Photo: Brent Lewin
Run by the talented duo of Giles Colliver and Andy Dorr, Sabotage Motorcycles over in Australia is the sort of workshop we’ll gladly bring up whenever we get the chance. Their portfolio is teeming with spectacular builds you could easily fall in love with, many of which were featured right here on autoevolution in the past. As you can tell, the bike we’ll be looking at today is no different.
Giles and his teammate started with a Honda CX500 from the model-year 1980, radically transforming its appearance on their quest to create a snazzy, metal-clad cafe racer. All the original bodywork has been deleted during the initial teardown, but so were items like the chunky seat, exhaust, and rear shock absorbers. Then, the subframe was modded to accommodate a looped section at the back.
Atop the subframe tubing lies a bespoke seat pan, in turn topped with a two-piece saddle upholstered in black leather. The pillion seat pad sits higher than the main unit, fronting a circular LED taillight and a simple license plate bracket with integrated aftermarket turn signals. Flanking the new saddle are handmade side covers that conceal the motorcycle’s electronic bits and pieces.
Moving northward, we come across a stunning aluminum fuel tank that’s been fabricated from scratch, accompanied by reworked versions of the stock radiator shrouds. The last piece of custom bodywork you’ll find here is a custom-built front fender, small and slender yet perfectly capable of fulfilling its role. Front-end lighting comes from a repurposed Triumph headlamp held in place via tailor-made brackets.
The CX500’s cockpit area is now home to a single aftermarket dial and clip-on handlebars equipped with Biltwell grips. We still find the factory hoops down in the unsprung sector, but they’ve been vapor-blasted, treated to a layer of Cerakote, and ultimately cloaked in retro-looking Dunlop TT100 GP rubber. In addition, Sabotage chose to retain and refurbish the OEM braking equipment at both ends.
They also kept the bike’s standard forks, simply blessing them with a revitalizing overhaul to make them perform at their very best once again. On the other hand, rear-end suspension duties are now taken care of by shrouded aftermarket shocks from Hagon’s range. Oh, and of course, Andy and Giles haven’t overlooked the creature’s V-twin powerplant, which was first rebuilt inside out to make it regain its former glory.
With the engine internals freshened up, the Sabotage duo proceeded to install some new breathing equipment to finish things off. Air flows in through Mikuni flat-slide carbs topped with premium pod filters, and a stainless-steel exhaust with slash-cut tips can be found at the other end of the combustion cycle. Finally, the specimen’s bodywork was left unpainted, allowing the shop’s sublime metalwork to do all the talking.
Atop the subframe tubing lies a bespoke seat pan, in turn topped with a two-piece saddle upholstered in black leather. The pillion seat pad sits higher than the main unit, fronting a circular LED taillight and a simple license plate bracket with integrated aftermarket turn signals. Flanking the new saddle are handmade side covers that conceal the motorcycle’s electronic bits and pieces.
Moving northward, we come across a stunning aluminum fuel tank that’s been fabricated from scratch, accompanied by reworked versions of the stock radiator shrouds. The last piece of custom bodywork you’ll find here is a custom-built front fender, small and slender yet perfectly capable of fulfilling its role. Front-end lighting comes from a repurposed Triumph headlamp held in place via tailor-made brackets.
The CX500’s cockpit area is now home to a single aftermarket dial and clip-on handlebars equipped with Biltwell grips. We still find the factory hoops down in the unsprung sector, but they’ve been vapor-blasted, treated to a layer of Cerakote, and ultimately cloaked in retro-looking Dunlop TT100 GP rubber. In addition, Sabotage chose to retain and refurbish the OEM braking equipment at both ends.
They also kept the bike’s standard forks, simply blessing them with a revitalizing overhaul to make them perform at their very best once again. On the other hand, rear-end suspension duties are now taken care of by shrouded aftermarket shocks from Hagon’s range. Oh, and of course, Andy and Giles haven’t overlooked the creature’s V-twin powerplant, which was first rebuilt inside out to make it regain its former glory.
With the engine internals freshened up, the Sabotage duo proceeded to install some new breathing equipment to finish things off. Air flows in through Mikuni flat-slide carbs topped with premium pod filters, and a stainless-steel exhaust with slash-cut tips can be found at the other end of the combustion cycle. Finally, the specimen’s bodywork was left unpainted, allowing the shop’s sublime metalwork to do all the talking.
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