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E9%AD%94%E6%94%B9%E9%80%A0
改造といえば、
魔改造
という表現を最近、ちらほら耳にします。

https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E9%AD%94%E6%94%B9%E9%80%A0

ただし、魔改造が本件に該当するかどうかはわかりません。

-----Original Message-----
From: hon...@googlegroups.com <hon...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Dan Lucas
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2022 4:50 PM
To: Honyaku E<>J translation list <hon...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: What would you call a custom-built, non-cruiser motorcycle in Japanese?

Thanks Loren. To me 特造 is a potential candidate, and feels better than 特製, which to me at least has foody connotations. All grist to the mill!


Dan Lucas


On Sat, 19 Nov 2022, at 23:35, Loren Seely wrote:


特製バイク？

or how about silly with pun:

俺の特造バイクだ像

On Sun, Nov 20, 2022 at 8:07 AM <mik...@gmail.com <mailto:mik...@gmail.com> > wrote:


改造バイク？

[Dan Lucas]

Thank you for this Takamoto-san. Was not aware of 魔改造 and at this point it's unclear how much 改造 has actually been carried out, but will certainly keep it in mind.

Regards,
Dan Lucas

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[Dan Lucas]

Thank you Jim, good idea, nice to have a more quantitative gloss on this.

Dan Lucas

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