Part 1, my first CBX is here: https://www.vintagehondatwins.com/forums/index.php?threads/454
After (stupidly) selling my first, paid-for '79 CBX in 1983, of course I wanted another one. I had a Kawasaki ZL900 Eliminator in late '88, bought used from the Kawasaki dealer I visited regularly for parts for the Police bikes, and it was fun but I still missed the CBX pretty badly. In early '89 my ex-wife and I (during better times) looked around for one. As we all remember, in that day and age there was no internet to search so it was newspaper ads, phone calls and word-of-mouth. Through my father's connections to the huge bike salvage yard he found out there was a small shop in Beaumont Texas that specialized in rebuilding wrecked or blown engine CBXs and a phone call resulted in the owner snail-mailing us a Polaroid of an '80 model he had for $2000.
It looked good, so we set out for Texas. I was working building maintenance at the time and we borrowed my Dad's F-100 pickup and left right after my half day of work on Saturday. Knowing I had to be back at work the next week meant we had to drive as far as possible and only stop long enough to get some sleep, get there and buy the bike, load it up and get back in a day and a half. The return trip was straight through, stopping in north Florida for a 20 oz cup of coffee and a couple of Vivarin (remember those?). Got back to my Dad's house around 4 AM Monday.
Had never driven through a tunnel in my life prior to that trip, this one under Mobile Bay
While at the small shop called Cycle Center in Beaumont, I saw an odd and unfinished creation in one corner of the place and took a picture of it.
While flying along at interstate speed on I-10 during the return trip on Sunday, I had no idea the bridge railings had crossed pistols in them... until the film got developed
Even though he knew I was going back to Florida, he gave me a temp tag for it, never got used.
Not long after that I was able to locate a GP kit for it, something I wanted for my first one but could never afford at the time. The set was shorter bars/cables/brake hose and rear-set peg brackets but I didn't install the peg brackets because I wanted to keep the rider and passenger peg relationship the same for passengers, but the lower bars were great. On the ride back from Texas the bumps revealed the need for fork seals and with the front end off the bike it was the perfect time to do the usual valve cover gasket replacement, a job that was so much easier with more room to wrangle that wide valve cover off after removing the top motor mount plates.
Valve cover done, one side pipes done
After (stupidly) selling my first, paid-for '79 CBX in 1983, of course I wanted another one. I had a Kawasaki ZL900 Eliminator in late '88, bought used from the Kawasaki dealer I visited regularly for parts for the Police bikes, and it was fun but I still missed the CBX pretty badly. In early '89 my ex-wife and I (during better times) looked around for one. As we all remember, in that day and age there was no internet to search so it was newspaper ads, phone calls and word-of-mouth. Through my father's connections to the huge bike salvage yard he found out there was a small shop in Beaumont Texas that specialized in rebuilding wrecked or blown engine CBXs and a phone call resulted in the owner snail-mailing us a Polaroid of an '80 model he had for $2000.
It looked good, so we set out for Texas. I was working building maintenance at the time and we borrowed my Dad's F-100 pickup and left right after my half day of work on Saturday. Knowing I had to be back at work the next week meant we had to drive as far as possible and only stop long enough to get some sleep, get there and buy the bike, load it up and get back in a day and a half. The return trip was straight through, stopping in north Florida for a 20 oz cup of coffee and a couple of Vivarin (remember those?). Got back to my Dad's house around 4 AM Monday.
Had never driven through a tunnel in my life prior to that trip, this one under Mobile Bay
While at the small shop called Cycle Center in Beaumont, I saw an odd and unfinished creation in one corner of the place and took a picture of it.
While flying along at interstate speed on I-10 during the return trip on Sunday, I had no idea the bridge railings had crossed pistols in them... until the film got developed
Even though he knew I was going back to Florida, he gave me a temp tag for it, never got used.
Not long after that I was able to locate a GP kit for it, something I wanted for my first one but could never afford at the time. The set was shorter bars/cables/brake hose and rear-set peg brackets but I didn't install the peg brackets because I wanted to keep the rider and passenger peg relationship the same for passengers, but the lower bars were great. On the ride back from Texas the bumps revealed the need for fork seals and with the front end off the bike it was the perfect time to do the usual valve cover gasket replacement, a job that was so much easier with more room to wrangle that wide valve cover off after removing the top motor mount plates.
Valve cover done, one side pipes done
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