Old School Cool

July 26, 2016

0Points

Article By: Chris Callen

Photos By: Marcus Cuff

Originally Published In The March 2016 Issue Of Cycle Source Magazine

Have you ever talked to a person and by the end of the conversation you just feel better? Well, the owner of this little trick machine, Yoshi Kosaka, is just that type of person. He is a ball of energy and a joy to talk to. More than anything he really digs bikes, so much so that his passion for buying and tooling around with bikes got so outta hand he just made it into a business and the rest my friends is history. It actually started in his homeland of Japan in the seventies where he was at one point a dental appliance engineer. His income supported his motorcycle habit quite aptly giving him the ability to buy a new bike nearly every month for a bit. He raced motocross, then road racing, so the speed factor is where his interest is peaked and deeply rooted. In 1984 Yoshi moved to Beverly Hills California and while the average income level for his field wasn’t comparable to that in Japan, he scrimped and saved, buying up old bikes at swap meets and flea markets. He opened the doors at Garage Company in 1987 on Washington Blvd. The funny thing about this story is that despite the fact that Yoshi had most of his motorcycle collection in that building, parts on the walls and over a hundred motorcycles, he didn’t have anything for sale but T-shirts. The shirts sold so well that it was official, Yoshi had a real retail facility. All this time Yoshi kept to his love of racing and 1993 took a national title through the AHRMA sanction. He was becoming a household name around the motorcycle world but it was only about 15 years ago that the custom end of Garage Company took off.

By now the goose neck look of Garage Company’s build is well known and recognized. That’s where he started with this build. He wanted to build a traditional low Japanese style bobber. He powered it with an S&S 103 cubic Inch crate Panhead motor. The speed freak in him demands performance and that’s exactly what you can expect from the S&S Pan, he says it has no problem keeping up with all the Evo guys. Since many of his customers don’t want to kick start their motorcycles, from age or what have you, he found a nice way to meet that need and not get in the way of the classic look. He simply uses the Tech Cycles open belt with an electric starter that sits nice and low, then covers it with the old style tin primary. The front end of the pan is kicked out enough to make it fit perfectly with the lines of the low slung creeper and matched with the goose neck frame should make for a canyon carving villain. A super skinny tank leaves the rider the ability to tuck in and still keeps to the tradition of the same design. Of course the brakes are the old mechanical type, let’s face it, this cat is a racer and most racers hardly think about stopping anyway… Slowing down from time to time, but never stopping. Even those are perfectly executed and the rear system sits nicely behind a loop tail frame section that is so tasteful it could be factory.

Yoshi commented that this is the style of bike he is known for and that face is undeniable. He has an incredible client base that includes some very notable celebrities like Steven Tyler. Being so close to all the action of the Hollywood movie studios has given him an edge when it comes to making those connections. He started to nurture that by lending bikes to the studios for use in commercials and in the background of major motion pictures. While he states that there hasn’t been any big roles for his bikes like an “Easyrider” type movie, he is open to any offer. So if you happen to be in Yoshi’s part of the world and are a true motorcycle nut, stop by Garage Company where I promise you will get a good feeling from a great conversation with a man driven by his passion for all things two wheels. Oh, and he builds a hell of a machine too!