1981 Honda CBX -The bucket bike

I have always wanted a CBX 1000 even when I wasn't interested in motorcycles as a kid. The sound they make at high rpm always did it for me. I got into motorcycles and have had many of them but never got a CBX because they got expensive while I played with other stuff.  I feel like I've built fun bikes that are maybe other people's dream bikes but never mine.

Then I moved to Alaska from Georgia and inventory dropped to just about zero. A month ago, I was getting my Kawasaki H1 painted and bs-ing with the painter I casually mentioned CBXs. 

"Follow me"

We go in the back and there is an 81 CBX 1000 sitting by the wall with most of the bodywork off.

Its a Prolink model 1981 which I'm still cool with but without the hard cases. If Wolf of Wall Street was a motorcycle it would have those things. 3700 miles, supposedly runs, mostly all there. Has sat for 20 years in a connex trailer.

I made an offer and we were far apart but I kept thinking about it. They are just my favorite bike and I'll never find another up here. Shipping anything is going to add a couple grand so I figured once I added that in I could justify paying more.

A few more back and forth messages and I picked it up tonight.

I do NOT recommend this unloading method for 600 lb bikes:

But it made it in with the rest:

Bonus: The Book

 

I feel like I overpaid but the values are just different than the used to be and this one just came directly to me. It's missing the side covers and the rear tail cover and once I get that, the "cocaine and divorce paper" cases and fairing come off and the front headlight gets backdated to the 1979 version. Big girl is going on a slight diet but I'll keep the original parts. It's a slower pace than my last projects and this is THE bucket list bike for me so I want to take my time with it.

I cannot walk by it without checking that engine out and smiling.

Glorious Bike!

It looks like one of the header pipes has a different colour? Didn't get as hot as the other 5?

Gzwg said:

Glorious Bike!

It looks like one of the header pipes has a different colour? Didn't get as hot as the other 5?

I'm sure the carbs need synced and gone through so probably as it has been sitting forever. I've owned it for 11 minutes, buying it as is without it running, so I couldn't tell ya for certain just yet.

We will get there though.

I've always loved these things. 
 

There's a guy in town who had a few of them. He bought one from a tech school. It only had something like 37 miles on it, but it had been taken apart and rebuilt hundreds of times. 
 

I would never get tired of looking at that bike. Enjoy your CBX. 

My dad had one he bought new in 1980. It was ruby red with black side covers and I will never forget how he used to bitch about how heavy it was. Before that he had a CB900 Bol D'or, so this was a much heavier bike. 

You now have an H1 AND a CBX?? Impressive collection. CBX is a dream bike for me too. I've always thought my CB650 could use 50% more...everything.

You have one item from Jay Leno's collection, I hope you someday have the rest.

Very nice.  What a unicorn to find in Alaska, or anywhere, really.

And only 3700 miles - A lot of the collector value is in the low mileage.

You had me worried for a second when you said you were removing the fairing and luggage, but as long as you're keeping them I'm cool with that.  I prefer the earlier naked version too (especially in red), but this version is sort of the ultimate sport touring bike.

That is such a crazy bike. It looks like a tiny Jaguar motor on there.

stuart in mn said:

And only 3700 miles - A lot of the collector value is in the low mileage.

You had me worried for a second when you said you were removing the fairing and luggage, but as long as you're keeping them I'm cool with that.  I prefer the earlier naked version too (especially in red), but this version is sort of the ultimate sport touring bike.

A lot of folks really love the sport touring look but I just don't ride like that. I don't do long distance multiple hundreds of miles road trips typically because that puts me waaaay in the middle of nowhere on vintage motorcycles that can break down. I tend to do little 20-30 mile blasts around me and then put them up. The giant front fairing prevents you from looking down and seeing the front tire and I really hate that on a bike especially a huge one.

Eventually I'd like to get it here more or less:

If anybody happens to have a lead on the Pro-Link 81-82 side covers and rear cover let me know!

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

I've always loved these things. 
 

There's a guy in town who had a few of them. He bought one from a tech school. It only had something like 37 miles on it, but it had been taken apart and rebuilt hundreds of times. 
 

I would never get tired of looking at that bike. Enjoy your CBX. 

A lot of these got donated to schools and have weird VINs and little miles but like you said they got disassembled 1000 times by tech school kids. Honda could not sell these so the donated a ton of them. Times have changed! I was very hesitant to get low miles versions of these for that reason and I actually looked for wear on the license plate from where it has 3k miles of scratches from a plate on it so I feel good about it just being a low mile bike and not a tech school garage queen. 

Crankwalk, I had a CBX and an H2 so get where you are coming from!

Methinks someone has a thing for inline 6s. I approve, for what it is worth.

Cool bike.

Congratulations on the AWESOME score!   I've loved the CBX for years so I'm a bit jealous of your score.  Enjoy the bike and the soundtrack!

Looking again at your pics I noticed your CBX has rear air suspension?

I took these at the AIMexpo many years ago to tease my dad, his was the exact copy of this one with chrome bars and he had installed square mirrors:

Congrats. 

The Pro-Link bikes handle much better than the twin-shock versions. That said, it's still a big pig of a bike. Lots of fun but needs to be muscled in the corners a bit.

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:

Methinks someone has a thing for inline 6s. I approve, for what it is worth.

Cool bike.

 

6 in a row , ready to go. 

We are about to head out on vacation for a bit and I really wanted to drain carbs and have them sitting wet with some Seafoam/ fresh gas mix while we are gone. 

Tank off to assess the situation. Ooof this is a tight engine bay. I notice some broken plastic nipples with vacuum lines coming off but I will have to address that later when I likely have to *ugh* drop the engine forward to remove the carbs. 

The choke cable is hanging by a thread:

I got it to stumble and it sounded decent but not quite right. I consulted the shop manual and realized the plug wires for 5 and 2 were switched. Both of these diagrams are in the shop manual but show two different locations of where the plug wires route. Top one is wrong and bottom one is right:

It's funny how good these run on 4 cylinders. They don't sound like they are missing they just sound like a smooth 4 cyl.

Switched the wires around and tried again. A combo of starting fluid and holding the choke cable with my hand since im missing a part of the lever on the bar got it to bark off for a sec on all 6. This makes me feel more comfortable digging in further:

After a good cleaning, I confirmed all 6 pipes were getting hot now. (Check the oil cooler with NO bent fins. Makes me feel even more confident about the low mileage)

Doing more inspecting I find the wiring harness under the seat has worn through. This has to be the WORST place to put a harness.

Off to ebay  and I order a complete pull out wiring harness in good condition, choke lever, and new cable to have on the way.

Before I put everything on the back burner for a few weeks I tackle one more small project of flushing the nastiest brake fluid out of this thing.

So it's on the trickle charger and waiting for parts. This is definitely going to be a long term thing. Prices are expensive and everything is complicated and hard to get to. It feels overwhelming and intimidating but It's great getting to dig into to my own CBX and learn as I go. 

Hopefully your Pro-Link shock is in good shape and not leaking and the links under the bike haven't been exposed to too much water, salt and grime.  Those links do not have any provision for lube, and there are a couple that are under very high stress.  If you ever hear so much as a little squeek you should pull it apart, clean and re-lube with the recommended Honda 60% Moly lube.  They used the same suspension on the GL500 and I had mine apart a couple of times for lube.  As for the shock, the last I heard the main seal for them was unobtainium, so hopefully it hasn't sprung a leaking.

Congrats on the find.  I too have always wanted one as it came out when I was in my motorcycle madness phase.  I remember Kawasaki had a straight 6 around the same time, but I think it was water cooled and even heavier than the CBX.

There is a guy local to me that cbxs is all he does. 

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:

There is a guy local to me that cbxs is all he does. 

Im guessing it's this guy: https://www.mrcbx.com/

Kudos to you - I thought these were unobtainable.   These bad boys sound like a F1 car.  
 

In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :

That is correct

Tiny update before progress stops for a few weeks.

Front brakes are bled and working great. Rear brakes have a terrible air lock that I will have to try reverse bleeding when I'm back in town. No leaks so I'm hoping it doesn't need a master cylinder rebuild just force some fluid through it with a syringe.

Finally checked the tank and it is spotless. It will be lined with RedKote shortly:

Full replacement wiring harness is on the way. I really don't know if I want to cannibalize sections of this one or do a full swap.

New brake lever and choke cable ordered and on the way. My choke lever is missing the keeper that locks the cable in.

I need this guy:

It's such a tiny part but everywhere I looked it was NLA or I had to buy a $180 full clutch lever assembly off a parted out bike. For little crap, that is the fastest way for these projects to add up fast.

But I'm in luck, ol' CBX club Terry had a set of side covers in the right colors and that piece he threw in for me so that is on the way too:

I'm still on the hunt for a rear tail section in good shape but I'll put that on the back burner for now. 

Once the hard cases come off, the rear turn signals will be relocated to the hole on the rear section where the cases mount via a Tim's CBX bracket kit:

If my wife doesn't murder me when a ton of boxes show up all at the same time, I should have some good updates in a few weeks.

Back in town and I wanted to get a little progress done on the CBX.

New cable and the missing choke lever bracket is on:

"New" used harness arrived and the section I need is perfect. I'll be digging into this later as it gets closer to the road as I know it runs as is :

New Ebay brake lever was a fail and not the right angle at all. A new slightly more expensive one is on the way that looks more like the OEM features.

After bleeding the rear brakes with the syringe I confirmed I had fluid throughout the system but I could still hear air at the master cylinder. Finally I get pressure, pressure,pressure..... rear master cylinder explosion. Ha! I'll be looking for a rebuild kit for that shortly.

I popped in the side covers just to get a look and them popped them back off to store them. I still want a good condition rear tail piece so even if it's just sitting here it looks complete:

All in all, not really a ton accomplished but I did add some stuff to the "need to buy list" and I learned some things. 

Toning up the fat butt on this thing.

Goodbye contraband cases:

Tims CBX relocation kit (these will get painted eventually):

Rear tail piece acquired and no longer missing pieces:
 

Whew! I can walk around it now. Front fairing coming back off will gain even more space and has to shed 50+ lbs with all of this gone.

The right brake lever came:

Digging in to the rear brakes:

Ouch:

Piston seized and corroded. It's been soaking for 4 days with no progress. I'm about to try a grease fitting to push it out. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try and fit a universal one because CBX ones are thin on the ground.

A decent couple days though I wanted all the brakes done. It doesn't matter since it's not on the road but it will be nice to be done with all of one thing instead of mostly done with several.