The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Hey, what projects are you planning or preparing for? CBX, other motos, workshop, WHATEVAH!
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Benny Edward
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The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Benny Edward »

The subject line of this post should read:
The Story of my 1980 CBX Project, a novel by Benny Edward...

My dad purchased a 1980 CBX back in the mid 90s. It was one of the first of about 60 bikes he's restored over the years. Of all the bikes I've seen come and go from his shop, the CBX was always my favorite by a landslide. Perhaps it's the kinship I share with it, in that we were both born in 1980, maybe it's because it's the most beautiful color red I've ever seen on a bike, or maybe it's the commanding sight of 6 chrome headers as you look on the front of the bike. Pick a reason, any reason, and it's sufficient to say it's my favorite.
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In the 70s my folks traveled all over the country on their CB750... Gas grill bolted to the back, hard saddlebags gifted from a Harley bolted on backwards to pass as custom, tent and luggage piled high to act as a backrest for my mom, and two eager souls wanting to explore in the saddle. Then after the CB750, it was the Zed1 Kawi that got the touring treatment from my parents.. Then my older brother was born in 1973 and not too long after, the motorcycle left their lives and stayed absent until I was entering high school.
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My dad felt a hole in his life that was once filled with a motorcycle, and he decided to fill it once more with the only thing appropriate, motorcycles. He went crazy buying bikes. The neighbor was big into restoring older vintage bikes too and he sparked a nuclear reactor in my dad's heart. He bought a touring Harley that my mom and him rekindled their passion for distance riding with and proceeded to ride literally across country often, but he also started buying old Honda's and restoring them to factory showroom condition. My 1980 CBX I have today is one of the first of many. Fun fact, the very first bike he acquired was a rough sandcast 69 CB750 he purchased from the crew chief of Paul Newman. The bike came in boxes and I watched my dad acquire the missing parts over the years, detail every part, and meticulously reassemble it to one of the finest machines I've ever seen sit on 2 wheels. Wish we kept it but it got sold a few years back before he died in 2018. He got very good at restorations, and I thoroughly enjoyed being part of his hobby over the years.
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Usually, after my dad would finish a restoration, I'd take a million pictures and we'd pick out the 24 best and I'd list the bike on eBay with the account I made for him and we'd watch them get bid up and ship them off to the new owner. I thought he'd love the EBay handle motorcycle_master I made for him. He, however, always hated the name, as he thought it sounded arogant. But alas, over the years, I've done over a quarter million in sales on that account, mostly all motorcycles and motorcycle parts.

Back to my CBX though.. Everytime he'd come to me over the years saying he was ready to sell the CBX, I told him he can't do that. I love the bike too much, it's like family. He thought I was just kidding or just stubborn and kept bringing it up saying it's time and it's taking up room. I finally said he'd have to find another way to sell it then because I'm not freaking doing it. I begged him not to sell it, at times almost with tears in my eyes. You see, As a $&!tty teenage kid growing up, I stole the CBX for rides without permission many times. Into my 20s too, and I got caught one day. My dad was furious that I betrayed his trust. He also wanted to know how I avoided piling on mileage as he kept records of every bike and noticed no miles were put on. I would always unscrew the speedo cable. The bike may say it only has 18k miles, but it's more like 19k lol. Anyhow, my relationship was strained with my father over that bike. It took me probably 2 years to earn back his trust after that. He finally understood that my interest in bikes was too strong to not want to ride all the time.
You see, I didn't have any money for my own decent bike, but I always wanted to ride. When we had time, my dad would start scheduling vintage bike rides with me, and I just loved it. Usually I wanted to be on the CBX, but I also rode old KZ900/1000s, CB750s, CB400s, and many other Honda twins and fours he's restored over the years. Sometimes he'd ride a vintage bike too but not often. He usually oped for comfort on one of his modern bikes. He bought a new HD Ultra classic every two years and always kept a Japanese sport tourer around as well, so he usually rode one of those. He had a few FJR1300s and then a Kawi Concours 1400 in 2008 and then a couple FJRs after that before his health started to fail. Even though I very much enjoyed the FJRs and the Concours, I always wanted to be on the CBX. I did love my dad's Concours though, and it shows as my daily rider now is a modified 2015 Concours in Kawasaki racing candy lime green. My dad watched my love affair for the CBX never waver over the years, but he'd always rile me up with talks of selling it. I'd always reply, you ain't ever selling it, I won't allow it. In 2013 or so, he got some bad news about his health and came to grips with the reality of his limited time left. In 2015, my dad handed me the title of the CBX. Said to me, I know it's always been your favorite, and I want to see you enjoy it as much as you'd like before I die. To say it was a powerful moment in my life would be an understatement. He gave it to me with the intention of it being a daily rider, but he and I both knew it was too nice for that. For me to take it to stores and transportation to and from work sitting in a parking lot... I don't think so! More importantly, there were things that needed to be addressed before that would even be possible. The brakes were getting worse, the fork seals were leaking more and more every year, and there were other small imperfect things about it as well that relegated it to a 2 or 3 tanks of fuel a year kind of bike. But condition of appearance is still insanely good... If not mint, closest thing to it.

I haven't really ridden the bike at all since my dad died because of a number of reasons. He had ordered fork seals, master brake cylinder rebuild kit, brake pads and a few small other things for me a couple years before he died. He was going to help me address the few issues that it needed, but we just never got around to it in time. When he died in 2018, his old neighbor that I mentioned before that got him into restorations was at the funeral. He started talking to me at length about my CBX, and he asked me what I was going to do with the bike. I didn't interpret what he was asking correctly and responded, well I'm keeping it until the day I die. I kind of sneered at the suggestion that I would consider selling it, but that wasn't what he was getting at. He said, are you planning on just storing it, do you want to show it, or do you want to just ride it. My reply was I'd like to ride it and I want to ride it more often than I have in the past. Maybe someday I'd be interested in showing the bike, but for now I just want to ride. He went on to give me some advice saying that I should purchase an aftermarket exhaust and pull off the mint condition factory exhaust that is on it. He said the factory bends have a tendency to trap moisture in the collector and rust out prematurely . Explaining that factory exhaust in that condition simply doesn't exist anymore, he indicated that to have it with the correct stamping in that condition is virtually priceless. So he wants me to pull it off and preserve it. He explained that beautiful reproductions can be had for around $1300-1400 and I should do that and save the factory pipes for if I wanted to show it someday, but ride it with the repros. I considered this conversation carefully. Aftert thinking on it for a few weeks, my mind kept going to the memories of seeing how badass these bikes look and sound with 6 into 6 pipes. But it seems like my dad would roll over in his grace if he caught a wiff of me even thinking about not keeping it stock and original. The only thing that's not factory original on the bike is it has a speedo from 1979 instead of 1980. I wanted a 150 mph speedo and we found a brand new matching tach and speedo at a swap meet years ago for a 79, so that's what's on there now. I kept the originals of course. Anyhow, the thing is, I'm really trying to keep it stock and original as my father intended...buuuuut, man do those 6 into 6 look killer. A throwback look to the Benelli look, also kind of keeps the tradition of 1 pipe per cylinder in the original CB750s. Then I heard videos of how they sound. Oh boy. Now I'm thinking, he did give me the bike to do with it as I please, and he's not here to talk me out of it. His buddy tried to do that for him though. So, long story a lil less long.. there's a brand new set of chrome pipemasters 6 into 6 pipes sitting on my bench waiting to be installed.
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I could not find these Pipes anywhere in America, at any price. I found a set overseas that were well used and still quite pricey. After exchanging several emails with Mr. Peter Gray of pipemasters, he decided to accommodate my passion and made me a fresh set and sent them to me here in central IL all the way from his shop in Australia. I guess he hasn't made them in several years but was able to dig up the old tooling he used to make them in the past. Super cool guy, we talked of old reminders we have in our motorcycle shops of our fathers. He lost his father I don't think too long before me. Id love to meet this man in person some day. And oh my are These Pipes are a Work of Art.
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So what all needs addressed with this bike? My CBX is now once again a project bike. After a few years of some bad habits, it needed some real work this year. I never got into a good habit of draining the tank and carbs before putting it away. And I'd start it in the winter time every now and again after the gas sat for a few months, rev it a bit and shut it down. Then start it up the next riding season and ride out the year old gas. These habits will be broken now after I saw what that kind of behavior did to my exhaust ports. The state of the tune wasn't the best anymore either. I started on the bike last winter. Got it up on the lift hoping to finish before summer, and there it still sits awaiting completion. Groan. A big project has turned into a bigger project at every step. I have the privilege of having access to a master motorcycle mechanic that happened to own and work on his own 79 CBX years ago, and he keeps catching more and more things that should be addressed while it's apart which is great because it's stuff I'd definitely miss. He has been irreplaceable during this project and quality help I wouldn't want to be without. When I began, my checklist was manageable...
-remove factory exhaust
-replace fork seals and reassemble forks with new 10wt fork oil
-rebuild brake master cylinder and bleed in fresh brake fluid (changing to DOT 5.1). Any comments on this are welcome as far as pros and cons
-replace brake pads
-locate electrical issue in which was causing battery to be overcharged and cooking it causing premature failure. Some wires got hot, so hot they were near melting so this needs addressed
-install pipemasters and retune.
-oil change

The first visit from my mechanic friend Joe, we started it up for the first time in a long while with old gas, and one cylinder wasnt firing. He convinced me that lets just do it right the first time, not mess around and pull the carbs right away for a thorough cleaning. I agreed so we pulled them off, without tilting the motor forward I might add which I didn't think was possible. He took them with him and replaced o rings and got them cleaned up for a proper overhaul. Carbs are now back on and cables routed and installed. When I removed the pipes, we found heavy carbon deposits built up in the exhaust ports. I took a Dremel snake with 2 different sizes of wire brushes and a shop vac and spent an hour and a half cleaning them up one at a time while rotating crank to make sure valves were closed on the cyl I was working on. It needed it, as the buildup was reducing the size of the exhaust ports. I now realize the error of my ways in some of those previously mentioned bad habits. Next we took the front end apart. First thing he asked is how old are these tires. He touched it and was wondering why I'd ride it with tires that hard. After thinking for a second, I realized we haven't done tires since it was originally restored in 1997. Ooof. Order tires. Couldn't find much available for matched sets as lots of stock missing online, I presume because of covid. So after consulting the tire section on the forum here, I decided to heed the advice given and ordered the readily available Shenko tour master 230 front and rear set for an incredibly affordable $150 including tax for both. Score. I paid 1/3 much more just for the rear Angel GT A spec on my 2015 Concours. Anyhow, frond end is apart, brakes are apart and we thoroughly cleaned the brakes, pistons and all. Ready for new pads and reassembly. Then, We disassembled the first fork tube. That side has leaked ever since I can remember, and we found out why. It wasn't just the aging rubber of the seal, but also the fork tube was mishandled, I assume by my father in the 90s. There are a couple gouges in the inner fork tube located right where it slides thru the fork seal. These gouges (maybe I'm overstating it by calling them gouges, let's call them nicks), these nicks are deep enough below the surface that your finger nail clearly catches and drops in. I'm thinking a vise without jaw inserts was used and it slipped a hair, or vise grips, or some kind of no no method occurred. My dad was probably just learning and glossed over the importance of having them smooth. There are small burrs where the metal is raised on the lip of the nicks too, so that isn't helping. There are a few solutions we've discussed but haven't decided on. First would be to procure a new fork. Good luck to me on that, what corner of the earth has one? Second would be to find a fork refinishing service that could fill in the nicks, machine it back down and rechrome. Who does this nowadays? Sounds expensive. Or we can do our best to hand file it and scotchbrite it smooth, fill in with an appropriate apoxy and sand smooth. You wouldn't see it as it'd be below the dust cover, and I feel we could do a good enough Job that it'd hold up and function just fine. What do you all think?
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And that's where the project is at the moment. Next step is to figure out the course of action for repairing that tube. Then we;
-finish the fork seal reassembly
-do the other fork which hopefully doesn't have the same issue
-reinstall forks
-mount new front tire and install wheel
-install new brake pads, finish brake reassembly, bleed brakes with fresh DOT5.1
-install pipemasters 6 into 6 exhaust.
-start bike, sync carbs and tune. Clean white stains from underwear after hearing the sound of the 6 into 6 melodic symphony
-test for and locate electrical issue and repair
-remove rear wheel and mount new tire
-disassemble rear brake, clean, replace pads, reassemble, bleed in fresh DOT5.1
-reinstall rear wheel
-clean and adjust chain
-go for ride
-redo laundry for underwear stains
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Benny Edward
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Benny Edward »

Anyone know where I could find a set of these header nuts? I love this look!
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Benny Edward
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Benny Edward »

At this stage, we are trying to decide what to do about the nicks in the inner chrome fork tube that are located right where it will travel thru the fork seal. We are obviously concerned about this being a primary factor contributing to fork oil leaking. I think we are going to attempt to repair it on our own. Can I get some recommendations on what product to use to fill in the nicks to make a smooth enough surface? I bought some high psi rated permatex epoxy that is suppose to be good at bonding to steel and chrome and resistant to oil, fuel and other chemicals once cured. My concern is being able to sand or file it smooth without it coming out. I don't want to damage the surface in the process either. As I prepare for this, a little anxiety is building. There's a potential to make it worse instead of better if I'm not careful. Any advice or shared experience would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance fellas

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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Crazy Canuck »

Great read, sounds like you have a strong passion for the CBX :clap:

I had those nuts in my shopping cart one time, I think it was bike bandit that had them available, they were on sale too! not sure if they're still available though.

Tims CBX has the fork tubes available, about $300
Forrest Miller :thumupp:

Honda CBX 1000- "A cosmic haymaker of a motorcycle" -Mr. Tadashi Kume

steve murdoch icoa #5322
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

Benny, thanks for your excellent, personal introduction.
The father and son communal passion for motorcycles is something i wish i had with my father.

btw, i would like to know a bit more about the carb pull with out tilting the engine.

Benny Edward
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Benny Edward »

the pictures aren't showing up are they? I looked at the page from a computer that I wasn't logged in on and no pics showed up? What did I do wrong?

steve murdoch icoa #5322
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by steve murdoch icoa #5322 »

No problems with seeing the pics for me.

daves79x
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by daves79x »

That’s one of the longer introductory post on record. Glad you finally made it to here. Lots of comments to make, not enough time just now. If you would have asked here first, our club president is a (the) US dealer for Pipemasters and could have rounded you up a set quickly.

You found one of the errors of starting up the bike without riding it at least 20-30 miles every time. I’m surprised you haven’t found the other one yet - rusted out exhaust. Make sure there’s no sign of rust-through just behind the collector before you pronounce them still perfect.

Your friend did you no favors by removing the carbs without tilting the engine. Things need to come apart that aren’t supposed to do that and breaking things on these gets very expensive. Trust us, it’s much easier to just tilt the engine. I couldn’t tell from your post, did your man do a complete carb rebuild?

Several other things come to mind from your post, maybe later.

Certainly congrats on acquiring such a nice CBX. ‘80s are the rarest and if yours is a Marysville bike, rarer still in red.

Dave

daves79x
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by daves79x »

Sorry, reviewed your previous posts from last year and see we plowed much of this ground then. Thanks for the ‘prequel’ introduction though.

Dave

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bikeymikey748
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by bikeymikey748 »

Benny one of the few things better than a project bike is a project bike with a terrific back-story like yours. You’ve come to the right place for advice and props.
Keenly waiting for updates!

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Syscrush
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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by Syscrush »

What a great story - thanks very much for taking the time to share it.

As for your fork tubes - I have replacement tubes by TNK in the Pro-Link forks that are on my '79, and I am very happy with them. They were installed by Traxxion Dynamics when they did the cartridge internals, and they said that the quality was on par with OEM.

You can buy them from Race Tech - no idea if this is the same as what TIMS sells or not.

Let me know if this link works:
https://www.racetech.com/ProductSearch/ ... Sport/1980

While you're in there, I would strongly recommend a set of the cartridge emulators. I've done them on a few damping rod equipped bikes, and they are without a doubt the best improvement you can make for the money. It would be a shame to have the forks apart and not do this simple and stealthy upgrade.

Welcome to the site!
Phil in Toronto
A cool guy deserves a cool bike, a dork needs a cool bike...
Pics of Perry, my '79.

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Re: The Story of my 1980 CBX project

Post by portalespeanut »

Great introduction, Benny...and what a great family tradition of tending to some of these great classic bikes. Enjoy that CBX!
You begin cutting your wisdom teeth the first time you bite off more than you can chew...

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