Noli Coronado is not only a silversmith for Lucky Monkey in Manilla but is also a passionate bike builder. He likes to build sculptures that have wheels and engines. Like this one-of-a-kind board tracker cross bobber he built for Ron Poe of P&P tattoo. Ron is the son of legendary Filipino actor Fernando Poe Jr. Fernando Poe’s most famous role was of Panday (blacksmith in Filipino) in the movie Ang Panday. He played a blacksmith named flavio who made his own swords and fought evil foes. Dante from Lucky Monkey tells us "The build started out as a CB550f from the 70’s complete with raked out neck and flamed tank. The bike features a girder front end, rigid frame painted in rust inspired by pandays costume. Flourishes using brass and other found objects such as wrenches were integrated into the build. The bike also contains Agimats which are Filipino brass amulets which hold magical properties that protect the rider". This is one of the most unique and original builds we have seen in a while, almost as crazy as Noli's previous Kawasaki KZ750 project. 

This CB550 has been lighting up the switchboard on the SOHC4 forum for the past month. The bike was fastidiously built by a guy from Portland who goes by the forum name Paulages. Paul said on the forum that "When i originally built my CB550, the engine was simply cleaned up and painted, and all bearings and bushings replaced, etc. then, I eventually built the 718cc powerplant, and found that the rest of the bike wasn't quite what the engine needed". He not only did the big bore himself, turning the stock 550cc engine into a 718cc but he also did all the welding - strengthening the old Honda frame. Paul has done an outstanding job restoring this beautiful CB550 and we particularly love the bare metal tank and pin striping. Here's just a taste of some of the specs: 1979 ducati 900SS tank and half fairing, K&N intake filters, tarrozzi rearsets, 14" progressive rear suspension, race tech cartridge emulators in forks and loads more. He goes into amazing detail on all aspects of the build so make sure you read his SOHC4 thread.
[Thanks Coop for the tip]

This beautifully restored 1976 Honda CB550F Super Sport sat unfinished, perfectly stored in a garage for 12 years before Larry Pearson convinced the owner to part with it. The previous owner, a very talented machinist had already done some work on the vintage road racer. Like a perfect era-correct Kerker exhaust, laid down rear shocks and made almost all of the beautiful aluminum engine covers, the rear sets, the ventilated rear brake hub, the fork brace, clip-ons, muffler hanger and more. Then Larry built the tail section from scratch using the gas tank's rear half as a mold (genius). He also made the seat, built all the mounts for the fairing and then painted it to his picture perfect standard. It appeared in Cycle World as the "American Flyer" (Aug. '04) and more recently it took second place in it's class at the '08 Legend of the Motorcycle (1/2 point out of first place). We love this Honda CB Cafe Racer and we look forward to sharing Larry's next project with you. [If you have a project for Larry contact us and we will give you his details]

One of our favourite forums is the SOHC4 forum. They always have the most amazing Cafe Racers being posted by their members. Like this spectacular yellow 1976 Honda CB550 by Chris from New Jersey. He purchased the original bike for only $600 and has turned it into one of the sweetest cafe racers we have seen this year. We are definitely bias to the Benjies style of cafe racer. The tank, seat and paint job are absolutely perfect. Hit the jump to see Chris's build pics and more details about this beast.