With clean lines and timeless styling, the Honda CB500 Four is one of the most fetching machines the Japanese marque has ever produced. If you had one on the bench, you might be tempted to restore rather than modify it. Unless it’s already been converted into a hideous chopper?in which case, all bets are off and you’ve got your work cut out for you.
Holger Breuer of HB-Custom found himself in that boat when he got his hands on an original AME Honda chopper. AME is a German parts and customization company that turned CB500s into TÃœV-friendly choppers in the 80s.

The really surprising part is that Holger wasn’t asked to customize the chopped CB: he chose the bike himself. ?I saw the Honda on the internet at a very attractive price,? he tells us. ?The bike looked strange but I saw big potential in it.? ?So I convinced my neighbor to become the customer for this project!?

In his workshop in the colorful maritime town of Husum, Germany, Holger’s first job was to convert the CB500 from chopper [above] to standard. The AME style would have been hot property in Germany the 80s, but the raked-out stance and orange paint (with yellow flames) hasn?t dated well, to put it mildly.
Luckily, AME raked out the CB500 front end with a clever mod that offset the yokes, rather than grinding away at the metalwork. So Holger reversed it, then shortened the forks to bring things back in line. A set of YSS shocks were installed at the back to even the bike’s s...