One of our avid readers at Motoroids and an enthusiastic grease monkey, Dhruv Aithal, of MotoCraft has been sharing his work with us for some time. Lat time around, we shared with you his Yamaha SZ modded into an adventure tourer. This time, Dhruv has come up with a relatively subtle work, wherein he’s minimalized and retro-styled a Honda Unicorn.
With the new BS4 emission norms being implemented, it was easy for Dhruv to get his hands on a new Honda Unicorn for a bargain. With cash to spare, he decided to spice up the mundane commuter up and make it stand apart.
Now, in Dhruv’s opinion, although the Unicorn was one of the first bikes to hit be sold with a monoshock, the bulbous bodywork didn’t add much to the aethetics. The big panels had to be ‘bobbed’ and trimmed to make the bike look better proportioned. “It felt strangely satisfying to junk all the plastic bodywork, saving the tank and the front fender” says Dhruv.
The sub frame and the seat were then reworked and a half chain cover replaced the fully closed unit. The side panels were hand bent and the sharp edges were dressed with rubber beadings.
Up front, a twin pod instrument cluster nudged out the stock unit to sit flush atop a round multi reflector headlight. Efforts were made to leave the new wiring harness uncut and rewire the meter console and lights to suit the original socket connectors. Clip on handlebars were chosen to provide a forward biased stance. However, a mock trial revealed that the switch kit would nudge the tank during full lock turns. Therefore, a lowered single piece handlebar was favoured.
Since the metal flake paint-job on the tank was executed flawlessly, the team decide to make the bold move to go without decals! The Unicorn in the images here is still work in progress, and rear-set footpegs and a free-flow exhaust are planned after the initial run-in.
Seems like a quick job to us, which manages to shine for the amount of resource put in. Your thoughts? Do let us know your views through the comments section below.
