August custom roundup: A Japanese-British thumper, a Swiss Honda, and a chopper from Down Under

Custom Works Zon Mutt Motorcycles 250 Sabbath

British manufacturer Mutt Motorcycles started their motorcycling journey 15 years ago building custom bikes. Today, they produce a range of small-capacity motorcycles built to exacting standards while maintaining an affordable, accessible ethos. To help promote their range, Mutt's Japanese distributor recently commissioned famed local custom builder Custom Works Zon (Instagram) to work their magic on a 250 cc Mutt.

For this project, Zon frontman Yuichi Yoshizawa and comrade Yoshikazu Ueda were presented with a Mutt Motorcycles Sabbath 250. The Sabbath has been a staple of Mutt's range for years and remains a favorite with their customers. In standard trim, the blacked-out standard motorcycle features a look reminiscent of "street customs," the lightly modified machines built by custom enthusiasts. The bike comes with 18-inch spoked wheels wrapped in chunky rubber, classically styled bodywork, a diamond-stitched seat with matching handgrips, tracker bars, and tiny LED turn signals.

Editor's note: Click on the gallery to see more photos of all three customs.

Yoshizawa-san's concept for this build was to imagine what a new rider, like his son, would do if he were to customize a Mutt Sabbath. "Until now, I've only worked on large-displacement bikes, but I wanted to try out a bike that's popular with the younger generation today," he says. "It's simple and well suited for customization, and above all, it's the brand spirit that runs through Mutt."

Beyond the desire to work on a small-capacity motorcycle, Yoshizawa-san saw this project as an opportunity to attract new punters to the custom scene. So rather than his usual ground-up build approach, this project uses many of the original Sabbath components to make it more approachable. So the big changes here come in the form of bespoke bodywork and a trick new front end.

Handmade bodywork is a specialty of Custom Works Zon and is exemplified here by a single-piece fuel tank, side panels, and tail unit construction. The look was inspired by Tracy fiberglass kits from the 1970s and is finished in the Sabbath's customary black livery. To further bolster the classic look, Zon replaced the stock rims with 18-inch Yamaha SR400 wheels that both wear drum brakes. The rear suspension remains stock but at the pointy end sits a Zon girder-style fork with a stacked LED headlight. To tie things together, Yoshizawa-san has incorporated a few handmade polished aluminum embellishments and put together a black suede seat with build partner, Skunk.

Meister Engineering "Alpina 500" Honda CL500

A one-month deadline to build a custom motorcycle isn't a scenario anyone would wish for. But when Honda Switzerland approached Antoine Meister of Geneva's Meister Engineering (Instagram), he wasn't about to let a tight deadline put him off.

Since 2013, Meister Engineering has been producing custom and restored motorcycles from their workshop near Lake Geneva. Generally focusing on BMW-based projects, they have a portfolio that exceeds 300 and a modus operandi that focuses on performance and minimalist aesthetics​.

This project is based on a 2024 Honda CL500, a motorcycle the Meister team was previously unfamiliar with. It was built for the Honda Customs European dealership build-off, held in association with the Wheels & Waves festival in Biarritz, France. Despite their affinity with BMW, a Honda Switzerland team member approached Antoine after a chance sighting of a 1975 Honda on display in the workshop's front window.

After acquiring the project and the painfully tight deadline, the Meister team wasted no time tearing down the CL500. Limited by only one rule that stated that the engine should remain untouched, they set out to recreate the look of a 1970s CL450 K3.

The Honda marketing team labeled the 2024 CL500 as having Retro Scrambler styling, but any similarities to the style are questionable. This is largely in part to the CL's angular fuel tank and plastic-looking components. Surprisingly, though, Meister has managed to turn things around with their "Alpina 500" build.

The most notable change here is the use of a CB500 fuel tank. The new tank doesn't store any fuel, though. Instead, it functions as a hollowed-out cover that sits over a modified version of the stock unit. The resulting setup completely transforms the CL500 by establishing a balanced line from front to back.

Further modifications came in the form of a custom-made subframe sporting a flat, scrambler-styled seat. The stock front end has been swapped out with an inverted fork from an Africa Twin and both the tail and headlight assemblies use bespoke LED components. A FatBar handlebar helps to liven up the riding position and the clunky stock gauge has been replaced by a tiny Motogadget Motoscope speedo. An upswept high-mount exhaust wearing an SC Project muffler amplifies this CL500's Scrambler style even more.

The paintwork chosen here is a mix of classic Honda colorways and a hat tip to Honda Switzerland's 50th anniversary. Gold anodizing on the rear shocks helps to tie things together while chrome plating on the wheels and frame adds a touch of class.

It is worth mentioning once again that all of this was achieved in a tight four-week turnaround, which is no mean feat. The Meister Engineering Alpina 500 is currently being judged, along with 15 other custom CL500 entrants, by the public with the winner being chosen at the end of this month. Looking through the lineup, no one else has managed to achieve as drastic a transformation as the Meister team, so in my opinion, the winner is a clear-cut decision.

Craig Baum's Honda CB750 Chopper

Down here in Australia, one of the biggest yearly events in the custom scene is Matt Darwon's The Machine Show. Held at the ​​Braidwood showgrounds, about three hours south of Sydney, the event is a veritable melting pot of motorcycle enthusiasts. Along with the crowds of punters who enjoy a weekend of camping, socializing, and endless bike talk, The Machine Show invites an elite group of builders to put together bikes to display at the event. A group of judges and the showgoers are then invited to pick winners from the bunch to receive coveted Machine Show awards.

Unfortunately, due to heavy rainstorms, The Machine Show 2024 has been postponed until later in the year. However, since the builders worked hard to meet the original deadline, a special private event was held where they chose the year's top three bikes. Amongst them was Victorian entrant Craig Baum with his first ground-up custom build, a Honda CB750-based chopper, and it took first place.

Craig's CB750 was an unexpected gift from good friend and fellow rider Scott Gibson. "Long story short, he had two Honda CBs and gave me one," he says. "We were going to start a Thursday night bike building thing, but all that changed when he decided he was going to move. The bike sat in my shipping container until I called him and asked what his plans were. He replied 'It's all yours, mate. I know you'll do something special with it.' I’m forever grateful. Thanks, Scotty."

Regarding what Craig ended up building, "special" was clearly an understatement.

When most people hear the word chopper, they think of Harley-Davidson, but in the 1970s builders weren't averse to using donors from other manufacturers. During the height of the chopper craze, Japanese motorcycles were gaining popularity. Of all the bikes they had to choose from, a legendary Honda CB750 offered serious street cred. Craig's CB is a faithful recreation of such a bike.

"I set out to build a '70s chopper, plain and simple. Turns out it wasn't that simple at all!" he jokes. "I just love a cool-looking, long, '70s chopper, crazy paint jobs, long forks, big sissy bars, and a classic king queen seat. There's just so much going on with them and so much to look at."

Craig's build started as a collection of old parts. Amongst them was a '70s Santee swingarm chopper frame, a pair of wheels, a coffin-style fuel tank, the CB750 engine, and a king and queen seat. Due to their state of disrepair, the tank and seat were retired, and to his dismay, Craig later found out that the engine was no good, either.

"Three months out from The Machine Show deadline, I thought the project was dead in the water," says Craig. "I had no history about the engine other than Scotty telling me the old bloke he got it from said it was a runner. After dropping it off for a service, I got a call saying it needed a full rebuild, as it had had water sitting in it for who knows how long. I ended up reaching out to a CB750 Facebook group and not even 48 hours later managed to buy an engine from a group member!"

As for the frame, Craig started by molding a sissy bar made from twisted square bar into the rear. A seat pan came next, followed by the angular fuel tank. He then added an oil tank into a cavity in the frame and built a tail light assembly from sheet metal. He then spent more than a few late nights cutting and shaping sheet metal to blend everything, using as little filler as he could to cover up his welds.

Craig also fabricated several miscellaneous components on this project from brass, such as the velocity stacks and footpegs. He found the handlebar in a bin out behind a motorbike shop, was gifted the headlights from his buddy, Matt, and had another friend, Ron, fabricate the wild exhaust system. Everything that shines on the CB has been re-chromed or painstakingly polished by hand.

The five-color candy paintwork laid over a heavy silver flake base is a standout of this build and, without any prior experience, Craig did that himself, too. "That was a learning experience!" he jokes. "I had a three-by-three tent set up in the front yard of my workshop. The day I did the clear coat, it was pissing rain and the wind was howling, but I had to get it done, so I went for it."

Along with the incredibly steep learning curve of building a custom motorcycle of this caliber, Craig's timeframe was cut short after a nasty bike accident that put him out of action for six weeks. Despite all the setbacks, he's put together a stellar '70s-style chopper that deserves all the attention it demands.