The Honda GL500 Silverwing was a touring model spin-off of the CX500, with a similar liquid-cooled motor, shaft drive, and air adjustable suspension. While neither bike was very attractive, the off-beat CX/GL series has caught the eye of custom builders worldwide.

Enter Alf of Romania’s Bandisca Motorcycles, who were evicted from their workspace last year by a greed landlord. Fortunately, they found a the perfect Parisian style house in Bucharest to relaunch their shop:

“So the God of Speed came to visit us. The Parisian style house was built in 1895 in the Lizeanu neighborhood, very close to everywhere and is in a pretty nice shape with an attached garage and underground space where we’ve setup the workshop and a cool private courtyard. It’s perfect!”

Today they are back with this Honda GL500 “Brokenwing,” built for The Bike Shed 2018 and inspired by the boardtrackers of old. Below, we get the full story on this custom GL500.

“Brokenwing” GL500: Builder Interview

• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.

We are a small independent custom workshop based in Bucharest Romania.

• What’s the make, model, and year of the bike?

1982 Honda GL500 Silverwing. We named it Brokenwing.

• Why was this bike built?

Built for the Bike Shed London Show 2018

• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?

We inspired this built on the old boardtrackers, but trying to create a proper race bike

• What custom work was done to the bike?

Frame was completely rebuilt due to the rust that makes a lot of damages to the donor bike. We went with a monopost scheme with upside down front fork with axle offset and a rear monoshock Showa full settable shock, double front brake and disc rear brake adapted from a GL1000 with a Brembo caliper, all handlebars, rearsets, front mask with hidden headlights, dashboard, seat and tail was handcrafted by us. The tank comes from a Benelli Mojave.

• How would you classify this bike?

I don’t like tags, so let’s say it’s a freestyle.

• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?

The engine was completely rebuilt and tuned up with a custom exhaust system built in house and a pair of 32VM Mikunis with custom intakes from Murray’s Carbs. (BTW very proud of our collaboration with this guy, he’s a great person.)

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