The International CBX Owners Association

Hello there. Thought it might be an opportune moment to say hello and introduce myself.

Many years have slipped by raising three daughters. Back in the day, I was a motorcycle service technician specializing in the Big Hondas. I had a collection of Wings, a Silver Wing, a GL1200, a Yamaha Venture, two CBXs (81 and 82), a GL1500/6, and a Yamaha Vision (painted in '82 CBX color scheme of course), cluttering up the garage.

I switched gears, joining the fire service for a while, made Captain, flew around in a Super Huey as a brush monkey, then switched gears back to automotive service. The dangers of hopping from a vintage UH-1H were too scary for my wife, so I settled down in the interest of keeping the family together. I really miss those good old days, but family was, and is, far more important.

Over the years, I kept my mothballed '82 stored, very clean, with the carburetor bank removed and stored in an oak, felt-lined box, dry and ready to install some day. The head and exhaust were also pickled, and wrapped up nicely.

I still have the majority of my trusty steed sitting here with me, save the now lost components, lost last December to an unscrupulous storage facility. Yeah, I have 80 percent of my motorcycle currently, as the stored bits were lost.

This spring, my wife and daughters found Daddy a beautiful Aprilia to ride, an RST1000. I found that my 30 year old CBX leathers still fit nicely, and putting about is a joy I've long missed.

Currently, my task is to figure out what to do about my CBX. She's missing a few critical components, of course, but God it would be great to hear her sing again...

Bob Borchert

Bob,

I seem to remember you from the Brewer list a long time ago. Heck, I think you were on that e-mail thing that the French guy did too?

Welcome. There's plenty of folks here who can help you refresh your memory of how a CBX fits together, and of course, there's lots of parts squirreled away amoungst us.

Hello there Rick!

I have seen your name on Bob's list for many years. I was on the Aprilia Forums yesterday, when I discovered a familiar name, "team222" listed. None other than Mike Barone! Yeah, it's been a while.

Life has been a real adventure, most recently the imploded economy of course, and my X was a casualty of war, I suppose. I still "pat her on the butt" daily, she is covered on my patio, without a head or exhaust. A reminder of happier days past. I had a hand-built head with Kibblewhite Precicion Machining bits throughout, 5-angle seats, valves, titatium retainers...oh my. And that head had 110 miles on the clock. It had the complete shim-under-bucket setup.

Back in the day, I built a few Xs this way, but only with my personal bike did I pull the crank for balancing, micropolishing. I kept the crank on display for a few weeks before installing it when I was in Costa Mesa.

I have lugged my old X with me for all these years, even pushing her by hand 4 miles from storage to a new garage when we found a house in Stockton. I couldn't load her onto another trailer, it was level, and we went for a long walk together.

What I have is in very nice condition, she is clean and in need of a good collection of parts, to say the least. I even have a beautiful custom seat, shaped like the original, you'd have to see to believe. Never ridden with the new seat, so sad...

Bob

Rick still has a good memory because being bald for so long he hasn't wasted all that brain power on growing hair, now in my case, still having a great mane of hair my memory isn't as good.

Either way good to see you back.

Jeff

Welcome to the site, Bob.
With a background like that it sounds like some of us will be asking you for help.

Happy to help! I took a break from spinning a wrench, but still love tinkering about. I kept all of my equipment, and work with Volkswagen these days. The years have added up, over 16 now with VW.

I started with VW as a diagnostician, splitting my duties between the fire department and repairs, with the condition that when the radio and pager squawk, I'm outta here. My learning curve was steep, as all I dealt with from the outset was the problems the other guys were stuck on. Spinning wrenches is in the blood. I just couldn't keep away from it. The fire department couldn't guarantee a timeline for transition to full time, but in my position, I was investing almost the same hours each week running the fire crew. Something had to give.

I've been bicycling about 20,000 km per year, lovely roads in northern California, and really like riding a moto once again. The Aprilia is powered by the same Rotax as the RSV mille, plenty of power. Like the X, once you ride a liter bike, nothing else will do. I had considered a classic, the BMW R100RS from the same era as the CBX, addicted to the removable saddlebag concept, another thing I grew fond of. The Futura is the first bike I've seen that actually looks clean with the bags removed.

I'm amidst the usual dealership woes, internal politics and such, but a job is a critical thing these days. With a little luck, things will iron out, and I'll be able to figure out how to handle the X.

Bob

Jeff Bennetts wrote:Rick still has a good memory because being bald for so long he hasn't wasted all that brain power on growing hair, now in my case, still having a great mane of hair my memory isn't as good.

Either way good to see you back.

Jeff

I can remember things like that, but I can also hide my own Easter eggs.

Rick Pope wrote:

Jeff Bennetts wrote:Rick still has a good memory because being bald for so long he hasn't wasted all that brain power on growing hair, now in my case, still having a great mane of hair my memory isn't as good.

Either way good to see you back.

Jeff

I can remember things like that, but I can also hide my own Easter eggs.

<wipes eyes>

OK, that was friggin' HILARIOUS.