Against all odds, the eternally goofy Honda CX500 has become a popular choice for custom projects. But it’s hard to get ‘right,’ as bike builder Patricio Germano now realizes. When it arrived in his workshop, this CX500 had already been worked over?but it was in dire need of a makeover.
Patricio runs the Invader Cycle Company workshop out of San Martín, in the greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area of Argentina. Invader is mostly a one-man-show, but Patricio had some help on this project from his friend, Martin Neme.

Patricio’s forte is choppers and bobbers, but he’s stoked to work on any style of build?even slick cafe racers like this one. Why" ?Well, because it has two wheels,? he explains. ?And when a customer gives me the liberty to do what I want, that?s when the best results show. Because the bike ends up looking like a ?whole?.? This 1979-model CX500 was booked in for some light rescue work, but the job soon snowballed. ?The bike had been modified previously,? he says, ?and the client wanted to fix some mechanical issues, and change the subframe and seat. But then he decided he wanted to redo the whole thing.?

Patricio prefers building bikes from scratch, but the client wanted to retain at least some of the stock CX500. So Patricio decided to focus his energy on more subtle changes.
?I wanted to build something classic,? he says, ?but with some tech flavor. So I used the Motogadget stuff that is very subtle, and doesn’t...