There’s a 295-pound Honda XR600R hanging on the wall at Dirtshop Thailand, in Bangkok. Made in 1990, it?s the actual motorcycle that introduced shop owner Ek Chalermphol to dirt biking.
It?s also the bike that prompted him to open his workshop with a friend, 30 years ago. So Ek has now honored this inspirational machine, and Honda’s desert racing legacy, with a stunning throwback build?an XR600R restomod.

Ek has a deep love for historic off-road racing and a sharp eye, as proved by the R nineT Urban G/S he built last year. This latest project pays homage to Honda’s XR and XL models of the 1980s, and its Dakar race bikes?with inspiration coming from custom builder on the other side of the planet.
?When I first saw Andrew Greenland’s XL600R it stunned me,? Ek tells us. ?I wanted to build one so badly, but with my beloved XR600R model instead. So I started looking around to find a bike and parts.?
Ek’s build doesn’t follow Andrew’s to the letter, but it does pull parts and design touches from the same legacy Honda models. And while Andrew’s bike was a XL model with a Honda Dominator motor, Ek’s is a XR600R through and through.
It’s not the same bike that’s hanging on the shop wall though. Ek couldn’t bear to cut into his first love, so he sourced a 1996 model. With help from Dirtshop’s resident mechanic, Wichan Phikulthong, Ek stripped the bike down and got to work.

The idea here was build a ...