cbxmel wrote: There was even one 79 over here which was supplied new by Honda UK in blue but that is another story!!! Ride safe cbxmel ICOA1876
OH DEAR, I met this fellow in a pub ( there seems to be a common thread here... ) who is a major local bike parts breaker/supplier/dealer who swore "HE" had a blue CBX6... I dismissed his idea as idiotic & deftly changed the conversation to "the weather"... Looks like I will have to seek him out to apologise....
I dug up a box of cycle old magazines from 78 and 79, nowhere could I find Black as an option in 78, red and silver only.
I still haven't found my original sales brochure or bill of sale but I figured out that I definitely bought my Z early in the summer of 78. So is it a 78 or 79?
I will dare to say, that there was no 1979 CBX sold in black by Honda in North America. As I posted above, in Germany, and as Mel has confirmed for the U.K., Honda did not officially sell the 1980 model CBX-A or SC03. But they sold black bikes. These bikes were 1979 models and had black bodywork. They had silver wheels, CB-1 motors and tailpieces without lids. In addition, dealers did a lot of strange things in Europe as well as in the U.S. Just because it was so easy, bodywork was swapped on new bikes, because a customer liked a certain color better, or the "new" color (black) was selling better than red or silver. A similar argument always comes up with the Marysville 1980 bikes. Although owners have confirmed they bought a Marysville bike new in Candy Glory Red, like Larry for example, Frank Coe swears there were only black ones built in Ohio. These things may forever be mysteries and subjetcs of heated discussions among the CBXers.
wyly wrote:I dug up a box of cycle old magazines from 78 and 79, nowhere could I find Black as an option in 78, red and silver only.
I still haven't found my original sales brochure or bill of sale but I figured out that I definitely bought my Z early in the summer of 78. So is it a 78 or 79?
wyly, you may make that decision. Call it a 78, if you like. The VIN-plate says in bold letters it is a 1979 model and right next to it, it is stamped 4/78 as the build date. My wife's Grand Cherokee was bought in November of 2002. It is a 2003 model. That same car bought and registered in the U.K. or in Germany would be considered a 2002.
wyly wrote:I dug up a box of cycle old magazines from 78 and 79, nowhere could I find Black as an option in 78, red and silver only.
I still haven't found my original sales brochure or bill of sale but I figured out that I definitely bought my Z early in the summer of 78. So is it a 78 or 79?
wyly, you may make that decision. Call it a 78, if you like. The VIN-plate says in bold letters it is a 1979 model and right next to it, it is stamped 4/78 as the build date. My wife's Grand Cherokee was bought in November of 2002. It is a 2003 model. That same car bought and registered in the U.K. or in Germany would be considered a 2002.
I have a 2008 Ford Escape that I picked up in May of '07.
My '79 X has a '78 build date but was registered as a '79. I think this is probably pretty common.
EMS wrote:
wyly, you may make that decision. Call it a 78, if you like. The VIN-plate says in bold letters it is a 1979 model and right next to it, it is stamped 4/78 as the build date. My wife's Grand Cherokee was bought in November of 2002. It is a 2003 model. That same car bought and registered in the U.K. or in Germany would be considered a 2002.
This is all true and ultimately it matters not.
Honda may officially call it a 79 but I know it was built in april 78 and purchased by me in june or july 78.
Contradicting all these dating methods by manufacturers my new Toyota is an 07 built in 07.
In the US, as Mike states, all the '78-built '79s were titled as '79, because that's what Honda called them. In some other countries, the date of registration determines the year on the title - hence the confusion on the '78s. April of '78 was the first month of production CBXs and the first 3 or 4 thousand were made in April and shipped. They were available for sale here in the US in very late June of '78. My red '79(#1917)was on the dealer's floor in July of '78.
There were red Marysville '80s, although you may have to go a while to see one. Seems more black ones were made there.
The original '80 owner's manuals showed the 1980 model in silver. So Honda either DID sell some silver '80s or put silver bodywork on an '80 to shoot a photo for the manual.
The only way to know for sure if there were black '79s is to find the original owner of one and make sure he knows the dealer didn't fool with it before he got it. I'm still skeptical on that one.
daves79x wrote:The original '80 owner's manuals showed the 1980 model in silver. So Honda either DID sell some silver '80s or put silver bodywork on an '80 to shoot a photo for the manual.
Dave
I would think the artwork for the manual had to be done well before production started and maybe Honda themselves did not know what color they would offer