Honda’s CX500 is a good example of how design can make or break a model. Styled by Shoichiro Irimajiri, the man tasked with penning the Honda GL1000 and the CBX, the CX500 was innovative for the time, but the plastic headlight fairing and rather drab overall appearance ensured that it wasn’t a huge success. So it’s surprising to see the model gain popularity in recent years, with many builders crafting cafe racers out of the “plastic maggot” (as it unfortunately came to be known), courtesy the solid engineering under the skin.

Called “Blubber”, this particular motorcycle is the work of Portuguese custom workshop Ton-up Garage, who have endowed it with a bunch of tasty little details and components. Goodies include a custom headlight, Avon front and rear tyres, Motogadget Tiny Speedo, LSL clips-ons, white exhaust heat wrap, white-painted Megaton short exhaust and finally, custom paint and seat by Ton-up Garage.

Check out other custom Honda CX500 builds by Moto Mucci and Kingston Custom.