Honda CX500 Custom Build – Cafe Fighter

This particular bike’s customising story began when Kevin was browsing the web and came across the CX500 known as the “Taco Bender” – and from that point onward he was on a mission to make one of his own. The whole build took him about a year to complete. The end result:

Hard to believe he found it as a fully dressed CX500 with 20,000 miles on it that he picked up for $200. After getting the engine running and ensuring that it had good compression he jumped straight in and started the build.

The front end is from a 2005 CBR1000RR (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA), and the headlight is from a Yamaha MT-03 (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA), and the front fender is from a Ducati. The instrument cluster is from Motogadget (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA, Amazon), and Kevin says it’s probably his favourite part of the build:

The tail light was purchased from Britain and the rear end was then built around that:

The rear brake setup is a SV1000 rotor with a CBR1000RR caliper/bracket and required custom machined spacers to get it all to work. The rear shock is from a 2002 Yamaha R1 (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA) with a replaced spring (Kevin thinks the spring came from an FZ), and has had a kit added for a full adjustment range.

The exhaust was built by Kevin out of 1 5/8″ steel tube (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA), and finished off with pipe wrap (eBay US, eBay AU, eBay UK, eBay CA, Amazon). The mufflers are from a Hayabusa and apparently sound excellent.

Kevin would like to thank everyone on the forum – which he says is an excellent resource for ideas and information – and his friend Keith Smith for putting on the candy gold paint.

Check out some of the other featured CX/GL builds!