For the money invested in this custom 1982 Honda CX500, Walter Loeppky says he could have purchased a modern-day, fuel-injected, factory-built café-racer style motorcycle. But, writing a cheque and riding off the showroom floor on a brand-new machine wouldn’t have been as much fun — or anywhere near as meaningful — to him or his good friend, Greg Wigle.
“I’m an unintentional motorcycle builder,” Loeppky says from his acreage just south of Calgary. “I never set out to build a café racer from a CX500, but Greg did.”
Loeppky and Wigle met more than 30 years ago. They shared a common interest in carpentry and small-scale construction projects and often helped each other in their creative endeavours. Wigle was a motorcyclist, while Loeppky was something of a latecomer to the sport. Although he’d always wanted to ride, he didn’t do training and obtain his permit until 2011, when he was in his late forties. With his Alberta Class 6 licence in his wallet, Loeppky bought a 2004 BMW R1150R. It’s
