1979 Honda CBX Road Test - page 9

Yet if the seat were any other way, it would be inconsistent with the rest of the bike. There is nothing soft about the CBX; it is positive in everything it does. It turns decisively, accelerates decisively, stops decisively, shifts decisively. Even the hand-switches are positively detented. But freeway comfort aside, in none of its systems can there be found harshness or crudeness. The clutch engages with such unwrinkled control and the carburetion responds with such accuracy that the bike cannot leave a stop sign with anything but supreme grace. The transmission can be faintly clunky if it is called upon to maneuver between first and second gears at low speeds, but if the rider's inputs are resolute the gearbox flows through its closely-spaced ratios with a suppleness that's almost hydraulic.

Away from the race track one can explore the full range of the engine. When it's cold it idles at 250 rpm; when it's hot it idles at 700. Beyond a sound like sewing machines in a padded room, the six-cylinder produces no low-speed mechanical noise. Quarter-mile times and dynamometer figures notwithstanding, the CBX is as sweet in heavy traffic as any motorcycle has ever been. It never coughs and dies, even if you jerk the carbs wide-open when the engine is idling. The low seat height, light-touch brakes, the total absence of drive-line snatch and the character of the clutch mean the rider can maneuver through the most grinding traffic snarl with delicacy.

But lean on the engine and it'll give you all you can stand. It doesn't have the seven-liter midrange power of the Yamaha XS Eleven; it won't take you by surprise and get you in over your head, because the CBX engine communicates while the XS engine isolates. If the XS is a Rolls Royce with a blown Chrysler hemi motor, then the CBX is a Formula One car with a license plate. The big Yamaha gathers speed with lethal deception; the Honda hits 6000 rpm and begins to erupt. When you reach that part of the Six's powerband where serious business is done, you know it. You cannot escape from it; above 6000 rpm the engine makes no effort to deny its heritage.

Some observations about details: careful as the Honda designers were with the CBX's instrument layout, and as charming as it is to discover that the speedometer needle glows in the dark, it doesn't work as well as it should for nighttime riding. The red numerals on the speedo and tach are difficult to see, and the high-beam indicator light is so intense as to be a real distraction.

At normal highway cruising speeds the engine produces an interesting mix of mysterious noises. At 50 mph there is a muted warbling that might come from the primary drive gear pair; between 65 and 70 mph there is a high-pitched, chirping squeal that probably emanates from the alternator drive clutch. Enveloping all is the bike's medium-level inlet whistle, and the gentle honk of the tailpipes.

The big Honda was ridden by six staff members, all of different dimension. All felt the CBX has the most comfortable seating position (not the same thing as a comfortable seat) they had ever experienced. The slightly rear-set footpegs, the width and height of the handlebars and the way the saddle positively locates the rider all result in a wonderfully stable operations platform from which to lead the orchestra.

The CBX is a mountain road flyer beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It swivels down low-speed twisties like the most well-bred middleweight and carves through the fast stuff with only an infrequent trace of the flutters. It is the first bike in memory which completed its street testing without so much as a single pavement scratch anywhere on its undercarriage - and the shock springs were never changed from their full-soft setting.

The bike's extraordinary cornering clearance means many things: you can turn the bike quickly without worrying that the suspension will overmush and cause something hard to bang against the pavement and set off a wobble; bumps in the middle of high-angle turns do not result in the kind of road contact that unloads the rear tire; and if the back tire does slip when too much power is applied exiting a turn, there is enough cornering clearance left to salvage the situation. Throughout our mountain road testing the CBX remained a total delight. Braking deep into turns doesn't rankle it; mid-corner corrections are accepted with equanimity; the rider always finds himself in the right gear, and at the right engine speed, on a bike with which he can be intimate. Above all, it is this feeling of intimacy which sets the CBX apart. It is all there all the time; it is taut, solid, together and distinctly European in flavor. Nothing about the bike is clumsy or strident. There are no significant loose ends; it is uncompromised and utterly self-assured, and it is the most exotic, charismatic motorcycle we have ever tested.

The CBX-Six was conceptualized to be a function-intensive motorcycle which, due directly to the existence of the GL1000, could be tightly focused on a relatively small number of design objectives: handling, braking, acceleration, engine smoothness, and comfort within the boundaries established by the primary performance goals. It is not the best standard production race track handler around - the GS1000 Suzuki is - and it does not have the world's greatest highway ride quality. Its 35 mpg fuel consumption rate is inferior to most motorcycles and many automobiles, and when the time comes for your dealer to adjust those 24 valves or re-synchronize six carburetors, your wallet will cry out for a transfusion. Count on replacing rear tires frequently; count on paying close attention to the bike's #630 rear chain. The CBX rubs hard against the acceptable limits of mechanical intricacy and weight, and anyone with a pragmatic view would take issue with both the bike's complexity and its total performance concept.

But the Six was not built for pragmatists. It was built for romantics, for people with soft spots in their hearts for mechanical maximum expressions, for people whose specific reasons for motorcycling match the CBX's specific reasons for being built. Its European texture is a breakthrough for the Japanese motorcycle industry. Its engine performance is devastating, its high-speed handling and cornering clearance are remarkable, its drive-line character is unflawed and the linear responsiveness of every control and system is unique in all of motorcycling. It cannot be rationally compared to anything on the street, because nothing except a GP road racer is as narrowly committed to high-speed performance.

It embodies extravagance without vulgarity and high style without pretense - you see muscles and tendons, not chrome and fussiness. It has been designed, not decorated. There is no trashiness in the concept, and none in the execution. The CBX is an immensely flattering bike with perfect elegance and total class, and history will rank it with those rare and precious motorcycles which will never, ever be forgotten.

   

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