[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16981453[/vimeo]

Shinya Kimura, nominated for a 2010 Vimeo Award, clocks in at just under 3 minutes, but in that short amount of time it speaks volumes about Shinya Kimura, motorcycle artist and proprietor of Zero Engineering, which builds motorcycles to the stars. (Tom Cruise might have lifted one from the grasp of Xenu himself.) Kimura is more a sculptor than a builder; a self-taught man who has grown up around two-wheeled machinery but still remains fascinated by them, who forms metal as one does with clay or marble into organic, seemingly unplanned shapes. (He doesn’t sketch his designs beforehand.) And in that short ride down a California runway the motorcycle brings out the “wildness and vulnerability” inside himself, no matter how peaceful he finds it.
I’ll also forgive him for ragging on my beloved Honda in this Hell for Leather interview (subscription required), which reveals similar things about him in this video but also what he plans to do next.