Cafe Royalty: Shawn’s Honda H’ness CB350 Cafe Racer

Once I was a child I assumed being a recreation designer can be simply as cool, and even perhaps cooler, than being an astronaut. Throughout my childhood, I witnessed the discharge of the Atari 2600, Sega Megadrive, Tremendous Nintendo and the primary Sony Ps. I spent numerous hours with pals mashing buttons and watching pixelated screens taking part in no matter newest launch video games we’d managed to get our palms on. I purchased magazines that teased new releases and shared hints on learn how to full difficult levels and I’d draw recreation characters on my notepad at school once I ought to have been studying. Finally, the concept of designing video games gave solution to my obsession with driving, constructing and writing about bikes.

Regardless of now not being obsessive about gaming, I used to be moderately enamoured by the lifetime of our newest featured builder, Shawn from Taiwan. It is because Shawn has managed to mix a profession as an idea artist within the gaming business together with his love of {custom} bikes. And the results of this amalgamation is a really clear, well-executed Honda cafe racer.

“I’m a 2D digital idea artist and I like something associated to retro bikes,” says Shawn. “I don’t have any expertise with constructing bikes, however essentially the most fascinating factor is that the expertise of designing autos in video games has enormously helped me to design my very own bike.”

Shawn’s bike is a late-model Honda CB350. Honda coined this retro re-release the H’ness (Highness) as a reference to the mannequin’s royal breeding (sure, it’s that lame). Honda launched the H’ness CB350 in 2020 to restricted worldwide markets the place small-capacity bikes outnumber larger ones. The brand new CB350 is powered by a 348cc parallel twin that places out 20.7hp. The chassis makes use of a double cradle design and the bike is obtainable in a variety of basic CB-inspired paint schemes. The little CB additionally advantages from trendy elements like ABS, disc brakes, LED lighting and Bluetooth connectivity.

The styling of the H’ness CB350 is undeniably retro however some have complained that it bares a more in-depth resemblance to later mannequin CBs than the unique early seventies design. Shawn shared that sentiment so utilizing his design expertise, he determined to do one thing about it.

“I owned the inventory CB350 for about 1 yr and the challenge has been progressive from the start,” he says. “I started by ‘photobashing’ to check out numerous design concepts I had previous to engaged on the bike. This was to ensure that the brand new elements match completely.”

Shawn’s idea was to merge components from the British cafe racer scene with classic Japanese motorbike model. Beginning with the gas tank it’s been resprayed black and completed with Norton Commando-styled white and gold pinstripes. He then changed the inventory badges with basic Honda winged emblems. For a sportier manner, he’s added a wasps tail hump that covers the rear half of the inventory seat. It’s been completed utilizing an identical paint scheme to tie every part collectively and will be simply eliminated for 2-up driving.

The massive chrome fenders and retro-look shocks come normal on the H’ness CB350. So as to add a bit extra bling, Shawn had the aspect covers chromed and partially stripped the wheels again to reveal aluminium. That trick LED headlight, retro LED flip alerts and brake gentle are all inventory too. Shawn opted to go away them untouched however to amp up the cafe racer vibe, he’s swapped the inventory handlebars for a set of clip-ons.

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“I designed 4 kinds of completely different exhaust programs and used them to speak the idea with my fabricator. It was very useful to visualise the design of the exhaust pipe as an alternative of simply imagining it.”

Shawn’s design for the brand new exhaust was based mostly loosely on the unique CB750 4-into-4 system. The duty of putting in it proved to be essentially the most difficult modification thus far because the custom-made mufflers needed to match onto the double-walled inventory header pipe. With the assistance of his fabricator, the 1-into-2 system was constructed to manufacturing unit ranges of match and end and each pipes are totally useful.

In regard to efficiency, the exhaust is the one change Shawn’s made to date. Nevertheless, aesthetically the engine now wears ribbed clutch and inspection covers to additional customise the bike’s look. He additionally plans to hop issues up within the dealing with division quickly together with his coronary heart set on upgrading the rear shocks and brakes.

Shawn tells us that his {custom} H’ness CB350 will proceed to evolve over time. He could also be a noob relating to constructing bikes, but when the work he’s executed to date is any indication of how the bike will look completed we’re assured it’ll be top-shelf.

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