Voilà Laurent. ”I am 46 years old and have 2 years of auto mechanics from school. I’ve been a biker for 27 years, and I’m a big fan of “On Any Sunday” and the usual suspects; Spencer, Roberts, Sheene and Lawson. The XLS 125 is my first “old” bike restoration – I’m not a big fan of the original bikes with all their plastic bodywork, but under that is some pretty nice-looking metal!
“The most important aspect of this project was the lack of money and the “low cost” attitude that dictated my choices: suspension, tachometer and original tank. The donor was a dead pit bike (30 Euros), the wheels and tires cost 90 Euros. All the aluminum parts were recovered from a scrap dealer. Only the mechanics saw my open wallet: a new carb, some welding and stainless steel screws throughout. I sold the saddle and a host of other parts to finance it.”
“I put in a lot of elbow grease polishing up the housings, the forks, the aluminium, etc. I also did a very simple rewire job on it. The total budget for the finished product = 1200 Euros.”
If you’re a fan of what you see here, Laurent tells us he’s just started work on a 500 XLS, which we is describing as a “street-tracker.” Rest assured you’ll see it here when he’s done. I’d also like to take this opportunity to apologies to the French nation and French-speakers everywhere for my horrible butchering of the world’s most beautiful language for the sake of a bad joke. Well, maybe not that bad – Tom Cruise would make an hilarious Queen Mother.
Short of cash after the build, Jake was forced to send the XL out to work in a bakery
Finding and showing the world great custom bikes. It’s what Pipeburn does. But being at the pointy end of the whole process with it’s constant search for the latest and greatest can easily make you forget about the other amazing part of the process – the part where all you guys arrive and check out the cool bikes. Now here’s the really cool part of the whole process; like some crazy custom bike feedback loop the bikes we find and feature then go on to inspire the new builds to a greater or lesser extent. Like the simple, clean, elegant Honda you see here. Except in the case of Jake Lyons and his XL it was a little more, shall we say, direct than usual. See Jake went from nothing to knee deep in grease and Shoichiro design after his first ever session of Pipeburning. So if you’ll allow us a brief moment of pride, please enjoy the bike that Pipeburn built.
1973 Honda XL 285
“I’m Jake Lyons – a Washington contactor and bike fan. While on a job site a couple years ago I began to speak with an electrician about motorcycles. Prior to this conversation I had zero awareness of any sort of vintage scene, I had only owned enduros and newer sport bikes. He insisted that I take a look at your site; arriving home that day I pulled up Pipeburn and after about 6 hours and 60+ pages later the decision was clear – I would be building a bike. I already had a sentimental old XL sitting in my shop and I began work immediately.”
1973 Honda XL 285
“I pulled up Pipeburn and after about 6 hours
and 60 pages later the decision was clear -
I would be building a bike”
“This XL 250 was in fact the first motorcycle I had ever ridden and learned to ride on back in 4th grade. My dad picked it up in the late 70′s and dragged it around the states, beating it up along the way. In late 2008, it had nearly 40 years of abuse when I pried it from under some old lawn chairs below his deck. He made me complete various tasks, including climbing and pruning cedar trees before I could have the title but I was rewarded with this 4-valve, rusty matriarch of a machine.
After getting it home I put new tires on it and drove it once before the kick starter snapped off inside the case while up in the mountains. After nervously compression starting it and getting it home, it sat for over 2 years until my eyes were opened to Pipeburn. I started the project in mid July 2010.”
1973 Honda XL 285
Won’t
1973 Honda XL 285
somebody spare a thought for the poor tuna cans…
“I started with a complete tear down. I stripped most of the excess tabs off the frame, welded in a hoop and sent that and the swing arm off to powder coating. I do all of my own work and put the majority of other components into primer, wet sanded, and then base/clear black. The tank was beat by my father and took some effort to straighten out; the blue paint being a 40’s Ford truck code. The motor was rebuilt with the JE 285 kit in trade for a parts bike I had bought for it. The seat I built using a piece of steel I yanked out of the bin at a recycling place and then plasma cut it out after making a cardboard template. I then used some neoprene foam and a steak knife to get the shape I wanted. I had all of the paint and body work supplies from my car projects. The bike fit perfectly in my shop and just came together really smoothly.
Being my first bike, each decision took at least 10 times as long to make as the actual building took. I got the bike into a roller within a month and then took an additional year to really finish it, working in the evenings. The 13 year-old across the street, Harrison, usually helps me with projects and this was no different. He was a huge help and came over to work pretty much any time my garage door was open.”
“After a battle fitting the front CB 18″ wheel I got for free, using a CB 360t front end and some pro bono millwork by my friend Mike, I finally fitted the 4:00×18 Avons I had been drooling over. I had it dyno tuned a couple of times before the bugs were worked out for the 285 kit but now it first kicks and runs super strong. It even picks up the front end into second, which was not quite an option before the build.
I’m completely addicted to these classics now and have several other projects in varying degrees of completion. A 1968 Yamaha YCS1, a 1974 Honda CB550SS, and a 1981 Honda CB750k. I love the energy of these bikes, they have a distinct soul in comparison to their modern day successors.”
1973 Honda XL 285
So there you have it. And do we feel like proud new fathers of a beautiful, bouncing baby bike. Scott’s just lit the stogie and I’m on my third glass of single malt. Jake, the mother in this case, is doing well though he’s obviously a bit tired and definitely needs his rest. Quiet now – you don’t want to wake her…
“In the States the Honda was transformed into the CB550 from the 500 in 1973 and, subsequently, the CB550F in 1974. So the latest derivative in Europe is more than just an upstaged CB500. Having been though its transition period as the CB550 in the States, the bike is just about on the ball and it’s been well worth the wait.
Honda now appear to be designing machines specifically for the European market rather than merely insulting European taste with that sit – up – and – beg riding position that sells so well in the US. It’s a trend we noticed with the CB400 first tested in these pages in July ’75 and which became consolidated in the CB750F, a greatly improved version of four-piper CB750s.
Seating position on both the 400 and the new 750 was good and it’s equally accommodating on the CB550. Footrests sprout just to the rear of the engine and the rider leans slightly forward on to the handlebars raised a couple of inches above the head-stock. The bars are wide enough to afford bags of control through the turns, yet they’re sufficiently narrow to maintain the rider’s body in aerodynamic’ balance for those long motorway bashes.
Honda CB550
I can almost hear the potential customer mulling over the comparisons between the 40 lb lighter and, at the time of writing, £166 cheaper CB400, and the heavier and £250 more expensive CB750, as well as pitching it alongside the GT550 Suzuki.(At the time the British pound was worth roughly 2.5 times the US buck). Yet the CB550 is much more than just an in-betweenie in the Honda range; more than merely a compromise between 750 cc beef and 400 cc cheap thrills. The CB550 provides one of the finest balances between performance, economy and handling quality in today’s motorcycling arena. That may sound like a tribute normally reserved for the two grand-plus machine, but we thoroughly enjoyed the CB550 and consider it to be one of the better bikes to emerge from Honda’s design team in recent years.
At £975, the Honda CB550 is cheap enough to fall within easy HP reach of most bikers and possesses performance that makes you wonder why you ever considered buying the
CB750. We dubbed the CB400 a Poor Boy’s Musclebike; the CB550 is that and more. More weight, more muscle, more torque and more pure motorcycling enjoyment.
Thumbing the starter button on the right of the handlebar induces the crank to revolve and the Honda ticks over with the precision of a quartz wristwatch. Yet such is the efficiency of the fashionable four -into – one exhaust system that it creates a false impression that the 550′s.engine is mechanically noisy.
Round town the Honda felt more like the 750 than its smaller 400 cc brother, yet it was maneuverable and the tractability of second and third gears provided the right combination of acceleration with minimal use of revs. However, continuous subdued start-stop riding showed up a couple of flat spots below 5,000 rpm and with an overly strong throttle return spring I occasionally grabbed more revs than was really necessary. Still, right down to walking pace the machine felt balanced. Even tall dwarves of 5 foot 6 inches can foot their way through the traffic with a seat height of 31 inches.
But it’s out town where the fun really begins. Wind open the throttle to around 5,500 rpm and the Honda begins to come on strong. There’s no power surge, just an enthusiastic urgency about the way the revs climb usefully to 8,500 rpm before power tails off. Revving to the 9,300 rpm red line has little effective value in terms of road speed and merely increases petrol consumption. All the time the exhaust remains quiet and the rider, in helmeted isolation, is barely aware of the high-pitched but heavily muffled scream that inoffensively finds an orchestrated passage through the system. There’s just a faintly perceptible mechanical rustle from the motor to keep the rider company.
Performance is not excessive but at least it’s all usable and it’s available in quantities that will please all but the looniest speed freaks. The Honda nips up to well over 90 mph — VASCAR permitting — at any time of asking and keeps up 70 mph at a leisurely 6,000 rpm in top. Yet if you’re anxious to find that extra 10 to 15 mph on top speed the throttle has to be screwed
viciously and fuel consumption rises in sympathy. When that’s all in aid of knocking a couple of minutes off your ETA the strain seems to be an exercise in pointless-ness. Tramping hard along the M4 unmerci-lessly using revs, the Honda struggled to average 38 mpg. Even with more subdued and realistic riding, petrol consumption only staggered into the low forties. That’s the price of performance, but proved quite acceptable in the Honda’s case.
The frame is basically identical to that used on the CB500, although the front forks have come in for some internal redesigning and the rear suspension units have been uprated and more heftily sprung. The Honda’s performance, sporty appearance and excellent seating position encourage spirited riding, but push the 550 to its limits and you’ll discover that the handling isn’t quite up to the standard it’s led you to expect. Chasing hard into a bend, braking, changing down and peeling into the turn in one swift motion induces a tail-end wiggle which serves as a warning that the CB550 is not, after all, a GP racer. Brake and change down well before you’re into the neck of the bend, accelerate right through it and the Honda drives round just dandy. It’s just a question of tuning your own riding style and abilities to tit the feel, performance and handling of the 550. Once you’ve done that you’ll discover how easy it is to drag the collector box across the blacktop on right-handers, contrasting with the much better ground clearance on the spartan but functionally attractive left side of the bike. Comments on roadholding have to be subjective in this instance since our test machine was shod with a pair of nonstandard Continentals which broke away on several occasions in the dry. Wet weather performance remained untried due to the total lack of rainfall during the test period.
But it’s out town where the fun really begins. Wind open the throttle to around 5,500 rpm and the Honda begins to come on strong. There’s no power surge, just an enthusiastic urgency about the way the revs climb usefully to 8,500 rpm before power tails off. Revving to the 9,300 rpm red line has little effective value in terms of road speed and merely increases petrol consumption. All the time the exhaust remains quiet and the rider, in helmeted isolation, is barely aware of the high-pitched but heavily muffled scream that inoffensively finds an orchestrated passage through the system. There’s just a faintly perceptible mechanical rustle from the motor to keep the rider company.
Performance is not excessive but at least it’s all usable and it’s available in quantities that will please all but the looniest speed freaks. The Honda nips up to well over 90 mph — VASCAR permitting — at any time of asking and keeps up 70 mph at a leisurely 6,000 rpm in top. Yet if you’re anxious to find that extra 10 to 15 mph on top speed the throttle has to be screwed
viciously and fuel consumption rises in sympathy. When that’s all in aid of knocking a couple of minutes off your ETA the strain seems to be an exercise in pointless-ness. Tramping hard along the M4 unmerci-lessly using revs, the Honda struggled to average 38 mpg. Even with more subdued and realistic riding, petrol consumption only staggered into the low forties. That’s the price of performance, but proved quite acceptable in the Honda’s case.
The frame is basically identical to that used on the CB500, although the front forks have come in for some internal redesigning and the rear suspension units have been uprated and more heftily sprung. The Honda’s performance, sporty appearance and excellent seating position encourage spirited riding, but push the 550 to its limits and you’ll discover that the handling isn’t quite up to the standard it’s led you to expect. Chasing hard into a bend, braking, changing down and peeling into the turn in one swift motion induces a tail-end wiggle which serves as a warning that the CB550 is not, after all, a GP racer. Brake and change down well before you’re into the neck of the bend, accelerate right through it and the Honda drives round just dandy. It’s just a question of tuning your own riding style and abilities to tit the feel, performance and handling of the 550. Once you’ve done that you’ll discover how easy it is to drag the collector box across the blacktop on right-handers, contrasting with the much better ground clearance on the spartan but functionally attractive left side of the bike. Comments on roadholding have to be subjective in this instance since our test machine was shod with a pair of nonstandard Continentals which broke away on several occasions in the dry. Wet weather performance remained untried due to the total lack of rainfall during the test period.
Honda CB550
The brakes have evidently been set up to suit the machine’s bulk and potential performance. Grabbing a fistful of the 11 inch front disc from any speed left it fade- and grab-free, and the rear drum brake just helps keep things in a straight line when you begin to stand the 550 on its front wheel.
Exterior dimensions of the 550 motor are identical to those of the CB500 but internally there have been many modifications. The clutch and gearbox have come in for some particularly extensive revision. The engine was hogged out by 2.5 mm per bore raising the capacity to 544 cc. and max torque output moved 500 rpm down the scale to 8.500 rpm.
Numerous styling changes have given the CBS50 a fresh, polished image. Its reshaped petrol tank now holds 3.7 gals and the toolkit is housed on the underside of the seat. Out front there’s a large twin-dial setup of speedometer and rev-counter, with an idiot light console neatly tailored to go in between them. The 550 shows its American connection only in the tiller cap, which in bath-plug style is chained to the inside of the tank, and in the flap which hides the whole caboodle.
We tried to find serious fault with the 550 and failed simply because it’s a competently designed motorcycle. Okay, so maybe the seat is an ass-deadener after 100 miles, and the rider is always aware of a high frequency buzz too fine to be called vibration, but nevertheless noticeable. But apart from the bleeping turn indicators the CB550 is not plagued with gimmicks. The styling is clean, even subdued, available only in just blue or orange. No flashes, no stripes, no unnecessary fuss.
The CB550 is an enjoyable motorcycle to ride because it’s so “together”: each facet of its design complementing the next. In the same way that the RD400 is the optimal development of the road-going two-stroke, we reckon the CB550 enjoys similar status in the four-cylinder four-stroke market, at least in the sub-900 cc category.”
It’s not easy to make a Honda CB750 custom stand out these days. Even if it’s a big money bike. But this budget build by Canadian Mike Salek caught my eye. Salek began riding bikes at the age of 10, and was starting to feel jaded. “After several years of riding canyon roads and doing track days, I decided I wasn’t going to buy a new mass-produced bike every two years. I started buying bikes that were ‘different’, and a CB750 was always on that list.”
After working his way through a Ducati 999R, a Honda RC51 and a Ducati Monster 1000s i.e., Mike decided he was ready for a vintage classic. “I always loved the Japanese ‘Brat style’ and the things the Wrenchmonkees were doing,” he says. “While digging through Bike EXIF a couple of years ago, I read about a guy who built a bobber on a very tight budget and with very little experience. Nothing fancy or polished, just a raw, cool, badass bike. So I figured, why can’t I do that?”
Honda CB750 custom
Honda CB750 custom
It took Mike two years to find a decent CB750, locating this 1975 model at a wreckers. The bike had been sitting in a barn for the last 12 years, but it ran great—despite most components being rusted out. “The day I got it home I started taking the Honda CB750 custom apart and ordering parts. It was done on a strict budget of $3,000, including the bike. Which was a challenge, but I wanted to see if it was possible to build something cool on a minimal budget.”
Honda CB750 custom
Mike wanted theHonda CB750 custom to have the proper stance and patina, and sacrificed everything for those two aspects. So he lowered his CB750 about three inches, and sat it on 4.00” x 19” (front) and 4.50” x 18” (rear) Firestones. The 4” headlight, wheels, triples and shocks were all sprayed or powdercoated black. Then Mike fitted a gold chain, a CRG bar end mirror, and cut the OEM pipes short.
He fabricated a new seat pan and seat, and custom-made the rear frame section to suit. But the paint and side covers are ‘as found’, with a simple polish to show off the original patina. “This Honda CB750 custom has been more fun to ride then any other bike I have owned,” says Mike. “Just looking at it makes me smile.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike Less Goldwing, more old win
Now this might polarise some of you reader types out there, but rat bikes really push our buttons. There’s just something so amazing about a bike with its original pretenses of polish, prettiness and good looks stripped away to reveal the beautiful ferrous reality of all that metal, rubber, benzene and greased-out muck – like some subterranean-dwelling Nordic earth god has summoned the elemental forces at his disposal to create a means of transport that will simultaneously anger the other gods with its brutality and make them so green with envy they are likely to smite us humans just to relieve their frustrations. This bike does just that. Feast your puny, mortal peepers on Paul Dutra’s supernaturally cool Honda Goldwing Rat, “El Guapo”.
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
Call us arty, but that’s one hell of an autumnal palette. The leaves aren’t too bad, either
Paul’s turn. “It all started when a good friend of mine from www.DoTheTon.com mentioned my name to a local magazine editor (Glen @ Mojo Magazine). Glen asked him if he knew anyone that was willing to take on a project bike. Tom Moreau who is a subscriber to Mojo Mag, had owned the bike since 1976. He had just bought a brand new Harley bagger and after having the Wing for so many years and putting over 40,000 miles on it, did not want to see it go to scrap. Tom asked Glen if he could scout someone who was willing to revive the bike and get a few more years of enjoyment out of it. After I met Tom, I showed him some photos of previous bikes I had built which he admired. At that point, he was sure the bike was going to a good home, so off to the airplane hangar we went where Tom kept his little plane stored, along with his… Goldwing ”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
“It had a full fairing and Krauser bags and was all decked out with fog lights and extra brake lights”
“The stock Goldwing had a full Vetter fairing and Krauser bags and trunk, it was all decked out with fog lights and extra brake lights. He had taken very good care of the bike and had a surplus of spare oil filters and plugs, he even gave me a period correct Honda sync gauge set in its original box. I managed to take the bags and fairing off, then I lowered the forks through the trees and stuffed it all into a very short Dodge Caravan… all in the middle of winter… outside the hanger. After dragging the rear bumper of the van the whole drive home, the Wing sat for a couple of months while I caught up on a few other bikes. I then realized I only had a few weeks to build the bike for a solo trip I take every year with a project bike. Last year’s bike was my ‘80 CB750 Cafe Dragster (you can see it on www.backalleymotorcycle.com), where I left Toronto and headed East with no plans… but ended up riding through Sturgis, Vegas, LA, Bonneville, and back to Toronto… in two and a half weeks. This year’s trip was unfortunately gonna be shorter but LA was still in the books. When I was there last year, the SO-CAL Norton Group invited me back for their annual Prince of Darkness ride which I happened to attend… but didn’t plan. I took them up on the offer and made it my goal to have the Wing ready for my annual summer trip back to LA.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
“The Wing was on the chopping block and the plan was to lace up some pretty 18” wheels, chrome the hubs and rims, a bling’n candy metal flake paint, and lots of chrome bits here and there. Turns out I didn’t have the budget for all that bling this year so I went in the complete opposite direction and made it a Rat Cafe… lol. If you didn’t already know, the tank isn’t really a tank on a Wing, it’s an air box and glove box which leaves a gaping hole in the frame and no traditional back bone. The original tank is under the seat which is lower than the carbs so Honda designed a mechanical fuel pump to get the fuel up to the carbs. This design made for a really interesting build as there are no tanks on the planet that would fit the wing frame as it had no backbone to try different tanks on. I was definitely trying to get rid of the tank under the seat because of the” Cafe Racer” look I was going for, so narrowing of the rear frame was a necessity. After chopping out the original frame section and making a traditional back bone, I still couldn’t get any of my “Cafe” style tanks to fit the still unique frame. I tried a CX, CB500T, CB360, an early CB750, a late CB750F tank and the only one I could see fitting was a rusty old tank I paid $5 for years ago that I found in the back of a mechanics shop in Toronto that had been sitting outside for over 15years, it was off a KZ550.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
“Now that I had decided on the tank, it was time to move onto the rear frame. I chopped, chopped and chopped until there was no sub frame so I started bending tube and fitting different angles and bends looking for the right tail. I wanted to lower the bike, so I went with 11.5” shocks for the rear and that set me up for the ride height I was looking for. Hammering out the rear cowl over the new tube’d rear section out of 3/16” plate, I made it in 3 pieces and welded it all up. Lowered the front forks through the trees to mount up the Tomesselli clip-on’s to the uppers. I had some help from Tim Aysan from DoTheTon and my home boy Vinnie, they came by to help me with some of the wiring so we can get it out for bike night one Thursday night and we managed to get it fired up somewhere around midnight so we didn’t get much riding in.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
Patina, patina, patina
“I figured I should go over the bike a little better since I only had a couple of days left before heading out on my trip to LA. I went for a quick boot and noticed some rubbing from the weight of the bike on the 11” shocks so I ended up ordering a set of eye to eye progressive spring rate shocks the same length as the eye to clevis but had to rework them a little. Turns out the shocks were on back order and were due to arrive the day I was scheduled to leave.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
“I went into the shop on the Monday, the day I was leaving, and reworked the shocks to fit the bike (cut off eye, weld on clevis) and not having any more than an hour of ride time on the new set up, I headed out with my backpack to the west coast and made it there and back in 9 days.”
1975 Honda Goldwing Rat Bike
More shades of brown than an explosion at a shoe polish factory
While we were talking to Paul about the bike, he called the process of creating what you see here as an “un-build”. That really stuck with us. The idea of finding an old bike and not taking the chaos and age as a bad thing – not seeing all that history and character as something to be removed or fixed but instead as a starting point to bigger, better and grungier things strikes us as a pretty cool way to see things. The Norse gods would be proud.
1976 Honda XLS 125 Dirt 
Won’t
The brakes have evidently been set up to suit the machine’s bulk and potential performance. Grabbing a fistful of the 11 inch front disc from any speed left it fade- and grab-free, and the rear drum brake just helps keep things in a straight line when you begin to stand the 550 on its front wheel.
”
