Icon Motorsports' Brand New Jack is a Gundam-inspired custom Suzuki Katana built in collaboration with Suzuki USA in just 30 days: a full mech-vibes rework of the iconic Japanese sportbike, referencing the angular primary-color palette of the RX-78-2 Gundam mobile suit through a white, blue, yellow and red livery that makes the bike look like it could transform into a robot at any moment.
The Suzuki Katana as a Canvas
Icon chose the 2020 Suzuki Katana for a specific reason: the Katana's original 1981 design was already deeply indebted to aerospace and futurist aesthetics, with sharp angles and a silhouette that stood apart from every other sportbike of its era. The redesigned 2020 production Katana retained that DNA. For Icon, the challenge was to amplify rather than replace it: to take those futurist cues and push them past the limits of what a production motorcycle can express.
The team drew directly from Gundam, Robotech and Gobots for visual reference, three pillars of Japanese and American mech animation that share the same design vocabulary: angular forms, high-contrast primary colors and a sense of engineered power barely contained within a geometric frame.
30 Days: The Build Timeline
Icon typically allows 12 to 18 months to complete a custom build. Brand New Jack was done in 30. The deadline was set by the collaboration agreement with Suzuki USA, and it forced the team to make every decision quickly and commit. The result is tighter and more coherent than many builds that had far longer timelines.
Performance Upgrades on the Brand New Jack
The visual transformation was matched by a comprehensive mechanical upgrade. Icon fitted the Katana with a Leo Vince custom exhaust system, Avon competition tires, Galespeed magnesium wheels, Nitron suspension, EBC rotors, hand controls from Driven Racing and Magura, and twin endurance racing fuel ports. The result is a motorcycle that performs as hard as it looks.
Full documentation of the build was published by Hypebeast, and RideApart has an in-depth analysis of what makes this build work.
Custom Motorcycles at TheArsenale
The Brand New Jack sits at the intersection of motorcycle craft and pop culture iconography: a tradition that TheArsenale has curated through its own motorcycle collection. The Bandit9 Eve Liquid Black is a motorcycle with similarly maximalist design ambition, a futurist form that transforms the riding object into a sculptural statement. The Suzuki GSX1200 Inazuma by Ugly Motors shows what the Katana's broader Suzuki family can become in the right hands, while the Droog Moto 3 represents the stripped-back minimalist pole of the custom spectrum.
Explore the full TheArsenale Motorcycles collection for the widest range of custom and production motorcycles curated by the brand.
