Source: Bike Bound
TIME:Cycles builds a Hero Hunk café racer for a pro footballer…
The Hero Hunk is a 150cc commuter bike from Hero — a brand formerly known as Hero Honda, which began as a joint venture between Hero Cycles of India and Honda of Japan in the 1980s. Today, Hero is one of the world’s largest two-wheeled manufacturers and boasts a 46% market share in India.
Introduced in 2007, the Hunk is powered by the same bulletproof 150cc air-cooled single-cylinder engine used in the Honda Unicorn and CRF150F. While it’s no supersport, the Hunk has earned a reputation as a solid small-displacement workhorse that can withstand the rigors of everyday use.
Recently we heard from our friends at TIME:Cycles, purveyors of custom bikes and yummy food in India:
“We are custom motorcycle builders and restorers from the rural outskirts of Mhow; a slow paced town in Madhya Pradesh, India. Shashank and his wife, Evangeline own and operate a garage cafe; where custom motorcycle culture, the thrill of the open road, and the joy of savoring authentic & fusion Karnataka food come together in perfect harmony.”
You may remember TIME:Cycles from their previous build we featured, a 1959 Royal Enfield Bullet powered by a 500cc Greaves-Lombardini diesel engine originally intended for agricultural use — talk about unique! We love the sense of time the workshop brings to their brings:
“We love to build our motorcycles as thoroughly as possible as they are a cycle traveling through time, picking up elements from the past and looking into the future.”
Diesel Enfield: 1959 Bullet by TIME:CYCLES
Now they’re back with this Honda Hunk built for professional footballer Joy Isyas — a project that ran into several unexpected delays, which only helped the build “ferment” into the finished “Single Malt” café racer you see here.
They gave us such a great story of the build, we’ll let them tell it to you in their own words. Enjoy!
In the Builder’s Words…
In January of 2022, Joy Isyas, a professional footballer, got in touch with us to build his dream custom motorcycle. The donor was a pre-owned Hero Honda Hunk with some mods done to it. He needed the right setup to prevent any further strain. Upon further inspection, we agreed to rebuild the entire motorcycle for Joy to be comfortable.
We love to build our motorcycles as thoroughly as possible as they are a cycle traveling through time, picking up elements from the past and looking into the future. We took apart the entire motorcycle and binned the unwanted parts. The motorcycle needed a better stance, so we dropped the front by about 600mm and raised the rear by 250mm. As per the brief, Joy’s personality called for athletic and lightweight bodywork. He insisted on minimal switchgear and a clean cockpit. We paid attention to the rear cowl and progressed from drawings on paper to a donor fuel tank to a model carved from polystyrene blocks.
We had only recently started our café and Shashank was mostly the one building the motorcycles and working on the garage regulars. Naturally, we had to switch our attention to the café part of the business to help it stabilize during the rough patch. After an absence of about thirteen weeks, which allowed the idea to ferment, we ordered a very specific headlight from the Bajaj Avenger Street.
After frantically trying to source it from almost every dealer/distributor for two weeks and failing, we placed our order with the factory and waited patiently, for another 60 days. Meanwhile, we chose to join the tank and the cowl to form a single unit. After fine tuning the design, we sent the model and the fuel tank to our sheet metal fabricator.
Meanwhile, we got to fabricate everything else with our expert fabricator, Anis Bhai. We fabricated a rear loop for ease of parking and handling the motorcycle.
We got back to paying attention to our café and other routine garage work and waited for the bodywork to arrive.
We fabricated headlight brackets and mounts for the bodywork and installed clip-on handlebars. In order to match the clean lines, a header pipe was fabricated and finished with a stainless steel can for a brutal soundtrack. Footpegs from Royal Enfield Thunderbird were chosen and the necessary brackets fabricated. Rear brake and gear shift levers were next.
Sorting through the webs of remainder wiring, we cleaned up the frame and mounted all electricals to be concealed, as much as possible. A new battery mount was fabricated and the battery was bagged to be less conspicuous. A new wiring loom was handmade to fit the motorcycle. Top plate was drilled, switch holders were machined in order to move all electrical controls into the cockpit, and a single dial speedometer was mounted in the centre. While we waited for a better, lighter set of wheels to arrive, the motorcycle was then extensively ridden and necessary adjustments were made.
After almost nineteen months of fermenting, a seat was missing. The challenge was that one of the three bolts that secure the frame to the bodywork is right under the seat. This was needed for us to provide for an opening to access the bolt. The seat pan was fabricated with a hole in the middle and foamed up.
The single cylinder engine was restored, the carburetor tuned and finished with a K&N air filter. We also added an old-school glass petrol filter. The engine cases were aging with scuffs and had stories to tell, so we retained the patina on the cases and a few other parts of the engine.
One evening, over single malt with friends, Shashank realized the uncanny resemblance of the build to single malt. The fermentation (read: unforeseen delays) birthed a symphony of parts and design, and we knew. “Single Malt” it is!
The longer it stayed, the more time we got to refine the build. A paint scheme was finalized and parts were sent to the paint shop while we waited for other parts to arrive from the powder coat. The handlebar grips were wrapped in tan leather grips from The Trip Machine Company and the seat was wrapped in matching leather with an open access to the bolt. The motorcycle was fully assembled in a few days, after which it was detailed by hand.
It took us a little over two years to ferment this rare “single malt” and we sealed it with a cork!
“It has got all the right notes for a fun, exciting, and quick commute!” approves Joy.
Follow the Builder
Instagram: @timecycles_garagecafe
Facebook: @TIMECYCLES.garagecafe
Photos: Nirmesh Singh Chauhan (@nirmesharchitecturephotography)”}]]
