Today’s featured build was made by a gentleman named Alex Musskopf, of Musskopf Moto in Sacramento, California, USA. With twenty-seven years of modifying powered vehicles he has slowly been working through more and more complex builds and here is the latest:
This CX500 was customised to suit a customer’s needs – a custom bike that was easy to maintain to fit a 6’6″ rider that could do 2-up riding. With that in mind the 1982 CX500 Custom was chosen as the base due to the fact that the frame lent itself easily to a higher seating position and with basic maintenance should be able to be ridden for a very long time. The donor bike before the build:
The list of parts used is impressive:
- 2007 CBR600RR Front end (eBay)
- 2007 CBR600RR Front Brakes (eBay)
- Cognito Moto front hub (link)
- Buchanan’s custom spokes (link)
- Bucanan’s outer rims – hand polished (link)
- Michelin Pilot road tyres (eBay)
- All Balls bearings
- Koso OLED Multifunction Instrument Gauge (eBay)
- EBC Clutch Steel Discs
- EBC Clutch Plates (eBay)
- Vesrah Clutch Springs (eBay)
- Electrosport stator (eBay)
- Electrosport regulator/rectifier (eBay)
- NGK Iridium Spark Plugs (eBay)
- Murray’s Mikuni Carb Kit (website)
- Shorai Lithium Battery (eBay)
- GL1000 rear hub (eBay)
- CX500 front caliper converted to a rear brake caliper
- Ducati M695 Rear Monoshock (eBay), rebuilt by Race Tech with custom spring
- Braided steel brake lines
- GSXR billet rearsets
- Dime City Cycles LED Brake and Turn Light strip
- Bates style headlight
- One-off machined rear axle
- Cylinders honed, new piston rings (eBay)
- Valves and Valve Guides
- Full gasket set (eBay)
The front end certainly stands out after the conversion to the CBR forks and spoked wheels. Side view:
Closeup of the bars, controls and gauge:
You can see that the rear frame has been reworked from the curved original to have more straight lines:
Alex says that his favourite part of the build is that he didn’t outsource a single labour item, and that the most challenging part was the electrical work – he found more information on the CDI bikes but less on the TI bikes.
His advice for someone wanting to build their own in a similar style? Measure 5 times, cut once! Also to make a build sheet before you dive into it to make sure you are rebuilding all the systems while making them all work together in harmony.
For more inspirational Honda CX500 custom builds, check out the build list.