Warning: Video contains explicit lyrics.

Not according to Honda factory Supercross rider Cole Seely, who just put out a video titled “Grey Area” that has him riding his custom 450L from the garage where he built it to a private practice track, all on public streets and freeways. After the “sedate” street ride (that includes a couple long wheelies to keep things interesting), Seely attacks berms, skims whoops, lands doubles and even throws in a couple scrubs on the 450L. It’s kind of the ultimate “run what you brung” fantasy, especially for those of us who will never ride anywhere near Seely’s level.

The mods – which Seely did with help from his friend Mikey Ojeda of Bleach Design Works – helped improve performance, lightened the bike by about 20 pounds, and gave it a more streamlined appearance. You can follow along on the entire build in a series of videos that details the bike’s transformation from a stock 450L to something that looks like it just escaped from a motocross track, except for that license plate hanging off the back.

Seely and Ojeda started by stripping a brand-new 450L to the frame, a process that’s a little painful to watch, frankly. As each piece came off I kept asking myself, “Why? There isn’t a speck of dirt on it!” Seely got the same question from a few viewers, apparently, and gives his answer in the third video: “I want this thing to be as blacked out as possible and kind of put my own twist on it,” he said. It was cool to get an inside look at all the engineering required to make the 450L street legal, from placement of the overflow bottle to the intricate wiring harness.

Once the powder-coated parts start coming back the bike really takes shape. Seely replaced the stock exhaust with a Yoshimura system designed for the 450X that saved a lot of weight, but it took some tuning to get it to run correctly, he said. He also replaced the stock turn signals with LED units, incorporated some plastics from the 450X, had the suspension redone and anodized a shade of blue, built up a set of blacked-out wheels, and created custom graphics. The result is a street-legal ride that looks like a supercross contender. And, as the final video demonstrates, looks are more than skin deep.

Watch his finished build below:

Author: Bob Whitby

Bob has been riding motorcycles since age 19 and working as a journalist since he was 24, which was a long time ago, let’s put it that way. He quit for the better part of a decade to raise a family, then rediscovered adventure, dual sport and enduro riding in the early 2000s. He lives in Arkansas, America’s best-kept secret when it comes to riding destinations, and travels far and wide in search of dirt roads and trails.