Honda Rebel 300 Cafe Racer by Zeus Custom

In November 2016, Honda introduced the all new Honda Rebel as the successor of the 80s 250 and 450cc Rebel. It’s a low budget cruiser that’s available as a Rebel 500 with a 471cc liquid-cooled parallel twin and as Rebel 300 with a liquid-cooled 286cc single cylinder. The latter was the bike of choice for Zeus Custom to turn into this small but good looking Honda Rebel 300 cafe racer. The Thailand-based workshop was pretty clear when they started the project: ditch that bobber identity and give it the “Zeus look”. This rebellish action gave it the straightforward name “Rebel Racer Limited”.

And they were pretty serious about this project and aimed for the very best. Most challenging with a cruiser serving as base bike is to change the overall stance. The original lines and riding position are laid back with a low seat, high gas tank, and handlebar. To get the desired cafe racer line, they’ve lowered the front forks a little bit, placed clip-ons, modified the gas tank incl. mount and created a complete new subframe. This new subframe perfectly suits the straight line. Next to that, the twin shock setup is upgraded to a monoshock to improve the handling and make the rear look cleaner. The shock comes from Öhlins. The new subframe got an integrated tail light and indicators and, of course, a new custom leather seat which also covers the battery.

As you may expect, the electronic system is upgraded with a Motogadget M-unit that accommodates m-blaze disc indicators (bar-end LED flashers). The beautiful 17″ laced wheels are built from scratch and to give the bike a more aggressive look they’ve used Heinena K60 semi-knobbed tires. All the other details on this bike are incredible, a short list: custom CNC machine triple tree, custom rear sets, custom grips, Monza gas cap, leather motorcycle tool kit rolls, and of course that beautiful leather strap over the gas tank.

To get the very best orchestra out of the punchy single they’ve created a custom “Zeus Custom 1960” straight drag pipe. She may be small, but she sounds like a beast!