CBX Racing

CBXs, new bikes, old bikes, cars, trucks, general chat, off topic, this is the place to post it.
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steve murdoch icoa #5322
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

A very recent thread with a ton of info on using Racetech.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9527&p=75282&hilit=emulators#p75282

EMS
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by EMS »

Everyone that will spend a lot of money on parts to "improve" handling of an old bike will not admit that they do not like it.
I am one of the very few who runs a bone stock front and rear 81 CBX, rides it two-up and I am perfectly happy with what it does.
Point taken, I do not take it to the track, but I have been on the Dragon with it and I have chased Louis on his Turbo on the BRP and I have not been in a situation where I thought I could have been 5 seconds faster if the bike had better suspension.

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NobleHops
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by NobleHops »

I could not disagree more. I think suspension is the first and best place to spend money and effort on a motorcycle, and the older the bike is, the bigger the potential for improvement. Simply re-springing an old bike for your load and getting sag correct makes a huge difference. Modern shocks and fork emulators and another level up from that.

In my experience the better the suspension, the higher my comfort and confidence.

N.
Nils Menten
Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Rick Pope »

I've been happy with the two sets I've had, but neither was in a CBX fork (Blackbird and SV 650). Difference was substantial.
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Either garage is too small or we have too many bikes. Or Momma's car needs to go outside.

Warwick Biggs
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Hey guys, Australia is a continent. It seems that I'm the only contributor with a whole country to myself when I look at the right hand column of the forum.

In fact I live in the forested hills near the small village of Wollombi, in the Hunter Valley of NSW. The road from Sydney to here is a favourite motorcycle route and its not unusual to see hundreds of bikes parked out the front of the local pub on a Sunday. We don't get too many CBX's, tho' the Australian CBX club started nearby but has moved on. Regrettably we see rather too many Screaming Eagle appendages.

Wollombi is well known for its hippy past and its arts/alternative scene. My CBX is probably the only historic race bike in the country sponsored by a local Arts Council. If you look up Frank Gehry and the Guggenheim on Wikipedia you will find that his blockbuster exhibition on 'The Art of the Motorcycle' was criticised at the time for the failure to include the Honda CBX. Here in Wollombi we are trying to remedy that great wrong (not to mention all the rest of the world's problems - merde allors!)

You might be interested to know that the local scene here like much of rural Australia is dominated by dirt bikes, MX'ers or scramblers as we used to call them. The kids start very young. Casey Stoner's parents moved to the Hunter Valley just so that young Casey could compete in the local dirt track races and I'm sure that experience sliding around in the mud, helped in his later MotoGP career.

These days it seems that the US & Oz and everybody else are scrambling to compete with the Spaniards. Even Wayne Gardner now calls Spain home in order to help his son Remy with his MotoGP career. Are there any Spanish members of the International CBX Owners Association, I wonder, is there a Tapas section, maybe a splinter group somewhere in Texas?

I think it was an Australian racer, Mick Cole who gave the CBX its first race victory at the old Calder circuit around 1978. However, it was pretty quickly eclipsed by the 4 cylinder Honda cb1100RS which was developed by another Australian, Jim Budd. I don't think that model made it to the US but it was pretty much the start of the production racer trend that became ever more track focused leading up to todays 200hp missiles.

I will post a pic of my racer in a few weeks time, once I get it onto the track altho' the tarradiddle associated with doing so (posting the pic) on this site reminds me of why I have never taken up Morris dancing.

Warwick.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by EMS »

Warwick Biggs wrote:

I will post a pic of my racer in a few weeks time, once I get it onto the track altho' the tarradiddle associated with doing so (posting the pic) on this site reminds me of why I have never taken up Morris dancing.

Warwick.
Read here, maybe this will help:

viewtopic.php?f=104&t=5748

Mouse
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Mouse »

Warwick Biggs wrote: altho' the tarradiddle associated with doing so (posting the pic) on this site reminds me of why I have never taken up Morris dancing.

Warwick.
:laughing-rolling:

"tarradiddle"
I can so hear that being said with an Auz accent in my head right now. :lol:
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wyly
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by wyly »

Warwick Biggs wrote:Hey guys, Australia is a continent. It seems that I'm the only contributor with a whole country to myself when I look at the right hand column of the forum.
no there are a couple of ozzies that post here so you're not alone. Herdygerdy is in Sydney, I've forgotten the name of the other poster.
I will post a pic of my racer in a few weeks time, once I get it onto the track altho' the tarradiddle associated with doing so (posting the pic) on this site reminds me of why I have never taken up Morris dancing.
yeah posting pics drives me nuts too...I just assumed it was impossible because I'm technologically challenged(old)...
Last edited by wyly on Tue Nov 17, 2015 7:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
CBX a work in progress, still improving...GS1150EFE completed and awaiting modifications.....RD350, remnants in boxes scattered throughout the garage

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wyly
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by wyly »

EMS wrote:Everyone that will spend a lot of money on parts to "improve" handling of an old bike will not admit that they do not like it.
I am one of the very few who runs a bone stock front and rear 81 CBX, rides it two-up and I am perfectly happy with what it does.
Point taken, I do not take it to the track, but I have been on the Dragon with it and I have chased Louis on his Turbo on the BRP and I have not been in a situation where I thought I could have been 5 seconds faster if the bike had better suspension.
I'm running oem forks on my Z, for the granny riding I do they work just fine. I put Tec's on the rear but I'm too lazy to dial them in properly :roll: .
CBX a work in progress, still improving...GS1150EFE completed and awaiting modifications.....RD350, remnants in boxes scattered throughout the garage

Warwick Biggs
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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

After taking advice from Roly and Trevor I have decided not to use the Racetech product for my race bike.

Instead we will start with a stiffer progressive front spring matched to my weight and modify the damping rods by reducing the valve sizes following what the guys know works well on 'the Beast'. This is also a cheaper approach and we'll see how it goes from there.

Thanks for the feedback Dave because it started an interesting debate here about suspension theory and the trajectory of our manufacturing standards.

The cams are done, head ported and the seats are being cut as I type and I should have some comparative output figures next week when it goes on the brake.

Warwick.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Warwick Biggs »

Well, the cbx and rider survived Wakefield Park more or less in one piece.

Altho' we came last in each of the 3 races we contested we were less last at the end than at the beginning and we worked out what needs to be done, which was the real object of the exercise. It was the first time I had ridden the bike since riding around a suburban block in Brisbane when it was acquired and so I had no idea how it would perform. It was OK.

As some of you have suggested, the suspension needs work. Whilst it was very comfortable, I had zero feedback as to what was happening with my tyres. Nevertheless, it actually handled pretty well and acquitted itself with dignity as the only warmed over road bike racing against many focused race bikes built in the nineties. I did have stiff arms the next day but I towered over all the race bikes sitting on the grid and was able to out drag a few despite carrying a lot of the redundant weight of a road bike. Bike and rider are now going on a diet.

It pulled smoothly to the redline in fourth at which speed it was quite stable but was too highly geared to engage 5th. Maybe somebody can tell me how fast that is with stock gearing as I have no idea but the double apex corner at the end of the straight came up very quickly and was a test for the mushy front forks and rather uncommunicative front brakes.

I now have a good selection of sprockets thanks to Roly Skate sending me up a box in the last few days, including a 19 tooth drive sprocket to replace the stock 18 toother, for the longer GP track at Phillip Island in a few weeks time.

Robinson Precision Engineering are boring out the stock CV carbs to take advantage of the oversized valves and other head work and have apparently made up a set of cast iron disks to replace the stock ventilated stainless items. The stockers weigh enuf' to use as an anchor for a small boat. I haven't seen the new disks yet but will do so next week when we go up to Bathurst to pick up the bike. Hugh reckons he has machined them with a "sexy pattern"???

As an aside, racers here do an awful lot of driving to get to the tracks scattered around Australia. Europeans in particular find it hard to adapt to the distances between our major cities and days and days of driving is common.

Before the next race Trevor Manley will be fitting a fully adjustable conventional customised Wilbers monoshock to the rear as well as stiffer springs and the damper mods I mentioned in an earlier post. However, there is not much I can do to overcome the tyre choice problem without major chassis modifications and to my mind, this is getting a bit too far away from my idea of maintaining the integrity of a classic bike, irrespective of what the rules allow. But I really would love to run slicks, just like everybody else.

Hopefully, with these improvements and a full day to learn the challenging Phillip Island circuit I might be able to have a bit of a dice with somebody without getting carved up by the entire field. We will see.

Trevor Manley will re riding Roly's highly developed pro-link 'Beastess' as a member of the Irish team for those of you who may be interested in the International Challenge at the Phillip Island Classic. Trevor is a past Australian 125GP champion and he can hustle the big six pretty well. Won't know whether there are any other cbx's running until the program is released. The races are on the 22nd and 23rd January 2016.

Wish me luck, I'm going to need every bit I can muster.

Warwick.
PS I can post some pics if the moderator will help me out.

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by daves79x »

Warwick: Good to hear you survived! Couple of things - the CBX with stock gearing will do just shy of 120mph at redline in 4th gear. As for brakes, yes, the stock front boat-anchor rotors need to go, but so do the calipers. The opening is too wide to grip standard-width rotors. Best $ value set-up for you would be a drilled set of CB900F rotors and calipers. That's '81-'82 US 900F - not sure what your F bikes came with in OZ. Other than needing the 900F caliper hangers as well, the set-up is bolt-on. Carry on!

Dave

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by NobleHops »

Make a post after this one for photos, then email me as many photos as you like. I'll insert them into your post and you can edit the post to caption them. Good plan?

Nils.menten@gmail.com

Great going, proud of ya. You're in good hands with Rol and Trev.

N.
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Tucson, Arizona, USA '80 CBX, sort-of restored :-)

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by wyly »

EMS wrote:Everyone that will spend a lot of money on parts to "improve" handling of an old bike will not admit that they do not like it.
I am one of the very few who runs a bone stock front and rear 81 CBX, rides it two-up and I am perfectly happy with what it does.
Point taken, I do not take it to the track, but I have been on the Dragon with it and I have chased Louis on his Turbo on the BRP and I have not been in a situation where I thought I could have been 5 seconds faster if the bike had better suspension.
I've found a new tech to do the service on my Z that's above my abilities, as well as building racing engines he's a suspension specialist. He says the Race Tech improvement is well worth the cost for my Z and I will notice and appreciate the improvement. I'm like you and I'm perfectly happy with my stock setup but maybe it's because I haven't experienced a better setup so I've nothing to compare to. Have you ridden a cbx with the Race Tech fork setup, it would be nice to know if you have before I throw down any cash for the fork conversion.
CBX a work in progress, still improving...GS1150EFE completed and awaiting modifications.....RD350, remnants in boxes scattered throughout the garage

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Re: CBX Racing

Post by Mouse »

New Tech? A reliable shop for a Z In our neighborhood? Who? :D
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