Honda CX500
Honda’s much-maligned CX500 gets the most aggressive sportsbike treatment yet
My friend bought this bike before me and made a cafe racer, but it was very, very ugly,’ Asen Zahariev tells Bike from his workshop in Sofia, Bulgaria. ‘I told him to sell it to me so I could do a better job.’
And so began the Honda’s journey from ugly mess to one of the cleanest, most aggressive CX500 customs we’ve seen – as purposeful as any Guzzi cafe racer. ‘Once I had the bike in my shop I threw away everything he had done and started again,’ says Asen.
There was no discussion about what Asen would do to the bike, as he always does roughly the same thing to his builds – strip them, make them handle, give them a cafe racer look. ‘I spent 20 years building race cars, so I always want my bikes to handle properly and feel sporty. I also wanted a change – for the last two years I’ve been building BMW cafe racers, mostly R100s.’
Fortunately the 1986 30,000-mile engine was in good shape, and after Asen had replaced the clutch it was ready for the build. ‘I started by changing the position of the fuel tank because the standard tank is too far back, and I wanted it to look more aggressive.
‘Then I made all the custom brackets and subframe for the seat and tail. The forks are from a 2006 Yamaha R1, the rear shock is Öhlins and the linkage is from a Honda CBR1000RR. Then I fitted all the small components like headlights and indicators. We made the custom exhaust too.’ Although the front end is R1, the wheel is the original CX500 Comstar to give the bike a retro air. ‘It is fantastic to ride,’ says Asen. ‘It makes me smile like a little kid. The sound is very beautiful too – though it is quite loud and it makes the windows shake.’
In fact, for those of you reading this in Yorkshire, you might well hear it. ‘The bike has been sold to someone in the north of England,’ says Asen. ‘We are sending it now, but Brexit is making it difficult. We have sold bikes to Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Malta but this is our first bike to go to the UK. We are very proud.’