{"id":1731,"date":"2025-07-21T07:28:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T12:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2025-07-21T19:27:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T00:27:32","slug":"cx500-cafe-brat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/cx500-cafe-brat\/","title":{"rendered":"CX500 Cafe Brat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Honda CX500 motorcycle has been on my Build Bucket List for a while now. I ran across pics of CX500&#8217;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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2377_w.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>Initial form of the bike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2470_w.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>On the lift with some things done<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1736\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2479_w.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>Low profile bars, stock speedo and tach leveled out, aluminum headlight mounts and end mount mirrors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1737\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_2547_2.jpg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/><figcaption>Custom battery and electronics mounts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Honda CX500 motorcycle has been on my Build Bucket List for a while now. I ran across pics of CX500&#8217;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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/21\/cx500-cafe-brat\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;CX500 Cafe Brat&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"spay_email":""},"categories":[41,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1738,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions\/1738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.protowrxs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}