Larry Pearson is no newcomer to the pages of Pipeburn. First we featured his beautiful CB550, then his Wes Cooley GS1000S (which is about to appear in Cycle World) and now this striking Honda XL250. "A co-worker of mine had this dilapidated '72 Honda XL250 that he used as a woods bike for 20 years" said Larry. "He stripped it down, put a set of knobby tires on it and just rode it occasionally. It had been bored out to a 305cc and a mild cam installed by a previous owner." For whatever reason it sat outside for about 5 years unused, until it was offered to Larry for free – just to see if he could do something with it. "I didn't really have any need for a dirt bike, but when he told me about the engine and how well it ran, I went over for a look. Even after sitting outside for all those years, and with bad gas in the tank, it fired right up after about 5 kicks!." Larry decided to haul it home. It was in terrible shape, with rust everywhere, dented tank, broken fenders, bent exhaust and anything else you can think of. Wondering what to do, Larry came up with the idea to make a retro motard. 

First thing Larry did was get the XL250 in mechanical order. "All the engine really needed was a new head gasket and a complete tune and service" recalls Larry. "I also went through the carb. All the seals and bearings were replaced in the frame, and a mid 70's Honda CB500 front end sourced on eBay. With minor modification to the steering head, it bolted right on, lowering the front of the bike 3 inches... perfect. I also wanted a disk brake. The exhaust was hand made from an '83 Honda CB1100F header pipe as a starting point with an old rusty aftermarket muffler that I cut up, sandblasted, installed a baffle in, and then bent to fit. When it came time for the body pieces, everything stock XL was tossed except the gas tank. I bought a shell of a fiberglass tail section for a Matchless from Airtech, then proceeded to make it fit the XL frame. Blisters were formed to fit over the Honda CR250 rear shocks, the seat pan was extended three inches to meet the tank, and a hole was formed and shaped to accept a cut-down Huyabusa tail light assembly. The front fender is the stock Honda CB500 fender, sectioned 6 inches and welded back together again then sandblasted and painted. The wheels are stock Honda. The rear is the XL's 18" and the front is the CB's 19", sandblasted and painted satin black."

Larry's business is Meticulous Motorcycle Painting, so when it was time to paint he wanted to show some of his skills. "I love scallop paint, and I thought that would look cool on this bike, so that's what I did. It's champagne with red scallops, pin striped in black. The engine was carefully sanded and prepped then painted. The seat was shaped starting with the stock XL foam. It's a love it or hate it sorta thing, but I wanted it to flow with the lines of the tank and tail section."

The bike was built on and off by Larry over the course of 2 years – and he is obviously proud of his creation. "I love the way it turned out, and it's a total blast to ride! Can't weigh much more than 250 lbs, handles great, tons of torque, and stops on a dime with the disk brake. I've seen people at shows walk right by $60,000 choppers to get to the XL... that feels good." 

This super clean and lean 'Brat Styled' CB400 was built by Jared Johnson and Joe Carlino from the newly formed Holiday Customs. The project started when Joe purchased a beat up old 1975 Honda CB400. After stripping the bike down to the frame they then painted everything black. Joe found a tank off an old Suzuki 125 and had to pound out the inside so it would fit. The velocity stacks were found NOS in a box from the 70's and Jared came up with the idea to have them stick up to add a little flair. The bike is actually for sale, so if you live in the Portland area and are interested in buying this CB400, you can email the guys on holidaycustoms@yahoo.com (unfortunately they don't have a website up and running yet).

There will be many die-hard Honda enthusiasts who might think taking a mint condition 1971 CB450 and turning it into a Gravel Crew inspired bobber is sacrilegious. I for one, am not one of those people. 
After riding for 10 years, Scott Halbleib came across a group of vintage riders who were members of Louisville Vintage Motorworks. After falling in love with their retro bikes he decided to search for a vintage ride of his own. "I also started searching the internet to get ideas of what i wanted to do to it. Gravel Crew WAS the inspiration. After looking through their bikes I settled on a Honda 500 they had done" Scott says. "I located a CB450 in mint condition 4 hours away, and off I went. Brought it back, put a couple hundred miles on it, and then one night after a few High Life's decided to start tearing it down. It wasn't an easy decision but the process had begun. The first and largest task was going to be the tank. I had seen Benjie's (BCR) work and decided to see if he'd be willing to help. He agreed to the job! I sent photos of what I wanted with little modifications here and there. Benjie created the tank and exhaust plus I used one of his headlight bucket mounts. Next were the wheels/tires. It took a while but I finally sourced the tires, and a friend recommended I contact Woody's Wheel Works to build the wheels. I supplied the tire info and sent the stock hubs, and they powdercoated, laced and mounted the finish product - twice - turns out I could no longer use a disc up front, so off to Ebay for a drum that would work, and, repeat process. I grinded the passenger peg mounts off the frame, chopped the rear fender, fabbed some straight bars, a license plate bracket and old Ford tailight. Then I took everything I had to Kwik Blast for final fab, paint and assembly. 8 months later, she returned, almost done and 3 days before 2 bike shows. A friend from the club who was luckily unemployed spent 10-12 hours a day all 3 days reworking fuel lines, reworking the electrical and tweaking the carbs." The bike was finished on a Friday at 10pm and at its first show the following day it won best rocker and best in show at Mods vs. Rockers. It also went on to win best Japanese bike at the Beatersville Show. Scott would like to thank all the people involved in helping him build his masterpiece. You can check out more pics of this stunning bobber on Scott's microsite. [Thanks Benjie]

Luca Bar is a young Italian designer who caused a stir on many motorcycle websites around the world with his impressive concept designs. We particularly loved his Moto Guzzi S4 redesign and his Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Sport. This time, Luca has sent us some pictures of his 1986 Honda CB450S fresh from a total restoration. "The bike has been totally disassembled, cleaned, repainted and updated" Luca tells us. "New springs on the forks, back shocks from a Bonneville Scrambler, shorter final gear to get a bit more push from the small engine and many other details". The CB450S has a nice story, it belonged to the father of a friend of Luca's for many years (92000km), but he eventually ran it into the ground. "He wanted to trash it because it was worth nothing and due to the strict environmental laws it couldn't go downtown, I decided to pay him the property change fee and get it in my garage. So I stripped down the bike and began looking for components over the net. The biggest trouble was finding the engine gaskets, finally we understood that the bike is a French unit and that French CB450S had a different engine shape...hard to believe but it is. I changed almost all the replaceable parts. It has new springs on the forks, rear shocks from a Bonneville, new brakes (next step will be new brake metal net lines) new seat cover, new paint, mirrors, blinkers, handle bar, shorter final gear to get a bit more push from the small engine and many other details". After 10 months of hard work Luca has turn this CB450S – which could have easily become scrap metal – into a simple but stunning bike to be proud of.