Omar Jumiran, pembina motosikal buatan khas dari Eastern Bobber, telah memenangi tempat kedua di kejohanan “AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building”.
Motosikal buatan khas ciptaan Omar, Bone-X, berjaya mengalahkan pelbagai motosikal buatan khas yang lain.
Perjalanan dan penyertaan Oma di AMD Intermot telah ditaja oleh Motonation.
Omar Jumiran of Eastern Bobber has been crowned the First Runner Up the prestigious AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building at the Intermot Show in Cologne, Germany.
Omar’s creation, Bone-X, was the winner at the 2017 Motonation Custom Ride Championship event in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. Judging was performed by AMD Showmaster, Neil Blaber. Bone-X beat out all other competitors’ bikes and earned Omar a place at the AMD finals in Germany.
Motonation funded the customizer and Bone-X’s trip to the show.
Bone-X had breezed through the preliminary rounds at Intermot and was among the Top 10 finalists. Judging was conducted by other builders’ and carefully chosen VIP judges. Points were awarded for creativity, execution, finishing, among other criteria.
Omar’s bike came in second after the points were tallied. The winner was “Insomnia” built by Russian customizer Dmitry Golubchikov.
Where to from here?
Malaysia is full of motorcycle customization talents but they have operating “underground” for many decades due to lack of recognition, not by fans, but by certain governmental agencies. A number of these customizers had almost nothing to live on but by their insatiable passion to create wonderful works of art on wheels.
Shows such as Art of Speed and Motonation (to a smaller extent since they are new) have brought these builders and their creations to the fore but there is still much more that needs to be done, because more publicity is needed. And publicity costs money.
Omar Jumiran’s success at the international stage will spur the authorities and private entities to pay more attention to the Malaysian custom motorcycle scene in both local and international events.
Omar Jumiran, pembina dari Eastern Bobber kini sedang bertanding di “AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building 2018”.
Kejohanan ini sedang berlangsung di pertunjukan motosikal Intermot di Cologne, Jerman.
Omar bersama dengan ciptaannya, “Bone-X” telah memasuki Top 10 sewaktu artikel ini disiarkan.
Omar Jumiran of Eastern Bobber fame won the custom bike show at Motonation 2017, earning him a place at the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building 2018 (AMD). The AMD is part of the prestigious Intermot Show in Cologne, Germany.
Omar’s entry in Motonation was called, “Bone X,” a radical custom framed bike built around a 1967 AJS single-cylinder engine. Apart from the engine, the parts on the bike were entirely self-fabricated and welded without the benefit of CNC machining or robotic TIG welding. But the most radical aspect has to be the suspension, featuring a centre-steering hub front end and a plunger-type rear end. The spring and shocks are located on top of the frame’s backbone in order to suspend both ends.
The result is a skeletal-looking motorcycle, hence the name “Bone-X.”
Omar Jumiran had been dreaming of entering the AMD for the past 30 years and now his dream has come true, thanks for Motonation who fully-sponsored his entry and trip to Germany.
The veteran builder had seven months to fully prepare his bike, spending some RM 80,000 in the process. Bone-X was shipped out from Malaysia in July and arrived safely in MalProC Germany’s (Motonation’s group of companies) warehouse. The bike was delivered to the competition last Tuesday among entries from 45 countries.
Organized by AMD Magazine, the judging system in the AMD is unique as it is known as “Peer Group Review.” As the term suggests, the competitors themselves plus a few carefully chosen custom industry VIP judges and past competitors review other competitors’ entries, thereby ensuring open, honest and fair judging.
AMD’s intention is to reward motorcycle design and engineering quality, with the premium on originality and hand-craftmanship. All builders are required to provide a “Run Test Video” to be eligible for competition.
Bone-X is entered in the “Freestyle” category as it does not conform to other classes such as “Custom Harleys,” etc.
Omar and Bone-X have made the Top 10 when this article was published. He has done Malaysia proud regardless of where he finishes, but let us put together our prayers and wish him the best.
Artikel oleh: Wahid Ooi Abdullah
It’s probably an injustice if we looked at custom bikes without studying the elements of art and philosophy. Production motorcycles are also works of art, but being produced on the scale of hundreds and thousands, they are considered as being the products of certain templates.
Custom bike builders, on the other hand, operate on the philosophy of one: The one and only. The best one. The One.
That’s certainly what Omar Jumiran, the proprietor of Eastern Bobber, one of Malaysia’s premiere custom motorcycle builders, had in mind when he created his master creation seen here known as the Bone-X.
The Bone-X has earned Omar and Eastern Bobber a spot at the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building at the Intermot show in Cologne, Germany, to be held in October this year, after winning the competition at the Motonation event in early December. Motonation is sponsoring Omar’s trip there. (Please click on the link below for our report from Motonation.)
I had first met Omar two years ago when I covered the Triumph Malaysia-Art of Speed Invitational Bike Build-Off in 2015. Eastern Bobber had been one of the four finalists. Meeting him at his home again, there’s the signature Eastern Bobber Batbike and, the space-framed and girder suspended bike. There were also robot sculptures scattered around the yard.
“I had wanted to build something totally unseen before. So much so, I couldn’t even name the concept for Bone-X,” laughed the soft-spoken ex-metal welder and wrought iron artist.
It’s through this expertise that Omar bent and welded parts of Bone-X, without resorting to CNC machining. Almost every part of the bike is metal, save for the tyres and parts of the brake and clutch cables.
Everything on the bike is radical, starting from two large springs sitting on top of the miniscule rectangular gas tank which forms the bike’s backbone.
The springs are attached to the fore and aft upper suspension levers. Upon closer inspection, one half of each spring is double coiled. “The single coiled part takes care of compression damping, while the double sprung part handles rebound. The levers are long so it needs more spring strength to suspend each end of the bike,” explained Omar. The springs are laid down flat thus more spring tension is needed, compared to most production bikes whose shocks are mounted almost vertical.
Regardless, the springs contribute to something that looks like a rib cage.
Omar aimed for a symmetrical look on each end of the bike, using large diameter, 21-inch wheels. While the rear assembly forms a single-sided swingarm, the front results in a hub centre-steering suspension. The handlebar is attached to the front suspension’s upright link via a shaft on ball joints.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the hub-centre steering front suspension layout ever since I saw the Elf Honda GP race bike in the 80’s, ridden by Ron Haslam. I was just a kid back then.”
Omar opened up a little more, “In my opinion, forks have their distinct shortcomings, hence the single arm setup was explored to take its place. I liked the Yamaha GTS when it came out and I feel it’s a real shame that manufacturers have not continued down that route.” (You can read about the Elf Honda and Yamaha GTS here.)
Heading downwards, the 1967 AJS engine has been either been chromed or polished to fit the overall chromed theme. It’s impossible to miss the exhaust downpipe being routed through the frame’s vertical member.
There’s a vertical lever next to the left side of the engine. Everyone had first thought it was the gear shifter, but it turned out to be the lever for the centrestand, instead. “Ah, the handshifter is overdone and too mainstream now, so I wanted to do something different.”
The powertrain arrangement’s beautiful simplicity is set out in plain sight. A primary drive chain transmits power from the crankshaft to the dry clutch, whose shaft is also the input shaft to the gearbox. But Omar performed some modifications to the final drive. “The final drive chain exits on the left side originally, but I can’t let it run on the outside (left side) of the wheel. So I attached the final drive to an idler shaft to drive the sprocket on the right side.”
The rear wheel’s hub carries the rear sprocket and disc brake.
The result is an organic-looking bike. To Omar’s and his peers, the Bone-X looks skeletal, thereby earning its namesake. However, to the unitiated Joe Public, the bike resembles something inspired by H.R. Giger’s biomechanical concepts.
To our eyes, the Bone-X is as good as it gets, but in the eyes of the artist, there’s room for improvement. “Certain parts of the bike still need better finishing. It looks alright under the lights currently, but we are required to also display the bike outdoors in Germany. It’s during this instance when the imperfections will stick out like sore thumbs.”
“I do hope there are kind souls out there who sees the importance of a Malaysian bike actually competing at the international show. I wouldn’t want to embarrass Malaysia with an unfinished bike, and while it’s hard for me to say this, I will appreciate sponsors who could assist me in completing the Bone-X. it’s time we step out from being Jaguh Kampung,” hopes Omar.
Omar is fully dedicated to the Bone-X now, as The One bike for him. As for us and together with Omar, we hope Bone-X will be The One in the hearts of the international judges and peers in Germany.
Do follow this story all the way to Intermot in Germany.
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