For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

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steve murdoch icoa #5322
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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

A great looking restoration.
Now we need a video running through the gears so we can get the full audio of the new exhaust system.

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by Rick Pope »

Very, very nice. Congratulations in a job well done.
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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by Larry Zimmer »

Lookin' mighty fine, mate. Enjoy you should.
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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by LONGCLOSE »

steve murdoch icoa #5322 wrote:A great looking restoration.
Now we need a video running through the gears so we can get the full audio of the new exhaust system.
Thanks for all the feedback, will try and get a video up as I have a CBX classic bike run this weekend with a number of other CBX'ers

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by LONGCLOSE »

Good evening Guys from south Africa, OK we managed to get 10 CBX bikes together so as per Steves request enjoy the ride with me... sorry its so long but trying to edit on the go is difficult and the scenery is stunning so enjoy as I did.

PS: see if you can spot the mystical neutral between 4th and 5th...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K51qoijDveo

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

Only just come across this thread and thought I'd add my 2 cents.

I was working at HUK when the CBX was introduced and with a colleague did all the technical training on that model and with some other colleagues rode those early bikes up to the IoM for the Marshals to use that year. I still recall the expression on a couple of young lads crossing the road in Liverpool in front of an array of 4 new 6 cylinder Hondas that had never been seen before on UK roads - and one then took off with the front wheel in the air. But I digress.

Prior to that I had taken an early bike (possibly sand cast) for Ignition Suppression (ECE10 regulation) testing and had a quick blast on the roads. That made me the first person to ride a CBX on UK roads.

I cannot remember the exact dates, but when we finally had bikes actually available to ship out to the dealers, we (Service Department) insisted on Sales withholding them until we (actually just me putting them all together after work in the evenings) managed to assemble sufficient special 'Shim Kits' so that every dealer had the tool and a selection of shims to be able to perform a valve clearance check. Well, they were all held back except one - mine :-)

I had been excitedly waiting for my new bike and arranged for the sales department to deliver my bike immediately, actually to Honda UK where I would prepare it myself. It was a tough choice, build up my bike out of the crate so I could ride it, or assemble more shim kits. I'm sure I don't need to admit which won that particular contest. However it only delayed the deliveries by a day and then I was the first and sole CBX owner on the road in the UK for a week or more, until the shim kits were complete, sent to the dealers and the bikes released by Sales and delivered to the dealers.

I later had the distinction of being the first person to 'write off' a CBX in the UK. It was during some testing at Snetterton, a UK race track. So my CBX 'credentials' were stacking up nicely.

Wind forward a year or so and I'd sold my CBX (to get a car), but then had the opportunity to buy the only CBX-A ever officially imported into the UK. Sales dept. had decided we still had too many Zs still in stock and so no CBX-As were brought in - except this early one just specifically for more Ignition Suppression testing and once that had been completed, it languished out the back until I asked to buy it and did. The point of all this reminiscing?

Once I had rebuilt the cylinder head on my new acquisition (valves all seized from sitting in the damp unused for over a year) I was idly perusing the parts stock information and was astonished to see that the black colour parts for the Z were in stock in the UK warehouse. This was a surprise since although I considered the black scheme the finest of all CBX liveries, the UK had NEVER imported nor made available any black bikes, but there were apparently quite a few sets in stock. The number 300 comes to mind, but that seems like a ridiculously large number, so I must be wrong.

With my mind working overtime I reported this to a friend in parts department who agreed that we urgently must order a set from stock just to confirm they were as claimed to be on the computer system. And so it came to pass that I was the first (and only) owner to have a black CBX in the UK. However, those were Z parts and so I had lost the small compartment behind the seat. But worth it just to have it in black.

Well that lasted only a short time until I managed to crash my own bike into the undercarriage of a Lear jet while filming a Dunlop advert. That has to be another first, but oh woe is me. My beautiful, special black CBX was now rather bent (and me rather sore too). Fortunately I was able to order my replacement parts (frame, forks, more black bits, the list goes on) through the European warehouse as the UK had NO CBX-A specific parts and I soon again had a beautiful black CBX again, only this time I was able to incorporate the small storage compartment behind the seat as I ordered a proper CBX-A part along with the rest of the special order from the European warehouse in Ghent.

Later I bought a no longer required CBX-B engine from the Training Schools and fitted that into my bike. Having collected a fair number of CBX parts by that time and my original A frame straightened and now the original engine, I built another bike and sold it to a friend who only had it a short time before it was stolen. I continued working on my bike which ultimately became the one as shown in the attached image below.

However, the fact remains that the UK never officially sold any black Zs or As or parts for them. But they did have a lot of parts in stock at one time. I don't now recall, but I'm sure they would have been returned to Ghent for stocking there as I believe other EU markets had sold the black model.

This how mine ended up:-
CBX1000R.jpg
If anyone knows the whereabouts of this bike, please let me know as I'd love to buy it back. I should never have sold it, but divorce makes you do crazy things. :x
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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by cbxmel »

Hi ken,

Good to see you are still around. Still remember at my presentation at the National Motorcycle Museum when you kindly helped out with the other Honda UK guys and of course Tommy Robb. Hope to see you again in the not too distant future.

All the best Mel #1876
ps I am still looking for your bike.pps Here is a black 79 in a French magazine.
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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by 80 cbx dude #6216 »

Hello Ken,
Interesting chin fairing! Where did this come from? -Mike

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by cbxian »

Hi Ken,

Those are great personal stories on the history of the CBX in Britain. I got that information from you (or Gerald) and included it in the "CBX Book II" on Page 63 with some photos sourced in the Brit. magazines.

Yours must have been a "Dream Job" for a 20-something Biker back in the late-1970s!! Thanks for sharing that with us.

In 1988 I had never heard about the single black CBX-A brought into UK by Honda in 1980, and assumed the red CBX-A that I brought back from my Studies in Washington DC in 1988 was the first in UK. To the CBXers at the first CBX Club Rally organised by Pete Broad at the "Motorcycle Museum" beside NEC in Birmingham, it was a real eye-opener compared to their CBX-Zs!!! I still have that Bike and love it (the best US$1,000.00 I ever spent!!!).

I hope you get your Bike back!!

Best, IAN
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Home : ian@ netvigator.com (www.cam-hk.com)
Work : ian@udi-hk.com (www.udi-hk.com)

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

80 cbx dude #6216 wrote:Hello Ken,
Interesting chin fairing! Where did this come from? -Mike
It was the fairing from the VF750F whose shape to fit snug to its frame just happened to be a good fit to the front sides of the CBX tank. I used the fairing bracket also from the VF which I seem to recall needed to be shortened a bit where it bolted to a bracket on the VF's headstock and I brazed a suitable bracket onto my CBX's headstock and also attached it to the oil cooler brackets. I forget how. Overall it was not a difficult job to mount it and I thought it looked good.

What the pictures don't show is that I also used a set of instruments from the VF750S which were probably the first all electronic gauges Honda ever offered and I got several of the special display functions working but I remember being disappointed I couldn't get the Gear Position Indicator to function so it just showed 'N' when in Neutral and something else (blank maybe?) when in gear. The VF750S had a sensor to detect gear position (another first), but the CBX did not and no-one had by then thought up how to calculate it from RPM and road speed. Well in truth I had figured out you could do that, but manufacturing something suitable was beyond my capabilities.

Wheels were from the VF1000R, Rr. shocks from the CB1100R and forks from the CB1100F (not imported into UK) which proved my theory that any handling problems the CBX had were largely down to the stupidly skinny 35mm fork legs. Those fatter 39mm fork legs made a noticeable difference and modern USD types would be even better.
Last edited by BiKenG on Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

cbxmel wrote:Hi ken,

Good to see you are still around. Still remember at my presentation at the National Motorcycle Museum when you kindly helped out with the other Honda UK guys and of course Tommy Robb. Hope to see you again in the not too distant future.

All the best Mel #1876
ps I am still looking for your bike...
Hi Mel, yes still here and still making plans for building my CBX special. But other projects (VFRs, CXs and GLs) keep getting in the way. I am looking for a B/C engine and a Pro-Link frame though, so if anyone has either/both lying around, please let me know.

I still recall that day as being when I finally found the answer to Tommy's comment years previously after his first ride on the CBX - "wow, great brakes". Huh? We expected enthusiasm about the the power and/or smoothness of the engine, but brakes? They were certainly OK but not what stuck in my mind after a first ride on such a spectacular bike.

It was at that CBX meeting at the NMM that Tommy (unprompted) admitted that while on that ride he was caught out by the power and smoothness of the CBX and found himself arriving at a roundabout way too fast. Fortunately the brakes were good enough to slow him down sufficiently to make it around said roundabout without actual incident, but he was left a bit shaken and thankful for the brakes. Hence his comment when he returned, although not at the time admitting his mistake and the fact he very nearly crashed and totalled the bike.

So for myself and my colleague (Brian O'Reilly) who had given the keys to Tommy for that quick blast, it was mystery solved.

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

cbxian wrote:Those are great personal stories on the history of the CBX in Britain. I got that information from you (or Gerald) and included it in the "CBX Book II" on Page 63 with some photos sourced in the Brit. magazines.

Yours must have been a "Dream Job" for a 20-something Biker back in the late-1970s!! Thanks for sharing that with us.

In 1988 I had never heard about the single black CBX-A brought into UK by Honda in 1980, and assumed the red CBX-A that I brought back from my Studies in Washington DC in 1988 was the first in UK. To the CBXers at the first CBX Club Rally organised by Pete Broad at the "Motorcycle Museum" beside NEC in Birmingham, it was a real eye-opener compared to their CBX-Zs!!! I still have that Bike and love it (the best US$1,000.00 I ever spent!!!).

I hope you get your Bike back!!
Hi Ian, my original CBX book still has pride of place on my coffee table, but I don't seem to have Book II :D

There were numerous bikes brought in for specific testing in the UK. The regulations were European and Japan chose whatever country it decided to use for each test. Sometimes several tests would be done, but sometimes only one. The UK were often tasked with doing the Ignition Suppression testing and sometimes noise, even though the UK itself had not adopted those regs.

If it was a new model, the tests would often be on pre-production prototypes and secrecy had to be maintained (and certainly no riding on the public road after the test :-) ). But for the CBX-A, it was not an all new model and so the one we had was basically production. It was supplied in silver and literally, after about half an hour of sitting in the middle of a field, occasionally running at a fast idle while the testers manoeuvred their aerials about measuring the radiation being emitted by the bike (they usually complained it was all a waste of time as they could never detect anything significant from Hondas) this CBX-A was returned to HQ and parked in a covered area out the back - something of a test bike's graveyard. Which is where it stayed for about a year till I got the idea and asked to buy it. Seems extraordinary now that there had been no interest in what happened to this bike, but the CBX was no longer the 'big news' and was now just another bike. In only a few years it would become just an old bike that few had any interest in. I wish I'd bought a shedload of them at that time. Instead I sold my pride and joy. Idiot. :angry-banghead:

The CB1100F we had was for the same reasons, but some time after testing we were informed the prototype we had was flawed and MUST be scrapped. Not totally surprising for an early prototype, but only a short time after that we received a nice new complete set of production forks - legs, yokes, stem, bearings that had to be fitted to the test bike as it was dangerous otherwise. However, since that bike was already scheduled for destruction and would never be ridden, why fit the new forks only for them to be destroyed. So in the end the bike was scrapped and my CBX had a nice new set of thick CB1100F forks. Job done. 8)

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by 80 cbx dude #6216 »

Hi Ken, I was interested in the lower fairing in front of the exhaust. Is that off a VF750F as well? Thanks for you're reply.-Mike

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

Ah, sorry. That was from a CBX750 with some brackets made to attach to the normally unused holes at the front of the crankcases and also at the rear that attached to, er, somewhere else. Forget where, sorry.

I thought it looked pretty good, although in that magazine shot the rear end looks a little 'wayward', but from most angles it all seemed to flow well together.

I loved the way the bike turned out and with my wife (at the time) we did several European trips on it. Also a day at Snetterton with MotorCycle Mechanics to get some pictures of it on and off track. So I know the end result worked well, even howling round a race track - with no incident I might add. :-)

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Re: For Mel Watkins - Black 1979 CBX

Post by BiKenG »

Thinking about it, I now recall that there are some more unused holes at the bottom rear of the sump and a couple of L shaped brackets with a single cross piece from side to side between the rear sides of the plastic held the back in place. As with the front fairing, it was not a hard job as the shape of the plastic was a good match with the angle of the pipes, but far enough away that it never caused any heat problem.

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