The Honda Rebel 250 is a perfect beginner bike: Low power, cruiser style, low seat height, everything that makes someone new to riding feel comfortable. Unfortunately for those looking to go off-road, those same factors make the Rebel a bad choice — unless, of course, you go and change just about every part of the bike to make it suit your needs.
Of course, there’s not much you can do about the power coming from a 250cc parallel twin. That’s always gonna be pretty low. The rest, though, is well within the capability of Fortnine’s resident TikToker mechanic Josh.
First the Rebel got a rear lift with some Yamaha shocks, which had the bonus effect of steepening the steering rake. The bike got stiffened and rebuilt forks to match, followed by some more dirtworthy plastics up front. Josh then managed to fit a DR650 tank and seat with the help of a custom subframe, and eliminated the Rebel’s cruiser-styled forward controls by promoting the passenger pegs to mid controls. The bike’s owner wasn’t using them anyway. Probably.
As you might imagine, adding three inches to the rear of a cruiser comes with a couple of fitment and interference concerns. Josh had to add an extended arm for the rear drum brake actuation, plus a set of rollers to keep the chain from grinding on the swingarm pivot. After all that work, though, he managed to create the bike everyone always dreamed of: A Rebel 250 dual sport. Yep. We’ve all dreamed of it.
A Rebel 250 dual sport is a buck wild choice, one that most people would never make and precious few would even understand. But the weirdness is part of it, making a bike no one ever would just because you can. Because it’s there, and it’s what you have to work with. I love it.