Remember Pimp My Ride? The MTV show from about 20 years ago, where vehicle customizers would take a hoopty from some hapless West Coast kid and trick it out with questionable customization? The video crew from the FortNine YouTube channel is back with a fresh take on this formula, giving an old air-cooled Honda Rebel the Pimp My Bike treatment.
If you’ve been watching FortNine a while, you know that they’ve got some new talent on-board, who are mostly responsible for the work here. And you know they’ve got a lot of history with the DR650, and it’s no surprise they used a cast-off DR tank and seat as the basis of this Rebel-to-dual-sport conversion. They bolted up a set of rear shocks from a Yamaha TT500 to get some ground clearance, and some aftermarket plastics and headlight.
It’s actually a pretty slick job, and a long way from the usual retro scrambler look that people do with old-school UJMs and low riders. Would it be a good dual sport? Uh. Maybe. The weirdo chain roller setup would probably come back to bite you if you pushed the machine too hard over a bump. That’s hard to say without a test ride, though.
But aside from that possibly-iffy chain roller, this setup is much more practical and usable than the original Rebel, with more fuel range, better suspension, and better ergonomics. A lot better result than the original Pimp My Ride series often ended up with… and it’s good to see the end result goes to a guy who genuinely loves riding, and is happy to put down miles on whatever he can, even if it’s a Honda Rebel.
