CBX Racing

[Warwick Biggs]

After listening to an interview with Crighton it sounds less like him choosing the rotary than the other way around with the rotary choosing him when as a bike retailer and racer, he became involved with the Norton rotary project. It seems that his eye as a salesman is at least as significant as his engineering interest.

From there it seems to have developed into what we see today. The full story is on the Crighton website and You Tube.

My own taste in exotica tends more towards the Bimota Tesi but there have been some very ordinary bikes in the past that I have really loved. I did love (and often enuf' hate) my Commando's and before them the 600 and 650. Prewar tech but the isolastics when properly shimmed provided a wonderfully cushioned motor that loved to rev (and wore accordingly). I still have a soft spot for the cb400 fours of the 70's. None of these bikes are particularly exotic or even modern but I just like them in the same way I like the CBX. For a subtle combination of subjective reasons.

Unlike many of my contemporaries however, I do not like spending a lot of money on motorcycles and in fact I find the prices of many bikes today to be verging on obscene, even allowing for 50 or 60 years of inflation. I expect the Chinese manufacturers like CF Moto to shake up this market. We are already seeing their 450 twins rising in popularity against Japanese budget race/road bikes like the little Ninjas and R3's.

[Warwick Biggs]

Not a CBX job but something to settle my nerves b4 next w/e's races. The VFR800 that I effectively swapped my NC30 for has a very irritating gearchange in that it does not possess a linkage and accordingly, cannot be reconfigured to GP shift pattern. Of course, I use GP shift on my race bikes so the roadbike pattern is a problem that is normally a 5 minute job to fix. But not without a linkage. Why Honda, why not put a linkage on your most popular sport/tourer? This has prevented me from riding the thing because the last thing I need is to get muddled up when changing gears automatically or in a hurry.

So having managed to get both the CBX and the 701 ready for racing I had time to tackle the VFR800. I am quite proud of the linkage that I fashioned from old bits and pieces I had lying around and best of all it works perfectly to give me a good GP shift pattern. Here is a pic. The space was typically restricted, Honda's castings difficult to replicate by hand in half inch alloy plate with and angle grinder and dremmel and the angles tricky. Finally, some jury-rigged engineering on the shaft to both locate the peg firmly while allowing the mechanism to rotate smoothly.

So now I can ride it without confusing myself over shift patterns (and I saved myself around $1K for the only aftermarket linkage available for the VFR800.

[Warwick Biggs]

I promised Fran that I would retire from racing after the Seniors Races that I contested over the last 3 days. I am happy to report that I finished on a high note with 3rd overall on points in the heavy-weight P5 Unlimited class on the Lump. The CBX ran faultlessly all w/e and never put a wheel wrong even tho' my confidence was down and I was 3-4 seconds off my best times. This always happens after a crash and I did get quicker with each race.

Here is the pic my club used for their facebook page. I had the big GS to contend with again. Even tho' I qualified well with P5 in the middle of the second row I held back on the starts to avoid the melee in the first few turns that brought me unstuck in the Classic a few months ago. I then had to work my way thru' the field once everybody was a bit spaced out. For those who do not follow racing the most dangerous part of any race is the start when half the grid are technically out of control with their front wheels in the air. The next few corners are then hotly and aggressively contested as 20 or 30 riders bang elbows fighting for a limited amount of space. If you have only watched bike racing on TV you will not appreciate just how physical these clashes can be. I did not fancy another trip to hospital and accordingly discretion was definitely the better part of valour and this time I managed to keep my head.

my conservative tactic was not likely to produce any silverware because in sprint racing a good start is critical. And so it transpired that by the time I had worked my way thru' the field the leaders had gone. Generally, the pecking order is pretty clear from practice times and in each race the fastest riders were fairly consistent. My task grew more difficult as I closed on the leading group. Finally, the big GS was difficult to get past and in each of the races we had close and exciting last lap dices in which I happily prevailed. The final results were the same in each race with the Lump coming in third. Can I again just say to the sceptics,
the CBX is more of a good platform for a race bike than they think?

[Warwick Biggs]

Here are a few of Fran's amateur shots from the w/e.

[Jeff Bennetts]