Up until recently Steel Bent Customs in Tampa, Florida, have been turning out super-clean, super-slim super-middleweight customs brats, with the odd cafe and scrambler thrown in, but with a growing appetite for small capacity customs it’s good to see Michale Mundy and his team join the fray with this newest build, a 1990 Honda CB125″TT”
The donor came from Hudson in Florida, where the owner had the bike strapped to the back of his RV. What appealed to the guys at SBC was the twin cylinder, monoshock setup of the bike, which is a bit different from the usual 125cc platform, and gave the opportunity to build something super clean and symmetrical – which fits the SteelBent style perfectly.
Very few of these bikes were built, and they were used as training bikes, which they issued to training centres and colleges to teach people basic riding and maintenance skills. The bikes were equipped with two separate wiring harnesses – with a set of five large different colored lights both front & back – to allow the trainer to remotely know what gear the bike was in, when the clutch or brakes, etc, were engaged.
“It was only after we were well into the build we realized the impossibility of locating parts. We started with the frame by cutting the rear off & reworking the rear to allow the sexiness of the mono shock setup & carbs to shine. We had Buchanan’s build us customs stainless steel spokes, had ProFab powder coat the frame, Lances upholstered the seat, and Craig Paints did our paint job. Clip on bars, rear set controls, taillight was set up under the frame, and we used her stock headers & Cone Engineering silencers.”
The build is dedicated to the late Ryan Shaw. “He was the genius behind Hangar Cycle Works. Ryan was taken too early by a careless driver just a few short months ago. The end of last year, a few of us were sitting around with Ryan drinking beers & the idea of doing a local small cc build-off, and judge our own builds at this years November Scorpio Show here in. St. Petersburg Florida. Ryan is missed by so many and there isn’t too many days that pass that we don’t miss his larger than life personality. We named this build after him the RS build.”
It’s a sad note to end on, so be cheered-up by the fact that his input triggered a beautiful build that we can all enjoy as a celebration of a guy who is clearly very much missed by the scene…
Thanks to Michael and Co for for sharing their work with us. See more from Steel Bent Customs on their Website and on The Bike Shed’s Steel Bent Customs pages.
via the bike shed
