Revisiting the World’s First Custom Yamaha Niken

See why the folks at Game Over Cycles won the “Craziest Bike” award for this handmade aluminum masterpiece. Today, we’re revisiting the world’s first custom Yamaha Niken, and I’m honoured to have GOC contribute a post for us. – Grant

World’s First Custom Niken

When it comes to customizing motorcycles, you often hear that almost everything has already been done.

What else in the base model can be replaced, transformed, or modified? How much can you actually change? How about… everything?

We made this decision at Game Over Cycles (GOC), our custom motorcycles manufacturing company based in Rzeszów, Poland. We built a unique custom bike using the revolutionary three-wheeled Yamaha Niken motorcycle, a bike you celebrate here at NikenPeeps!

GOC Niken

To implement our project’s primary design goal, we replaced all of the Niken’s original plastic parts and panels with aluminum- handcrafted by us.

As a result, we succeeded in creating the world’s first custom Yamaha Niken, the GOC Niken.

“Craziest Bike” Award

We first showed the GOC Niken to the public in December 2019 at the world’s largest trade fair for modified motorcycles, the CUSTOMBIKE-SHOW in Bad Salzuflen, Germany. In the custom bike competition, we were proud to win the award for “Craziest Bike”!

In addition to winning the “Craziest Bike” award for our GOC Niken, we enjoyed the positive feedback from the public and our fellow bike customizers on this project.

Awards

So far, we have won 31 awards, including 24 at international events.

Why did we choose the Yamaha Niken?

The Yamaha Niken, introduced globally in 2018, is a bold statement in motorcycle innovation and engineering. It’s a striking motorcycle with revolutionary Leaning Multi-Wheel (LMW) technology and an aggressive stance.

With two front wheels, four steering heads, and dual-tube upside-down forks, the Yamaha Niken challenges traditional motorcycle design, turns heads and commands attention.

While its engineering is ahead of its time, we welcomed the opportunity to enhance the bike’s visual impact and individuality further and create a version of the Niken that stands out even more and reflects our vision, personality, and passion for expression.

We at Game Over Cycles have a reputation for working on American-brand motorcycles, but this time, we decided to work on the futuristic-looking Japanese model.

Our head of GOC, Stanisław Myszkowski, commented on the inception of this project at the time:

To many people, the Niken is revolutionary; to others, it’s a controversial bike. This is exactly how people react to our custom bikes; that’s why I got interested in it from the beginning. In terms of technology, nothing should be changed in this machine.

The pioneering Japanese technology provides the Niken with excellent driving abilities. Still, from the first moment I saw it live, I felt we could modify its appearance and give the machine a different character.

To achieve this, we changed the whole body. All plastic parts have been replaced by aluminum, thanks to which the vehicle’s shapes have become sharper, even aggressive, without losing any aerodynamic properties.

As for the performance of the Niken, one can say that now this motorcycle cuts through the air almost like a samurai sword. – Stanisław Myszkowski

Up for a challenge

One of our most significant challenges when customizing the aesthetics of the Yamaha Niken was achieving a proper balance between custom styling and mechanical integrity.

Unlike conventional motorcycles, the Niken’s complex front suspension system allows for an impressive range of motion—leaning, turning, and shifting dynamically with the road.

This meant we had to craft every new body panel or design element to ensure it did not interfere with the bike’s movement at any angle.

We enjoy coming up with ideas

Our GOC custom Niken pays homage to the country of its origin, Japan, not only by the name but also by the presence of Japanese writing on the finished bike.

We incorporated into the vehicle Japanese characters denoting the name of the Niken model, as well as a phrase written in Japanese and taken from the Yamaha brand philosophy, which means “Courage to set higher goals without fear of failure” – 失敗を恐れず、もう一段高い目標に取り組む.

Cierpliwy i kamień ugotuje

The above Polish proverb means, ‘A patient person can even cook a stone.’ Modifying the GOC Niken took us 1,400 man-hours.

Which Niken parts did GOC Modify?

As we mentioned in our original press release at the time, we modified the following parts of the Niken, many of which you can see in the images on this page:

• – handlebar cover together with the brake fluid container housing
• – brake and clutch levers
• – mirrors
• – speedometer cover
• – front fenders
• – rear fender with the rear section of the motorcycle
• – Akrapovic exhaust element
• – frame holding the seat
• – seat base
• – fuel tank
• – air filters
• – cooler and its cover
• – battery box
• – engine and suspension covers
• – front lamp covers with lens sleeves

Elements without lacquer and polished to the bare aluminum:

• – all wheels
• – rear fender handle
• – rear swingarm
• – whole front suspension
• – footrest holders
• – engine covers
• – whole frame

Leather seat: WB Line

CUSTOMBIKE-SHOW

Every year, the CUSTOMBIKE-SHOW, the largest trade fair for modified motorcycles, is held in Bad Salzuflen, Germany. Over 30,000 people and 300 exhibitors attend, and over 1,000 custom motorcycles are presented.

The History of Game Over Cycles (GOC)

We are a Polish custom motorcycles manufacturer formed in 2012. Our company, based in Rzeszów, is known for its original creations, such as The Recidivist – the world’s first tattooed motorcycle.

Our machines have won awards at the world’s biggest custom bike competitions.

We have already won 31 awards, including 24 at international events, including eight trophies from European Bike Week, the largest motorcycle festival in Europe, plus nine awards received in the homeland of bike customization, the United States of America.

To present selected examples, in 2017, The Recidivist received the first-place trophy in the “Most Unusual” category at the Rats Hole Custom Bike Show – the most prestigious custom bike competition in the world organized every year at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally – the world’s largest motorcycle rally (South Dakota, USA, with over 400,000 participants annually).

In 2024, the Slow Burn Bike, our custom bagger inspired by the car of Metallica’s James Hetfield, won Best of Show in the Boardwalk Bike Show, 1st place in the “Extreme Bagger” category in the Rat’s Hole Custom Bike Show and Best of Show in the Rat’s Hole Custom Bike Show, all awards received at the Daytona Bike Week 2024.

Since September 2018, we have operated GOC Yamaha Rzeszów, the only official dealership and authorized Yamaha service center in southeast Poland.

We appreciate the extra publicity

We thank Grant at NikenPeeps for contacting us and allowing us to reflect on this project and revisit the world’s first custom Yamaha Niken, our GOC Niken.

Safe riding everyone!
Chris Bienkiewicz – Game Over Cycles (GOC)

(Bike photos by Miros³aw Mazurkiewicz / Award photos by Tomasz Rzeszut)

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Thanks for being a Content Contributor!

Thank you, Chris and Game Over Cycles, for revisiting this fantastic project and contributing to the Yamaha Niken content here. I appreciate it.

Whose Niken was it?

Diving a little deeper, I see that the Niken bike GOC used was supplied by Yamaha Motor Poland, which collaborated with GOC. Magdalena Piskorz, the Yamaha Motor Poland General Director at the time and now Chief Financial Officer of Yamaha Motor Europe, was impressed with Mr. Myszkowski and thrilled with the project.

Since the beginning of cooperation with GOC I have been extremely impressed with Staszek’s talent, his unconventional approach to customization and out of this world ideas that have been appreciated around the world for years. I am glad that for the latest project he chose this model, so innovative and unique for Yamaha. Working with such professionals is a pure pleasure. – Magdalena Piskorz