1986 Rebel 450

Bobber mod. w/ new top end. More pics:
http://s267.photobucket.com/albums/ii305/mrw88/1986%20Rebel%20450/




if you start taking parts off then put them in a box until you know you won't use them again. It's hard to find these parts again.

The pipes are both on the right side.

Dec 09...
man, if I had know more than ten people in the world might have cared about this bike I would have made a better video. It was my buddy Luis's first bike and the second bike I ever worked on so we were complete amateurs. Neither one of us had any experience. It was like "How do we get the carb off?" I couldn't even get the seat off! That's why I don't give much more information or answer any questions.
It was a bike that should have gone to the dump it was in such bad condition. It had a stack of tickets on it and hadn't been run for months left in the rain in Los Angeles. We just wanted a project to give us an excuse to drink some beer and eat tacos. My buddy had no car and was taking the bus. All I had was my little motorcycle. Two blocks from work he saw this beat up Rebel 450. Unregistered. Cobwebs. leaking oil. flat tires. It had to be started with a box end wrench shorting the starter relay terminals. I mean, you couldn't give me this bike today because I would know what it would take to make it usable again. And neither of us had any money! So it's basically like he had $250 to start with, I had a garage and some tools and we would just figure it out as we went. I mean, if we could find an Indian or a Norton for $250 then we would have bought it. Believe me. But this was the only thing we looked at and the only thing he could afford.
After a few weeks I seriously wanted him to trash it because all the rocker arm bolts had rusted to the engine. And oil poured out of the breather hose. It was a total disaster and everything was breaking. The aluminum threads all stripped from the engine. You know how much heli coil sets cost and how much work it is to drill holes in the engine to oversize the bolt holes? I do. If I work on bikes a hundred years I probably won't have a cam chain tension bar break into pieces and fall into the engine cavity again. Getting the clutch nut off took two days and it turned out someone had installed the clutch pads wrong.
What you see here is just the point where it was safe to drive again after months or work. The clutch was still giving us trouble. All the design credits go to Luis, the rider/owner. He picked out the T bars and conceived the plastic rear fender and eventually stripped the tank and painted it along with wrapping the pipes. We had no idea that the 450 rebel was only made for two years. It sounded good compared to race bikes but we had nothing to compare it to. Luis was getting his neighbors all pissed at him. The thing would wake up the entire block!
The only work we didn't do was bore out the cylinders. That was done by a great machine shop on Washington Blvd. IT was Kelly's machine shop
Address: 12910 W WASHINGTON BLVD
City: LOS ANGELES, CA
Zip Code: 90066

We aren't the ones to give advice. Really. Get the bars you like. There are thousands to choose from. Luis liked these bars but I like ape hangers. He liked the low plank seat and I hated it. It was his bike and I was afraid to drive it down the street while he drove it 90mph on the 10 freeway with that awful skid lid that was like a toy you get at Kmart. No coat. No gloves. His sunglasses flew off his face! Blankets flapping in the wind strapped on the front. He wasn't a lunatic but it was the way he liked it. Really, if there are any people under the age of 75 who want to ride motorcycles I have to caution you against this kind of look. It's fine if you are the Terminator but this is just crazy to ride like this in Los Angeles. He was a smooth cat and didn't need any image help to pick up girls. I begged him to keep the passenger seat and he said it was a solo bike. "How are you going to give a girl a ride?" I asked. "It's a solo bike, man," That's all he said and I sold the passenger seat.
Unless you are going to a show or a rally then safety is way better. I don't totally understand flaming an old Honda that was all we could afford but not one person comments on his lack of protective gear?
It was a challenging project and it turned out good enough to ride and we learned some stuff in the process. 450 Rebels are rare and me and Luis put this one back in action. It's out there somewhere. Luis had to pay for a truck so he sold it to someone in the Bay Area. We're both looking for different bikes now and I'll be sure to make some good videos and post them up here next time. Until then...
Ride safe.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• cmx
• 450
• honda
• rebel

[locao010289]

are these the original shocks? nice bike!

[hatenate8]

yeah, the shocks are original.

[ploopterfarm]

Hello Hatenate8. I have the exact bike and would like to modify. Am I missing mods? New bars, removed front fender and chopped back fender, new pipes, new seat... Anything else done here? Thank you!

[hatenate8]

We only have one side mirror now. And the license plate now mounts on the side of a shock.

[ploopterfarm]

Did you lower the back end also? Sometimes people use shocks from a Rebel 250 and modify to mount those to lower the back end. Was that done also?

[hatenate8]

No, bro. Just stock thrashed shocks and it's a bumpy bumpy ride I tell ya. That seat has no padding and the tires were pumped to the max. You can feel every pebble and going over a speed bump is nuts and hard on the nuts.

The chrome chain guard is gone also, FYI.

[heartlesspinto]

I wanna buy one of these as my first bike, larger than a 250, but smaller than anything too big for a starter. But looking around, its really hard to find any for sale. Either they don't last very long, which i doubt, or people just don't wanna sell them. It breaks my heart.

[viking1302]

Great story for a great build.

A bobber should never be a big displacement bike, the spirit of the bobber is exactly what you describe. GOOD JOB.

I have a vlx 600 that I am slowly but surely transforming into "my" bobber, low investment in cash but high in time, blood and sweat. I have a 1450 Harley for the open road this is just to bop around town or to tear up the city streets at midnight on a wednesday when the streets are deserted. Different bike different beat.

Rock on man...

[chevalier318]

@blacksystem12 say what u want to homie, i own a 450 rebel that'll spank 650's all day long,

[bitemenowus]

did u just cut the mufflers off? if so what is involed in carb work,sounds great.

[CmoreBuhts]

How much is a rebel 450 new from a shop?

[chevalier318]

@heartlesspinto this bike was only built in 86-87, that's y they are so hard to come by. great little bike, and most will pay a premium for a stock one, but this one is a great job...

[thedarkminister1]

@shoopwhoopX Oh ok... I just read online that the 450's frame is larger to acomodate the slightly larger and wider engine.

[shoopwhoopX]

@thedarkminister1 no, i mean the frame size

[thedarkminister1]

@shoopwhoopX Yeah.. 200 cubic centimeters more... And around 20 horsepower more I think... 38hp or 40

[shoopwhoopX]

is the 450 larger than the 250?

[xboxmanluke]

just wondering how you did that if you could vagley describe what you did that would be great..

[g0ttsche]

@heartlesspinto you can buy mine. it's in denmark though.