Custom Works Zon turns the Classic 650 into a twin-engine hard-tail

If you ever needed proof that custom bike builders are constitutionally incapable of leaving well enough alone, Royal Enfield’s latest oddity from Japan should settle it.

Unveiled at the 33rd Annual Yokohama Hot Rod Custom Show, Vita is what happens when someone looks at a perfectly serviceable Royal Enfield Classic 650 and decides the obvious solution is to add another engine. 

You may also like to read our Royal Enfield Classic 650 review.

Built by Shiga-based Custom Works Zon, Vita is a serious piece of engineering masquerading as an art project. Yuichi Yoshizawa and Yoshikazu Ueda, two builders with an already bulging trophy cabinet, have taken Royal Enfield’s new 648cc air-cooled parallel twin and doubled it. Literally.

The result is a twin-engine Classic 650, mounted in line, sharing the same frame and working as one power unit. Because why wouldn’t you?

The starting point is the recently launched Royal Enfield Classic 650, first shown at EICMA 2024 and only just beginning its life in production form. Custom Works Zon didn’t waste much time before tearing it apart.

Both engines are standard Classic 650 units, but the forward motor has its transmission removed and the crankcase shortened. The two engines are then mechanically linked via a primary chain drive on the left-hand side, allowing them to operate in unison.

Power figures haven’t been released, and honestly, they’re almost beside the point. Vita is about exploring what happens when you take a fundamentally old-school engine and push it into territory that feels faintly unhinged.

Naturally, you don’t drop two engines into a stock chassis and hope for the best. VITA is built around a fully bespoke steel hard-tail frame, specifically designed to accommodate the unusual engine package. Up front, things get even more interesting, with a bespoke girder fork handling suspension duties, blending period-correct aesthetics with modern execution. The wheels are a striking 26-inch setup, giving the bike a long, low stance that looks more sculpture than a standard Classic 650.

It’s an unusual choice, but it works. The contrast between warm wood and cold metal adds texture, while the half chrome, half paint, only adds to the visual impact of the bike.

Vita forms part of Royal Enfield’s wider Custom World initiative, which hands creative control to builders around the globe and lets them reinterpret production bikes without corporate hand-holding. Sometimes that results in tasteful café racers. Occasionally, it results in a twin-engine, wood-bodied, hard-tail Classic 650 with girder forks and 26-inch wheels.

Because, why not?!

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