Think of a custom Honda and it’s invariably a CB. I don’t think I’ve seen any Rebel customs before, and I certainly haven’t seen a Rebel bobber. But this little machine, nicknamed ‘Rocky’ by owner Jason Wolske, looks sweet. And even better, he’s catalogued the whole build on a Tumblr blog, along with excellent photography. When Justin bought his bone-stock 1985 Honda Rebel CMX250, it turned out to have no compression in one cylinder. So he bought a replacement engine for the princely sum of $350 (including shipping!) and started work. This included struts to turn the bike into a rigid, a solo seat, a velocity stack and K&N filter, a white-faced speedometer and drag bars with new grips. Relatively simple and cheap modifications, but ones that presented a few unforseen problems along the way. Jason reports that Rocky has a new owner now: “I put her on Craigslist and in under 24 hours she was gone. Craziness. Anyway, on to the next project. I learned a whole lot about bikes, that’s the whole reason I bought the bike to begin with.” [Spotted on Vanishing Point.]
Nikon D300 | 1/800s | f/1.4 | ISO 320 | Focal length 50mm
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19 Comments
People don’t customize Rebels since they just use those cycles as learners on their way to buying an 883 and up Sportster then sell the Rebel to another short woman or man to use to learn to ride on…
Basically most people cannot understand customizing a motorcycle unless the parts are in the Harley Davidson catalog or from the Harley Davidson dealer…
Kudos on this custom!!!
Awesomeness. Great when someone does what they want to their bike, makes it their own. My own bike has been through several different customizations… in my mind. great to see someone have the stones to do it.
Zipties on the license plate? BLASPHEMY! Just kidding, love this bike! What did you do to tint the headlamp?
Just goes to show ya – you can customize any bike, but the difficult task is creating a custom that looks cool, tasteful and is functional, which IMO he has accomplished very nicely.
My kudos too.
…must be east coast “iron horse”……..one white wall……???
Nice custom build. For a first build bike, this has a lot of impact. Again big respect to the builder and really looking forward to what else happens in the future.
Wow. Interestingly enough BikeExif has featured more highly modified bikes before but this gentle modification and bang for buck bike is in my favourites on this site. Three thumbsup for bringing this bike to my attention.
It is a nice change from all the Cafe bikes and Triumph parallel twin bobbers that have been built lately.
Beauty. Clean, simple lines.
People dont built these becuase at the end of the day when you look in the garage you still have just a honda rebel.
Oh sure, it looks cool, right up until your buddies see you riding it …
Honda Rebel: slowest. thing. on. earth. That said, the pictures are great, I am a lil disappointed it hasnt been hardtailed the traditional way. im sure its still fun to putt around in though…
Nice! Been hacking at a 250 nighthawk myself; just trying to make it look how I think it should, and lighten it up the best I can.
Little customs are super-awesome, and this rebel is no exception.
As for the 250′s being slow, altering the final drive from 14/33 to 12/38 sure makes the little turds damn snappy around town – they were never much fun on the freeway, but they sure can be a blast terrorizing the neighborhood!
I like the French look given by the yellow headlamp and you got to love the one wheel white wall
just wanna know were he got this awsome key!!!
(the bike is great too)
Yea, the bolt on hardtail bars and ultra-thin fender struts aren’t screaming cool but it’s a sweet build anyway. I’ve seen a couple slick Rebel set-ups lately. Here’s a really sharp project with a nice bit of engineering behind it:
http://www.chopcult.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2706
any idea if this guy has a blog for his new project?
We want to see it!
Hello, very nice work!!! i have read your blog and follow you work!! i like so much the final style!
i have a Honda Rebel 450, and i want start to customization too!! i can ask you where you buy your seat?? and i stil dont have find a speedometer compatible like your new one…where you find it????? sure match 100% compatible?
Yo there fellas, this bike was my build. Thanks to Bike EXIF for sharing it with more people. A few comments from me …
People can knock on Rebels being slow and small and blah blah, but they’re also cheap and fun. So, that being said – this was a perfect bike to build for someone who has never really modified a bike before. I’ve owned also owned ’81 Passport and an ’01 CBR600 F4i. I enjoyed riding them both the same amount. Didn’t matter if I was going 20 or 120 mph on it.
I never had a “buddy” or anyone else say anything negative about the bike when they saw it in person. As a matter of fact, every time I stopped next to another bike or parked in a lot where there were other bikes, I got nothing but thumbs up or 100 questions about it. And in the end, that’s one of the major reasons you build a custom bike.
The tie wraps were holding the plate on ONLY because the brake light/plate holder hadn’t arrive yet. I welded it to the left strut and it looked dope when it was on there. Sold the bike the next day though.
Emmet –
It’s Laminx yellow light film.
http://www.lamin-x.com/One-Universal-7×8-Fog-Cover-p/1-78.htm
GUi –
I got the key from these guys, but I don’t see it on their site anymore. http://www.sebastiansilversmiths.com/
Andrea Lazzarotti –
I ordered the solo seat from ebay and made the bracket myself. It was pretty cheap. The speedo is by Drag Specialties. It was around $90. I’m not sure if a Rebel 450 has the same speedometer drive ratio though.
As for my new build, it’s actually a scooter – a 2007 Honda Ruckus. While they’re not so fast at all, they can be customized to look really cool and with a motor swap, can get going around 65-70.
I’m doing the whole motor swap and the bike is almost ready for paint now. Once this project is done, I’ll most likely be on to something else.
http://2007ruckusbuild.tumblr.com
Thanks again for the compliments and other shared words.