The Honda CX500 motorcycle has been on my Build Bucket List for a while now. I ran across pics of CX500’s in cafe and brat formats often when searching for ideas on the Iron Krush and the Caliber 90 bikes, and I really was interested in eventually building one. This one came along unexpectedly and for a reasonable price, so I scooped it up for a someday/maybe project.
Of course someday/maybe means NOW when something is new to you, so the bike has already had a bit of work done on it. The goal is a basic, ride-able, cafe / brat appearing bike, but nothing over the top, or over expensive.
The mindset behind the build is a rather mild cafe / brat style of bike. Although clip on or low mount handle bars do make it look cooler, the ride-ability drops a lot in my opinion. Some low riser bars were used to keep the rider profile a bit more comfortable. The original handle bar controls were maintained after cleaning up and refurbishing. The original speedometer and tach were also kept, but the mount was bent down to flatten the gauges out a bit and make them more visually appealing.
Although initially I had planned on leaving the battery mounted in the old air box location, after some thought I ended up building my own battery and electronics mounts to get everything located under the seat opening up the battery and air box area.
