The conventional wisdom has it that those of us who ride motorcycles, especially flash-looking and loud examples, do it to be seen and stand out from the crowd. This argument would suggest that the custom bike builder is therefore a dealer in hardcore extroversion, and yet this is so often not the case. Some are absolute introverts, who shutter themselves away in their workshops like tormented artists. But one particular Canadian craftsman takes things even further, his identity remains known to only a select few and yet his work rises to great heights. The latest masterpiece from the reclusive Sally’s Speed Shop is this superb Honda C70, with stunning streamlined bodywork and a different kind of spark for power.
In the age of the influencer and half the planet seemingly wanting to be famous, simply for being famous, it is nice to come across a person who just wants to let their work do the talking. Located in British Columbia, Canada, Sally’s Speed Shop (Sally is not his real name), is a small workshop where incredible creations come to life. Cool custom motorcycles aren’t the only thing to emerge, with surfboards, furniture and a whole range of art being produced in Sally’s sanctuary. So, in many ways, this 1981 Honda C70 Passport is simply the canvas for another creative pursuit.
And the little Honda Cub is nearly as ubiquitous as a piece of paper, with more than 100 million of them rolling off various Honda production lines. And yet the Cub was nearly never produced, with Soichiro Honda using his R&D trip to Europe to simply focus on racing and winning on the track. Thankfully his right-hand man, Takeo Fujisawa, was paying close attention to the mass consumer market and knew he was onto a winner if they could produce “a two-wheeler for everyman, one that would appeal to both developed and developing countries, urban and rural.”
Thankfully, a fairly annoyed Honda, listened long enough to green-light the project, before getting back to trying to win the Isle of Man TT, and the rest is history. Seventy years later and Sally had a Cub in his shop ready to rip into, “but after I removed all the ugly there wasn’t anything left but the ‘underbone’ frame.” So, to create the ultra-clean chassis he had in mind, Sally set about shaving, moulding and chopping the stock metalwork to create something that also had the strength to carry what was to come.
There was also a desire to run a larger set of rims, and a bigger inner fender was fabricated to allow it to fit. To stop that rim from slamming into the bodywork, “I built a 3/8inch aluminium trestle type anti-swingarm to maintain tyre clearance.” Now work could begin on that beautiful streamliner bodywork and it starts by creating a steel frame to support the hand-laid mould. This is time-consuming stuff, and getting the mould right is imperative to ending up with the desired result. Once this had been achieved the mould was used to produce the final epoxy composite part.
To give the front end something equally special, Sally set to work, “I made a leaf spring front suspension but decided it needed to have a springer front end.” So, to find the right part he sourced the full front from Kepspeed, who make the setup especially for the Cub line-up. Depending on your model some adjustment is needed, and with his being one of those, Sally made the appropriate tweaks to get it operating flawlessly. To get the rims looking just right, it was back into his bag of tricks, “I built the front wheel with a custom drilled early model Honda hub, 72 twisted spokes and 18in rims powder coated black.”
Such an old-school look called for a timeless hue, and it doesn’t get more classic than black with polished trim. All of the neat aluminium pieces are Sally’s work, carefully shaped to provide the front punched cover, the slim trim piece that wraps around the full circumference of the body, and the triple faux louvres that capture the vintage car vibe perfectly. “The seat was shaped out of a sheet of 3/8 inch aluminium, the seat support is a cantilevered spring, then I sourced the leather before stitching the pattern to match grips.”
Twist the right-hand grip on the stunning polished flatbars and you’ll barely hear a sound as the Cub begins to spin up the rear wheel. That’s because the old 6hp petrol powerplant has been ditched, and the little Honda is now electric. This is not Sally’s first rodeo when it comes to such conversions, and an 8000-watt electric hub motor is attached to the rear wheel, with all the supporting components and wiring hidden in the body. This is exactly what Fujisawa told his designers he wanted “a cover to hide the engine, hoses and wires inside.”
But Sally’s Cub is a far cry from the simple commuter machine it started its life as, now combining the best of old and new, for a true one-off rolling piece of art.
