Why do you own a CBX

[Syscrush]

MV Agusta had a 6-cylinder 350cc racer with a DOHC engine in 1957.

I'm pretty sure I didn't know this. Very interesting - especially with the photo comparison!

Looks like this is at around the same time as the more famous 500cc V8 GP bike from Moto Guzzi.

[Artie]

Thanks for that Gary! The '80 is the best overall CBX. You should bring it to the Classic Motorcycle Day at the Mt Airy fairgrounds on May 21. Used to be just British and European, but now Japanese and pretty much anything. Love to see you there.

Dave

Dave
Tell us more about Mt Airy Event May 21
we’re due for a CBX Rally get together it’s been far too long
only 500 miles from my house I’d be in ?? Anyone else ?
Last time we had a group in Gettysburg seems like 100 years ago

[daves79x]

Just Google 'Classic Motorcycle Day 2023'. All the info is there.

Dave

[Artie]

https://classicmotorcycleday.org/
Looks to be a first class event and as they say “the more the merrier”

Any interest at all from other members for a CBX or = get together ?
If any I’ll be glad to do some legwork and organize by looking in the general area for a local group hotel / motel block of rooms that is bike friendly with ample parking
Welcome any local knowledge as well
Count me as #1 for attendance if so

[bobcat]

MV Agusta had a 6-cylinder 350cc racer with a DOHC engine in 1957.

I'm pretty sure I didn't know this. Very interesting - especially with the photo comparison!

Looks like this is at around the same time as the more famous 500cc V8 GP bike from Moto Guzzi.

It does look a lot like the RC166. I wonder if it was a 4valve/cyl. ?

[EMS]

No, it was a 2-valve.

[Syscrush]

No, it was a 2-valve.

Even more interesting! DOHC 2-valve?

[EMS]

No, it was a 2-valve.

Even more interesting! DOHC 2-valve?

Not unusual. DOHC doesn't mean it has to be 4-valve. Lots of 2-valve DOHCs out there. Close to the CBX, the KZ1300 6-cylinder was a 2-valve so were Honda's 1960s small fours.

[bobcat]

That's what I meant about Honda technology that long ago is the 4 valve
combustion chamber.

[EMS]

That's what I meant about Honda technology that long ago is the 4 valve
combustion chamber.

I thought you had referred to the 6-cylinder. But if it was early 4-valve technology you were impressed of, that one also does not belong to Honda.
I am not a fan of English bikes, but the guys on the British Islands had some pretty nifty two-wheelers, especially racers. Rudge, for example, had a 4-valve 500cc bike as early as 1935. Even Jawa, the Czech manufacturer had a 250cc 4-valve racer in 1959. Honda's first 4-valver may have been the 250cc 4-cylinder RC162 in 1961. Followed by a lot of small displacement 4-vlave bikes, like CR110, RC145, CR77 before the 2-strokes took over. Benelli had a 4-cyl DOHC 4-valve 350cc in 1966 and a 500cc in 1968 and MV Agusta took over the Honda crown in GP racing in the early 70s. They came again with a 350cc six but that did not last longer than a prototype status when the FIM announced an upcoming cylinder limit in the GP classes. Giacomo Agostini rose to fame on the 350cc Four.
I have long been a fan of GP racing and "ate and breathed" the stuff when I still lived in Europe. Raced a Dieter Busch-made BMW kneeler sidecar rig in 1974/75. Friend of mine, a big BMW fan over there, has a large collection of rare BMW racers and street bikes, including an original 1954 500cc RS54

[bobcat]

Interesting history, EMS. Some key words here "lived in Europe" where motorcycles and
racing of a different kind is almost a way of life. It was the late 50s and early 60s that
the RC166 was developed and went on to win the 5 world titles. Honda may have copied
the 4 valve design but all others were copies of the original designer, whoever that was.
However it was Honda that made the design commonplace mass produced and reliable
quickly followed by Suzuki's TSCC 4 valve head.
Later on some European bikes were copies of Hondas, namely Benelli's sixes and Laverda's
750 twin that was an almost exact copy of the Honda 305 Superhawk. The Benelli is a CB500
four with 2 more cyls. I've heard the argument that certain engine designers were hired back
and forth from Japan and Europe

My point was that, while "hopping up" my pushrod 50ss, I was in jealous awe of my friend's
OhC65. I would have been shocked beyond disbelief if I had known about the RC166 that
was winning world titles about that time or just before. HONDAS ! At 15 I didn't even know
road racing existed.

"Im gonna wake you up girlie cause I'm gonna take a ride with you,
we're goin down to the Honda shop.....put on a ragged sweat shirt
I'll take you anywhere you want me to"