Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Hey, what projects are you planning or preparing for? CBX, other motos, workshop, WHATEVAH!
deadbanana0717
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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by deadbanana0717 »

"Have you made any headway on that 80 project yet?"
Me?

So far I've purchased a few tools to help get things going.
angle grinders, bench grinders mig welder for tacking bits... figure they will all come in handy.
I'm currently experimenting with the mig welder to see what settings wont blow holes in my precious CBX frame.

Regarding actual work on the cbx... I'm trying to figure out the triple tree/stem. and Swingarm... I'm going to try lining up the 848 Swingarm and my R1 one up to see which looks/fits better over the weekend.
=( I get maybe 1 evening a week to my self... sigh!

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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by EMS »

Sorry, Jeff. A language lapse, once again. I meant the "horizontal" bar indicates it is not an '80 frame as stated earlier. I know, it is not a 79 frame. It has to be a Prolink frame.
Unless you put these in. You can see in the picture of my 80, the frame does not have these.

5525

My 80 project came to a grinding halt and stopped right before the valve adjustment. Priorities are: Exhaust and ignition on my 83 CB1100R, head and big bore cylinder block on my 79 CBX, cam chain tensioner roller on my 82 KZ1300, final drive seal on my 78 BMW R100S..... :roll: :roll:

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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by Syscrush »

At the risk of sacrilege, which do you like better, the CBX or the KZ?
Phil in Toronto
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Pics of Perry, my '79.

EMS
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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by EMS »

Syscrush wrote:At the risk of sacrilege, which do you like better, the CBX or the KZ?
:D :D :think: They are two totally different bikes. Just because they are both six cylinders does not necessarily put them in the same category. I also have a new BMW K1600 six, which again is totally different.
The Kawasaki KZ1300 was developped and brough to market as a direct competitor to the Honda GL1000/1100. I have a really interesting write-up from a Honda insider describing the activities at Honda engineering during 1977/78 which I will post here after the translation and some editing is completed. This will shed a lot of light on why Honda did the CBX and why it died after 4 years.

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Jeff Bennetts
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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by Jeff Bennetts »

[quote="EMS"]Sorry, Jeff. A language lapse, once again. I meant the "horizontal" bar indicates it is not an '80 frame as stated earlier. I know, it is not a 79 frame. It has to be a Prolink frame.
Unless you put these in. You can see in the picture of my 80, the frame does not have these.

5525

Yes sir you are correct, it's an 80 with the horizontal bar and the triangulation under the battery box added.

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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by BiKenG »

EMS wrote:... The fact that the late 70s/early 80s DOHC Hondas all suffered from flexing and wobbling is a well known fact among the owners and was a point that was widely criticized by the contemporary press and testers...
Resurrecting an old thread, but I have to comment.

Some of the early CBXs had clearance issues with the S/A bushes which could cause some weave issues, but the factory issued special shims with which to adjust this side play and that essentially eliminated the problem. Then the A model of course had decent bearings to avoid the issue altogether. Although not in the same league as a modern sports bike with a stiff Al. chassis, a good CBX was not bad at all and could be taken round a race track without any great problem.

The later 4 cylinder bikes were no worse really, although the full fairing Bol D'or 900 suffered with such a barn door of plastic on the front.

With regard to handling, the weakest part of the CBX was the spindly 35mm front forks. I changed those for a set of 39mm forks from a CB1100F and that made a significant improvement. Why they thought 35mm forks would be sufficient is beyond me.

As I said, in general bikes of that era were not as 'sharp' as today's missiles and testing bikes from other manufacturers of the time (big Kawasakis come to mind) showed they were no better than Honda's offerings. I have to say though that although we were aware handling could be improved and there was some mention of such issues in the media etc, it wasn't the big deal as implied above. At Honda UK we were not running around in a panic about bad handling problems - the CX500 engine failures on the other hand had us fully occupied in that regard. :(

At the time I thought the CBX a pretty good handling bike and when we had Tommy Robb (ex Honda GP racer) go for a quick blast on one of the first ones, he didn't come back complaining about the handling. In fact his unexpected comment was that the CBX had fantastic brakes. But that's a different story. :-)

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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by daves79x »

Interesting perspective! Thanks for sharing.

Dave

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Re: Project CBX - Need help picking parts.

Post by Syscrush »

BiKenG wrote:With regard to handling, the weakest part of the CBX was the spindly 35mm front forks. I changed those for a set of 39mm forks from a CB1100F and that made a significant improvement. Why they thought 35mm forks would be sufficient is beyond me.
I think that the criteria were that it hold the front wheel in place on the showroom floor, and save enough ounces to hit the target weight of under 600 lbs dry. And it was a success by both criteria. :)

Thanks very much for the perspective. What was your role at Honda UK? Do you own a CBX now?

As a note on spindly front forks... The Pro-Link and CB1100F 39mm forks are the same size used on almost every Harley made in the last 30 years, which includes some monstrous bikes. Supersports were using 43 for a while, but it seems like that's fallen out of style in favor of 41 - although they're kept short and inverted which both help stiffness in bending. Even so, I feel like if a GSX-R1000 racebike can work with a 41mm fork then my conservatively ridden street CBX is fine with its 39mm Pro-Link forks (with modern cartridge internals, a SuperBrace, and custom beefy triples).
Phil in Toronto
A cool guy deserves a cool bike, a dork needs a cool bike...
Pics of Perry, my '79.

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