Written by Martin Hodgson
In any rapidly changing environment that experiences enormous growth in a short period of time, it’s easy to lose sight of the fundamentals. A true cafe racer was never meant to be a rolling showcase of the industry’s most expensive components in a stationary automotive sculpture. So taking things back to basics, Germany?s Kaspeed craft clever customs that are riders bikes first and foremost. Simplifying and improving every area of the motorcycle until like this 1980 Honda CX500 it’s ready to put an enormous smile on its new owner’s dial.

Located in Saxony the team of mechanic father and his two sons, one a mechanical engineer with race experience and the other a technical model designer for the car industry, they bring a quality over quantity approach to everything they do. As Jimmy tells us, the goal for the CX500 was to build a ?bespoke classic Cafe Racer, keeping the original look and feel, upgraded with modern components and reduced to the essentials as they did in the ’60s and ’70s?.
To do things right the donor bike was stripped down so that every last component could be inspected and the meticulous build commenced. The subframe has been modified to give a smooth transition into the new looped tail. Before the chassis and shaft-drive equipped swingarm were tidied up and given a dusting of black powder coat. Unlike most CX builds the bike retains the factory side covers, with a body worked till beautifu...