The FTR223 is one of the most unique JDM models ever to leave Honda’s factory, with the street-legal quarter-liter single taking blatant and ample inspiration from Big Red’s AMA Grand National Championship-dominating RS750 from the 1980s. Originally released around the turn of the millennium and produced until 2016, the FTR (short for “Flat Track Racer”) has deservingly obtained something of a cult status amongst collectors, though that didn’t stop Tim Cumpert of Cumpert Contraptions from putting a grinder to the Japanese thumper for his latest creation christened “The Little Honda.”
Based on a 2002 FTR223, the build boasts a one-off subframe and saddle, under-seat electronics tray, USD fork, and a slew of one-off aluminum billet componentry including the LED headlight surround, the indicator brackets and housing, and tank badges, just to name a few. The rider’s quarters now includes up-swept tracker-style bars, Digital Koso instrumentation, warning lights in one-off housing, custom switchgear, and the stock master cylinder was modified, relocated to beneath the new tank — a cell off of a Yamaha FS1 — and attached to the front brake lever via a braided cable, resulting in a very tidy, uncluttered cockpit. Making the 19hp tracker all the more impressive is the fact that, aside from anodizing some of the aluminum, Cumpert personally carried out all of the bespoke work by himself from his shed.
