New member here ... Hello!

[Doctor Paul]

Good Morning! I happened upon this 1979 Honda CBX (CB12001453) a couple of months ago. It had been in storage up near Joplin, MO since 1990. Except for the Kerker 6-into-2 exhaust and the "king-queen" seat, it is box stock with 24K miles. The PO (fortunately not hit by the recent tornado) was a motorcycle shop owner and was careful to store the bike properly. He had drained the tank and the carbs before laying it up. After I trailered it back to Oklahoma (in a rain storm that took off most of the 21 years of barn dirt) I pulled the plugs, squirted an ounce or so of Marvel Mystery oil into each cylinder, tapped it into 5th gear and would rotate the rear wheel a few turns each day for a couple of weeks. Drained out the old oil, dropped the pan and removed a fairly small amount of gunk, replaced filter, refilled with fresh 10W40. New spark plugs, air filter foam, fuel line with inline filter, battery, fresh fuel. Started on the first lick!

Brakes were a mess as you can imagine. Rebuilt both MCs, overhauled all 3 calipers with new piston seals. Discs are perfect. Hoses are good but will probably replace with steel-clad soon. Braking is excellent. Fuel petcock dripped - replaced ($90 OEM - OUCH!). New Bridgestone Spitfires. Chain seems good and sprocket wear is minimal. It is about 3 marks from the adjustment limits. Chain cleaned and waxed. Downloaded a Honda service manual ($25) and that has been very helpful.

I've put about 300 miles on her. Tried to attach a photo but the file was too large. I'll get that sorted out so I can show her off a bit! I'm amazed how smooth, tight, powerful and agile the old girl is! There is a small oil seepage from the left side of the valve cover, I think. It seems to be getting less with more miles. I had ridden a buddy's CBX back in the mid-80s and always thought "I gotta get me one of these!". Now I do!

[NobleHops]

Paul, welcome! Great to hear about another one emerging from the barn, glad you had a relatively easy time if it. Most folks end up having to do a carb rebuild. Those valve cover gaskets get hard and skinny, and there are a couple small tricks to getting th cover off and on easily if you end up going in there - mostly remove the rear engine hanger bracket along with the fronts and it will let the motor sag that last mm you need to clear the internal oil pipe. This will all make sense when you eventually go in there .

Email me your photo and I'll resize it, otherwise there are a few 'how to post pictures' threads here and there that deal with resizing.

nils dot menten at gmail dot com will work.

Again, welcome!

N.

[Doctor Paul]

Nils, thank you for the information. I will explore getting my pics reduced. If not, I appreciate the offer to resize.

[Doctor Paul]

Here's a photo!

[Doctor Paul]

And another!

[Doctor Paul]

And finally!

[SteveG]

Welcome aboard Paul!

Nice looking X! Finding one like you did (only having to RandR brakes and tires) is the next best thing to one already running. Good Job! That Kerker must sing really sweet.

I bet your searching for a new seat though

Steve

[Doctor Paul]

I bet your searching for a new seat though

Steve

Actually, the seat is starting to grow on me! I put 120 miles on her today and it is pretty darned comfy! At my age (60 yrs) comfy is more important than correct. Of course, if an original seat in excellent condition pops up somewhere .....

[NobleHops]

I bet your searching for a new seat though

Steve

Actually, the seat is starting to grow on me! I put 120 miles on her today and it is pretty darned comfy! At my age (60 yrs) comfy is more important than correct. Of course, if an original seat in excellent condition pops up somewhere .....

Hey Paul, great job on the photos, that was quick. Great bike! FYI Honda still sells new seats, although the "B" style like you can see on my bike, and minus the trim (that I covet). So don't overpay for a sacked-out stocker unless you're bent on a restoration.

Photo:



You should know though that reproduction trim is ~$200 a set (!).

N.

[George R. Garrison #0857]

Welcome aboard, thats a nice looking bike.

[EMS]

[ Honda still sells new seats, although the "B" style like you can see on my bike, and minus the trim (that I covet). N.

Nils: Did you buy that from Honda? These seats used to come with the trim. Since when did they delete it?

[NobleHops]

[ Honda still sells new seats, although the "B" style like you can see on my bike, and minus the trim (that I covet). N.

Nils: Did you buy that from Honda? These seats used to come with the trim. Since when did they delete it?

I did buy it from Honda, brand-ey new. No idea when the trim got omitted. Had to swap over the attachment hardware, but I have a sparkly white Honda seat pan and new foam and cover. Service Honda's fiche shows the seat with the trim for $480, from memory I got mine for ~$350, I think I bought form Ron Ayers. It was Dave I think that identified it as a "B" style seat. No idea if that fiches is accurate for current style, I doubt it.

N.

[Don]

I bet your searching for a new seat though

Steve

Actually, the seat is starting to grow on me! I put 120 miles on her today and it is pretty darned comfy! At my age (60 yrs) comfy is more important than correct. Of course, if an original seat in excellent condition pops up somewhere .....

I bet if you found a good deal on an original, it would go on the garage shelf and not on the bike - Nice to have should you ever go to sell the bike, but if you want to ride it, just about anything beats it IMO. I have a very firm Corbin that looks similar to the seat you have and much prefer it to the original . . . . plus, it's all leather and didn't cost $480 either

Don

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Hi ya, Doctor Paul.
Great first post.
Nice looking '79 but i am with Steve, the seat has to go.
Having a sore arse from the stock seat is all part of the CBX "experience".

[daves79x]

Paul:
Welcome, and you are about the luckiest new CBX owner posting here in quite some time. You NEVER find a CBX that was properly stored, and you did! One of the old axioms here is: No CBX was ever parked because it ran perfectly. Congrats on finding one.

Now a couple of words of friendly advice: please do at least the normal tune-up checks, particularly the valve clearances. If you don't know for sure when it was done, please do it. Others here can testify that ignoring valve clearance checks can and will lead to burned valves. You will likely find everything OK, but with 20,000 miles, if they were never checked, you could be on the edge. Ask away if you need any guidance.

Dave