Honda CX500 Custom 80's Plastic Maggot gets a Cafe facelift

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Hi all, I'm finally starting my build thread. I purchased this CX500 off of craigslist for $300, got it home, threw a battery in and some gas in the carbs and it fired up. That's when the fun started. I knew I wanted to build a cafe style bike and the fact that I- A: Can't afford a Ducati and B: Would kill myself if I owned one, led me to believe that this was my way of becoming a Cafe Rocker and staying alive. My main influence in this build is the Ducati Sport Classic, I love the way they brought back the cafe style in a super modern beefed up brawny killer fashion. I will try to put captions on pictures and keep them in sequence of events. Any questions just shoot. Also, I have had the liberty of being given a 2005 Triumph Bonneville front end that has been affixed on this bike as my uncle is building his 2005 Bonneville into a mean street bobber, with hardtail and DNA springer. Hope you enjoy seeing the transformation thus far...

The day I brought it home, it had 80's garbage oozing off of it. The last time it ran had be 1999.

Starting to tear it down

For shits and gigs, deluxe tank and clubmans

front end off to install tapered bearing kit, along with bonnie front end and rear shock towers cut off

you can see where my rear frame hoop will weld in nicely

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Re: Honda CX500 Custom 80's bastard gets a Cafe facelift

To give you an idea of the fitment of the Triumph trees compared to the Honda's I have a picture of them side by side, the Triumph front end bolted right on with the All Balls Honda tapered bearing kit. These are 40mm forks, I will have to use clip ons now, trying ot figure a way to make my own by cutting the clubmans and making clamps... may or may not do it... we will see.

front end installed and looking beefy

mocking up rear brakets using the cardboard method I learned from this site haha, worked well

brackets in steel, mocked up

the finished product as it sat today, as you can see, the kick stand isn't touching the ground and the center stand is doing all the work, this will need to be fixed eventually haha

I like the stance although the front end has to come up a bit in order for the forks to not bottom out on the trees. Next tasks are rear frame tube, seat pan and tail section. There is a tank in the back ground that I wanted to use for the tail, but it is too narrow and more than likely will not fit the frame hoop. Also wiring and or re-wiring. THis bike is only going to have a tail light, headlight, and ignition system, so it will be pretty bare of wiring. battery will be hidden in the seat hump along with other electricals under the seat. rear sets are another item on the to do list, but not aftermarket ones, I'll make my own... Hope you enjoyed the work thus far. Trying to make this one different than the other cx's but also not trying to dump a bunch of money into a $300 bike. There is no way in hell I'd spend $900 on Ohlins shocks or something like that for this thing, Im not building it for anyone but myself, so I'm keeping it cheap, you've all heard the one about lipstick on a pig, well...this is a pig, but it's my pig ;D. Credit to my uncle for the welding, I don't have much experience with MIG, but he welded the shock mounts on for me. I will be doing some welding on this thing eventually since there's only 1 way to learn, haha.

 

[Staffy]

Nice work brother!

 

[78whiteorbs]

Looks nice but there's no way that your gonna keep the front end that low. it looks great though , why did you opt to change the stock forks out. I got an awesome stance on my CX with the stock front end just lowered a bit . One thing about the stock forks I was lookin in to doing was getting a front end with the dual disks, off a european model CX and then I could have duals up front. Nice job though , looking good! I may have a tank of an xs400 already cut down if you are intersted , Not sure if I am gonna get one of the new Roc City fiberglass pans made for flared frames, or do it myself with this spare tank I cut . Will be watching this one , if you have any CX questions hit me up I learned a bit with mine...

 

[teazer]

Swingarm droop looks to be a little too steep and may cause problems with the drive train. Better forks a good idea. Better brakes might work well too.

 

[GoBears0305]

Looks nice but there's no way that your gonna keep the front end that low. it looks great though , why did you opt to change the stock forks out. I got an awesome stance on my CX with the stock front end just lowered a bit . One thing about the stock forks I was lookin in to doing was getting a front end with the dual disks, off a european model CX and then I could have duals up front. Nice job though , looking good! I may have a tank of an xs400 already cut down if you are intersted , Not sure if I am gonna get one of the new Roc City fiberglass pans made for flared frames, or do it myself with this spare tank I cut . Will be watching this one , if you have any CX questions hit me up I learned a bit with mine...

If you want dual disk w/ 2-piston calipers, you could try an 81' CB900F (like what I have on mine). It'll even bump you up 39mm forks (vs stock 33mm). You just need to use cx500 neck bearings and also use about 4mm worth of washers to compensate for the longer neck of the cb900F.

 

[Staffy]

Get onto a few aussies about them dual front discs. They were standard here on the cx's from 1980 onwards.

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Sorry guys, been real busy, haven't had much time to post. I went with the front end because it was available basically haha, for free. I am trying to figure out what I'm going to do about front brakes, I got my new wheel bearings to fit the 17mm axle, and now I'm kind of stuck since the stock 1 piston caliper doesn't fit the forks and even so, the Trump had a very big disk in the front compared to the cx. I'm considering getting a trump front caliper and then looking into a different disk, something vented and bigger around... Damn custom! it's always a kick in the ass. I am going to get a rear hoop bent so that I can work on the section and get a better idea of what the bike is going ot look like. Pictures of progress to come. Thanks for your feedback guys!

Also concerning the angle of the swing arm, I'm not too worried about it, if you notice-99% of cx cafes slope downward at the back, think of what it will look like when a 180lb person is sitting on it, suspension will compress and it will be lower. I'm also going to be mounting an 18" comstar in back. I've sourced a 18" reverse comstar form out of the country, but I'm toying with the idea of digging up a regular 18" comstar at the local bike graveyard and running two different wheels.... probably look weird, but you don't know until you try it.

 

[Staffy]

The problem in this case is the fact you're running a drive shaft output and not a chain drive. It's not that much of an issue with chain drive but at that angle, even when it compresses a bit the uni join up by the engine will be under a lot of stresses. It wont help the transfer of power to the rear wheel either as it isn't designed to be running off centre all the time. What you'll notice at stock height is when the swingarm is at its lowest point it is angled down a bit, but as it compresses, almost immediately it straightens up. It's only when bumps and compression past the point of human weight and a few irregularities in the road are encountered that the uni joint bends again this time allowing the swingarm to point up, which very quickly then returns back to its "normal" state in a near straight axis to the output shaft. My $0.02

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Thanks for your $.02 Staffy, I hadn't really taken that into much consideration as you see lifted ass trucks driving around all the time with their drive shafts at 45 degree angles I assumed all would be well. All I can really do at the moment it take it down and clean and lube everything real well as I should and see what happens. Unfortunately its going to be a while before this thing sees the road. I just got my MC liscence and I'm dying to ride something haha. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a beater on clist that would be ridable for the time being. More than likely I will just wait until this thing is done since I'm putting most of my time, effort and bits of $$ into it. Here are some pics of what it looked like last night, my $50 clipons and front wheel on. Oh and a different tank that had 1 lil ding, petcock and cap still attached and very minimal rust inside. I'm still on the lookout for a Suzuki tank for it... but no luck soo far. I now have 5 tanks and am not yet satisfied haha. I have to get cracking on the seat as it is soo hard to visualize without it, and sorry for the shitty pics, all have been taken on my cell phone. One of these days I need to take some real pictures.

 

[Frankenfe]

Hey C'Hammer, Man I thought mine was a Frankenfe, you have even crossed species lol. You have even bigger challenges than my CM with your Shaft drive getting to an 18" rear.

My 2 cents...

I like the Big ass tank.
I agree the rear is too high and the front too low. but wait until you decide on wheels before working out the height and stance
If you like the tank you have for the seat hump you could split it and add an inch or two down the middle to get the width you need.

You know were gonna have to do a Phoenix Cafe run when we're done!

 

[two-smoker]

You know, on a bike that started out so cheap, a little extra maintenance replacing u-joints isn't so bad. I dug the stance in the first pic with the front real low and the ass real high. One way to get that same stance would be to run a 17" front 18" rear wheel combo. the 18 would lift the stance at the rear without the funky driveshaft angle, and I have read your intention to do so. I know early CX's had 18" steel comstars. Since you've got the Triumph front end on it, why not use the original wheel and brake from the Triumph? I don't know what model it's off of, but I know they mostly had 17s, unless it's a Bonnie, and then you could just use a 17 off a Thruxton.
Oh- And I'm surprised with an engine so similar to a Guzzi, no one has used a Guzzi tank on one of these.... Just an observation....

 

[hillsy]

Oh- And I'm surprised with an engine so similar to a Guzzi, no one has used a Guzzi tank on one of these.... Just an observation....

You can buy 2 CX's for the price of a Guzzi tank ;D

 

[two-smoker]

Well.... That's a good point.

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going for the face down ass up approach on this bike. I like the idea of using a smaller front wheel. My uncle is keeping the wheel that came stock, which is a 19" spoked wheel (bonneville). I intend on getting an 18" rear wheel and maybe a smaller front. Anyone know if the made a 17" or 18" front comstar? I was digging through a parts yard a week ago and I actually found a 19" rear silver comstar for a chain drive bike, I thought that would look tits on a CB.
They had sooo many wheels it would have taken me a year to try and find exactly what I want. I will be back there to see if they have what I need. I plan on doing as much maintenance as possible once I get the bike together as a rough draft. Ride it a bit and then tear it all the way down for final finishing. I found someone local to bend my seat tube for $30 and then I can get working on the tail section. Keep the ideas coming, I appreciate all the help I can get. There is a cx500 turbo for sale in AZ for $500, and I would love to buy it and transplant the black turbo motor in this, but I don't have the cash and even if I did I'd be better off with a one off turbo set up anyways haha. I have been drooling over twin scroll turbos on ebay... if only I were rich, I'd do a custom exhaust and have a turbo filling that void where the airbox used to be ;D Dream On....

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

I'm pretty set on using the tank I have now. I'd like to do something different, but the tank I have is in rathe good condition so I think I'm gonna stick with it. Plus if I change now it's gonna screw over my set pan idea. I did a good bit of stuff today and got the front end just about buttoned up. I had to cut the headlight mounts in order to mount my bars under the trees, everything fit well. I pulled the spacers out of the fork tubes and cut them in order to set down the front end. I may eventually get 1" lower progressive springs, but I'm happy with where it's at now. Going to get a Triumph caliper off of fleabay pretty soon and get the brakes buttoned up.
It is now time to work on the rear end. I am going to cut off the passeger peg mounts tonight and get working on a way to tuck the electricals. I took pics with a REAL camera this time, although I think it only ended up making my bike look more dirty and shitty than the cell pics. Oh well. First pic will be my quickie Microsoft Paint Seat pan mock up, it's essentially going to be a smaller tank similar to mine. The paint version turned out quite a bit smaller than it would actually be, I'll try to get it mocked up to show the real version haha. Let me know what ya'll think. Thanks!

 

[dewjantim]

Your project is lookin' good. Gotta love those Japanese Guzzis...... they will last forever.....

 

[Frankenfe]

Making me feel bad with such a nice day we had today in the valley of the Sun, i didn't do anything but put a new petcock on.

Have you figured out what Disc to mate the Triumph Fork & Caliper to the CX Comstar?

How is the hunt for the 18" Shaft Drive Rear Comstar going?

Will you widen that Tank/Seat Stop to fit?

 

[rustreddesign]

My first bike was a cx500, back in 2004. It was beat to shit and had a badass flat black spray job. The only thing I didn't like about it was that ugly ass radiator up front. That and the fact it didn't have a kick start. Anyway, the build is looking sick - keep it up. I'd like to see more of these resurrected.

 

[CUNNINGHAMMER]

Thanks Rustreddesign, it's been fun to tear down, the rest is more challenging.

Frankenfe, still need to figure out the disc situation, I'm going to get a Trump caliper, my disk is approx 11" diam and my uncs is a lil over 1ft (metric) So there is a good inch that's going to have to be filled. I have an idea, but I'd like to ponder on it some more before I devulge haha. I did get the passenger peg mounts cut off last night, and I cut apart the tank that I'm going to be using for the seat cowl. The tank I ended up cutting will not need to be widened though, it's a bigger tank than the og one I inteded on using.

Have found 18" rear comstars, just need to aquire one. I will more than likey be trying to aquire an 18" front from a cm400 and then run an 18"rear from a cx. I still have a lot of little stuff to purchase, but it's coming along. Thanks for the support! Oh, and next update should have some real progress, my last three posts almost look identical.

Pass peg mounts gone, still need to grind off weld & Thanks whomever invented Reinforced cutoff wheels for Dremel, worked like a charm.

Some eyecandy, My uncle's 2005 Triumph Bonneville that has approx 3,700miles on it. Hand made hard tail and DNA springer up front, he is a handy guy to have around haha.