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Honda CX 500 discussion forum:CX memories |
| CX memories |
| Sverre said 2005-07-09 15:16 |
| It´s a shame that Honda never finished the CX properly, it has to be one of the best bikes ever to come out of Japan. Initial problems plagued it´s rep for years but that was only a handful of bikes and cacky-handed mechanics who were responsible for that. I know of several CX´s that topped 250,000kms without trying, the Finns call it ´The Mule´ (not fast but it get there...and back). I could load my weight in camping gear and ride at 170kph all day-every day, it never raised a sweat. No other 500 on the market could match it, you needed to go up to the 800 class to find bikes that good. The bike has to stand in 18-20 degrees overnight before adjusting the cam-chain, it might be too tight or too loose otherwise, one of the reasons some people had problems. The cooling-fluid had to be changed once a year to lubricate the ceramic-gasket or it could begin to drip, especially after laying-up after the winter. Fresh petrol, assuming you drained the floatbowls of the old, ensured a good startup after a layup. Otherwise no real problems. The C. of G. was unnessessarily too high, the engine was raised to ´make it look tight´, it could have been 3cms lower, no problem. Not much, but experience in motocross tells me that would have made an enormous difference, I could feel 2mm´s change in engine placement on my XL425 Yoshimora-kitted/Bell-head HVA special. I met a K & N engineer in Cologne in the early 80´s, he used a CX all the time, they were in charge of the research into making a Harley-beater dirt-racer, and Honda gave them 20 engines to work on. All were standard production engines off the line, all gave 44bhp at the shaft, plus-minus 1/2bhp. These were the only engines ever tested that came within 15% of the stated (inflated) factory figures, no other engine (of ANY capacity) could hold 90% revs for as long as the CX, without loosing power and spitting oil. His personal bike had CB 750 fork-internals and Koni´s, exhaust-pipes with a larger internal diameter (area of outside of outer pipe, area of inner pipe, new pipes had inner dia halfway inbetween). K & N filter alone gave 3bhp at 3,000, 6bhp at 6,000, 3bhp at 9,000. The rubber entry pipe to the filter sticks too far into the filter, by 5-7mm, but it´s the correct length. It´s the filter that´s too high in the frame due to engine being raised, he said so! Cutting this excess tube off nessessitates rebuilding the carb-jetting, it´s too weak at the bottom, causing problems starting on the button (he lived on a hill, there was a slope at work!) He then tested the engine: 55bhp at 9,000. As they were to use pumper-Dellorto´s he fitted them and noted 60bhp. He was sure that with a programmable-ignition 65bhp was within reach. All this with an otherwise standard engine. As a roadbike they couldn´t improve on the combustion chamber or cams, the expansion-box ´hid´ the silencers, the engines thinking they were on straight pipes. He was impressed to the degree he fitted some sticky rubber and hit Alice´s restaurant in the Califonian hills, their version of the Isle of Man. It got so bad the others head for home when he turned-up. nobody, no bike, however ´tricked-out´, could beat that steely-eyed 50 year-old and his CX. He was great friends with Irimajiri-san, the guy who designed the CX (for a jeep, actually) and the Honda racers, he stayed with this guy when on visit. Iri once raced the CX at Alice´s (he was also a keen rider, with a ´titanium-everything´ Jerry Branch tuned desmo-Velocette at home) and went for a ride around town one day, just before dinner...and came back several hours later, to be greeted by now cold and congealed food and a rather mad wife...who made him eat it! When various projects were finished the Japs just wanted the info, not the hardware, which the firms could keep. This time the Japs waited until the Californian was away on business...and a squad of Japs descended on the company (he´d ridden the bike to work, then took a cab to the airport) and stripped it of all the CX bikes, parts and bits, and shipped it to Japan. Irimajiri never dared show his face again. He liked the K & N CX so much he just had to do it, he had to have it! To think we could have had one like it too... |
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