Honda CB550 SL Custom by Unikat

Grzegorz Korczak from Poland is the owner of Unikat and he builds custom motorcycles on behalf of his customers. The owner of this Honda CB550, Pascal, a Frenchmen who now lives in Poland, had a clear description: build me a café racer and use some of the leather of an old Mercedes SL300. So he did…!

Grzegorz is a well known visual artist and has a great eye for detail. His designs always start in the digital world and then starts working on them by hand. The results are amazing, considering a respectable list of builds on his website. This Honda CB550 SL is his latest project:

Honda CB550 SL was inspired by the iconic Mercedes 300 SL (Sport Leicht). The Unikat team aimed at redesigning and adding a racing touch of the classical cafe racer look of the 1970s.

First of all, weight was reduced by generous 30 kg. At the first glimpse one can notice the modified subframe, smaller seat and change of motorcyclist’s position. Unikat has left the best of the classic intact and added a luxurious finish and modern technology, an example of which is the world’s lightest and smallest Shorai battery.

The motorcycle from 1978 has undergone a complete retrofit – it has been dismantled into pieces. Every aluminium element has been sandblasted and/or hand polished. All steel elements are chrome-plated. Not to even mention the replacement of suspension and valve timing, honing, grinding and other technical works.

The exhaust pipe and air filter where designed personally by Grzegorz and hand-manufactured from stainless steel. Paintwork was performed by an acclaimed specialist, whereupon the motorcycle was glass-coated with a Pika Pika Rain.

Whenever it was possible, top-quality accessories were installed: a BAAK lamp with an in-built electronic Motogadget speedometer, Raacks sport sets, aluminium rear views with LED blinkers, hand-crafted clip-ons, Avon tyres…

In order to improve the security, a second brake disc was added to the front, as well as conduits in steel cord.

Lever and seat leather has a coloured patented by Mercedes and used in its SL model. Unikat has obtained it as a gift from the owner of a Paris workshop renovating these iconic vehicles.

To sum up, the works on this CB550 SL lasted for over 4 months and engaged 18 people, as well as many specialized companies. The visual effect can be admired on photos, but the experience from the ride and sound generated by four independent silencers cannot be described in words!

PS. Grzegorz wanted to leave the branding on the images to get some more brand awareness! So take a look:

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