Ice-cold killer: A Honda CL250 Café Racer with 3D printed bodywork

For the last time In recent years, the modern custom motorcycle scene has opened up a whole new market for major OEMs to sell their wares into. We are all familiar with the process; Bring a new motorcycle onto the market, hold an internal brand customization competition and present the results at a major event. Lather, rinse, repeat.

These initiatives can produce predictably boring results. But they can also produce gems like this polished Honda CL250 Café Racer from Bunker Custom Cycles in Turkey.

The bike was, you guessed it, developed as part of a European Honda customization competition. The job was to customize a Honda CL500, but Bunker was given the concession to use its little brother, the Honda CL250, instead. Available only in Japan and Turkey, the CL250 closely resembles the CL500 but swaps its parallel-twin engine for a 249cc single-cylinder mill.

Working with Honda Turkey, Bunker initially created a design that would reinforce the CL250’s neo-retro scrambler aesthetic. But Honda Türkiye pushed back, saying a bolder approach would have a bigger impact. After two months of back and forth, the parties agreed on a modern café racer design instead.

“Our design approach was mainly to capture the style of racing bikes from the 60s to 90s, when it was not a thing to overdesign bikes,” says Mert Uzer, who runs the Bunker workshop in Istanbul with his brother Can. “The color scheme was also a continuation of this era.”

21 renderings and 16 proposed color schemes later, Bunker was finally ready to bring his concept to life. “Our goal was to convey the message that any design approach is possible with the CL250 platform,” explains Mert. “Such drastic changes are also possible.”

To make their design easier to reproduce, Mert and Can decided to 3D print the CL250’s new body kit. a departure from their usual process of making molds and hammering aluminum. “For body parts,” says Mert, “traditional manufacturing is a meticulous process that includes design, planning, technical drawing, wooden model making, aluminum plate beating, assembly, etc.”

“With analogue methods like these, there is no room for error – there is no ‘CTRL-Z’. If a mistake occurs, months of hard work can be wasted. But with digital methods you can fail and try again virtually.”

The biggest challenge for Bunker was finding the right material to print the parts. After a few test runs, they decided on a glass-reinforced nylon, which they used to make the new fairing, belly pan, seat pan and rear cowl on the Honda CL250. For the fuel tank, they chopped up the OEM container and used its lower portion as the basis for a new 3D printed cover.

Bunker repositioned the CL250’s LED headlights into the front of the fairing and then turned his attention to the taillight. It is a bespoke piece that uses a combination of 3D printed and hand-formed polycarbonate parts with an LED strip with integrated turn signals.

The bike’s wheels and forks come from a Honda CB250R and reportedly took some effort to install. Bunker had to fabricate caliper adapters, a new ABS sensor ring, and modify the stock upper and lower triple clamps. A new set of Öhlins shock absorbers support the rear.

The rules of the competition prohibited any modification of the engine – but said nothing about modifying the exhaust. So Bunker took the stock headers and massaged them until the catalytic converter was hidden in the new belly panel, with layers of Kevlar fabric to prevent the heat from damaging the body. The gases escape via a hand-made silencer that protrudes from the side of the belly panel.

Honda has chosen this year’s Wheels and Waves festival to showcase entries for its CL Custom competition. Unsurprisingly, Bunker’s smooth CL250 Café Racer took home the gold medal. “Being part of this competition and gaining global recognition is definitely a plus,” says Mert, “but winning is something else.”

“As you can imagine, working as a custom builder is a truly isolated endeavor. As we build these bikes we’re pretty confident and happy with the way we’re doing things – but the win is proof that we’re right in at least some aspects.”

Bunker Custom Cycles | Facebook | Instagram | Pictures by Kerem Albayrak