10 Best Honda CB Cafe Racers

The Honda CB is from day one a very popular bike for cafe racer builders. The bikes are reliable, have great proportions, are easy to work on, have a massive after market and are pretty easy to find since Honda produced tons of them. The CB-series contain an extensive list of models, from 50cc mopeds to the CB1300 Super Four, with single cylinders to the impressive 6 inline CBX engine (that sounds like an old F1 engine, just awesome).

So we thought it was time for a little roundup, featuring the 10 best Honda CB Cafe Racers built to date:

Bonus: Honda CB400 Cafe Racer by RetroRides

This machine is added as a bonus, since it was not present at the time we’ve published the original top 10. This Honda CB400 Cafe Racer is built by the brothers Gustavo and Rodrigo Lourenço, owners of “Retrorides by Lourenço” a small workshop in Brazil. Due to the lack of availability of new parts, they’ve had to be creative and used a mix of parts from other machines and parts that couldn’t be bought, where built by themselves. [read more]

#10: Honda CB550 by Cognito Moto

For those who don’t know Cognito Moto; these guys fabricate the finest engineered parts for custom motorcycles. To showcase what they can do the build a bike of their own from time to time, with this Honda CB550 as one of their first builds. Beautiful to see a combination of the vintage Honda Four and some high end parts. Of course, this CB550 is fully packed with their own products and I think the bike deserves a listing in our Top 10 Honda CB Cafe Racers. [read more]

#9: Honda CB500 by Kikishop

This bike is a collaboration between French motorcycle apparel brand “The Royal Racer” and the French “Kikishop Customs“. A beautiful approach on the 1973 classic Honda CB cafe racer, complete with a half fairing. A perfect suit that looks very well on the Japanese classic “Four”. [read more]

#8: Honda CB750 by Auto Fabrica

“Flawless lines, supreme minimalism, and killer details”: the standard ingredients Auto Fabrica uses in their projects. This Honda CB750 is called “Type13” and really stands out in the crowd combining classic looks with modern day technology. They’ve really reinvented a classic with this one. [read more]

#7: Honda CB750 by Classified Moto

The exact goal if Classified Moto may be a mystery, but it’s clear that this bike is combination of a classic machine with ultra modern features. Upgraded engine, complete Yamaha R6 front end a custom 4 in 1 exhaust.  One of the most cool modifications is the single sided swing arm, which is from a Ducati Multistrada. [read more]

#6: Honda CB650 by Oscar Axhede

Building a café racer always starts with a passion and a plan. Oscar Axhede from Sweden had a plan to build his own café racer and bought a CB750. But after a while he could not give this bike the styling he was looking for. So he sold the CB750 and bought the younger brother: a Honda CB650 from 1980. This is the result of a 2 year project and he called it “Leatherhead”. A shed built that tool over 2 years to complete, and the result is an awesome CB cafe racer with beautiful leather details. [read more]

#5: Honda CB550 by Kott Motorcycles

Dusting Kott is a pure artist when it comes to building custom Honda CB’s. Every single creation is a purely perfected machine with it’s own characteristics. This project is based on a CB550 and is called “Black & Copper”. A clean and minimalistic machine [read more]

#4: Honda CB750 Cafe Racer by Oficina MRS

The guys from Oficina MRS melted down the internet last year with their awesome Kawasaki Vulcan S Cafe Racer; an out of the box approach made a cool bike out of this bulky bike. With this 1996 CB750 Café Racer they keep up their name of building high quality, good looking machines.

Owner Mario of Oficina MRS only kept the frame and engine of this CB750 and everything else is custom. “With every modification we have an aim for increasing power and decreasing weight”. [read more]

#3: Honda CB550 Cafe Racer by Fate Customs

Nils Ksienzyk from Germany found a Honda CB550 in a poor state and he decided to give it a try to bring it back in shape, together with making it a “personal ride”. Building a café racer on a budget is not always as easy as it looks, but for Nils it turned out very well. The classic café racer stance in combination with the lowered suspension and shor rear make this CB cafe racer a real one of a kind beaty. [read more]

#2: Honda CB450 Cafe Racer by GT-Moto

I have to admit, I may have a slight preference for Sofi Tsingos, owner of GT-Moto. A women that builds custom motorcycles… Just awesome! But she’s not simply building machines, she creates awesome rides! And not only for her own benefits; she donates a portion of all profits to support the worldwide fight against cancer. This Honda CB450 is an absolute masterpiece, proud to call it our #2 in our top 10 of Honda CB cafe racers. [read more]

#1: Honda CBX Cafe Racer by Nick O’Kane

The 6 inline CBX was (and still is…) the absolute flagship of the Honda CB-series but this creation of Nick O’Kane hits the spot. Nick, manager at K&N, took this beast a part and had a clear focus: performance.

He found a CBX that was spread over several boxes, called some contacts and sourced for high quality parts. The result is a good looking, aggressive and powerful six cylinder beast. No wonder this bike is our best Honda CB cafe racer… [read more]

Did we missed one? Let us know, we update our posts on a regular basis.