CX500 Turbo
Posted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 11:23 am
Yes, I know, the turbo wars are long over. But I was in the middle of them, and a great friend of mine had a GPz750 turbo and I had my ZL 900 eliminator… Both brand new. We Terrorized Central Florida on those things. Today, any factory turbo bike is a rolling piece of motorcycle history.
I recently was presented with an opportunity to bring home another orphan. The title bike - ‘82 CX500TC. Another machine that has been out of commission and idle for 10 years. A little rougher around the edges than projects I tend to want to go through, because I am cheap and I am lazy. But these old turbos are special. This one is all there, but needs a few cosmetics and the injectors appear to be dead. Seat and tires are rotten. Rear master cylinder frozen. So far, that may be the worst of it. Fingers crossed.
Honda reengineered the CX platform almost from the ground up to make this motorcycle. Way ahead of its time in many respects…not the least of which were the fuel injection and turbocharging. A one year only model (The 650 replaced it in 83 and was also a one year wonder) and only about 2300 of them made it to the States.
So, I’ve begun some cursory work on it, but I’m not convinced it jumps in front of the SOHC 750 super sport. Although I’m beginning to think maybe it will. Either way, I have begun some work on it and probably will continue. Wish me luck.
I recently was presented with an opportunity to bring home another orphan. The title bike - ‘82 CX500TC. Another machine that has been out of commission and idle for 10 years. A little rougher around the edges than projects I tend to want to go through, because I am cheap and I am lazy. But these old turbos are special. This one is all there, but needs a few cosmetics and the injectors appear to be dead. Seat and tires are rotten. Rear master cylinder frozen. So far, that may be the worst of it. Fingers crossed.
Honda reengineered the CX platform almost from the ground up to make this motorcycle. Way ahead of its time in many respects…not the least of which were the fuel injection and turbocharging. A one year only model (The 650 replaced it in 83 and was also a one year wonder) and only about 2300 of them made it to the States.
So, I’ve begun some cursory work on it, but I’m not convinced it jumps in front of the SOHC 750 super sport. Although I’m beginning to think maybe it will. Either way, I have begun some work on it and probably will continue. Wish me luck.