It takes true talent to turn a Honda CX500 into something pretty. And Takashi Nihira of Wedge Motorcycle sure is talented: remember his radical reworking of BMW’s little G 310 R"
Okay, this latest build from Wedge is not technically a CX. It’s based on a 1981 GL400, a downscaled model sold in the Japanese market. But despite the ‘GL’ designation, it’s effectively a smaller capacity CX with a few subtle differences. And the factory bike was just as gawky in the looks department.

The brief came via a new client. He?d spotted a Wedge Honda CB750 custom, and wanted a CB-based cafe racer of his own. But Nihira-san wasn’t up for re-hashing the same formula.
?I’ve experienced building Japanese four-cylinder CBs already,? he says, ?so I said that I?d like to try a new challenge, using a new machine. That new idea was the Honda GL. It turned out that the customer knows the European custom scene well, and he’s often seen CX customs there.?
The brief hung on two basic requirements: cafe racer styling, and spoked wheels. ?I could not imagine the cafe style when I saw the standard GL the first time,? says Nihira-san. ?The GL has a shaft drive and Comstar wheels…?
Finding a way to quickly switch out the wheels proved difficult, so he tackled them one at a time. Up front, he grafted on the forks and hub from a Yamaha SR400, using a modded SR steering stem and an aftermarket aluminum top triple made for the SR.

?It was eas...