With the chassis in such good shape I started pushing the engine again, ignoring the top end rattles and clouds of blue smoke that intensified with every extra mile once the clock had gone past 63000 miles. When you revved the CX at a standstill I have vague memories of it doing something weird like lifting up at the back or maybe lowering itself for a second. Period testers found that, although the CX500 Turbo was blindingly fast on boost, easily reaching 125mph, it was expensive, thirsty and suffered from a phenomenon known as turbo lag, meaning it would hesitate before the turbo spooled up and sent it lunging ahead. The GT took a little while to catch on, not helped by the fact that the early version had a design flaw, which meant if you mounted a box on the rack it came with, then put much more than a toothbrush in it, they had a habit of snapping the frame.

The trunk was interchangeable with the back seat—the bike is rider-only with the trunk installed, although there was an aftermarket extender available to allow the trunk to be mounted behind the passenger seat. The technological advances didn’t stop with the launch of the standard CX, and it was with the turbocharged versions that Honda really made their point. The later CX650ED shared the majority of the cosmetic changes introduced by the 500EC, whilst in Japan a 400 cc version was introduced with the same styling to comply with licence rules. In the fall of 1982, it was Honda's intent to provide a singular new CX650T to each American Honda Dealership for sale.The CX500 was one of the first recipients of Honda's new Comstar wheels (and later, on B models, reverse Comstar and a square brake fluid reservoir), which measured 19 in (480 mm) in front and 16 in (410 mm) at the back. The single rear shock has a damping adjustment lever that is reachable from the seat, vibration is mild, and the fairing shields the average-sized rider nicely. The 650 produced its power better at lower and mid range rpms and, for what its worth, had a lower redline of 9000 vs 9500.

When both tyres needed replacing I had a serious think about selling the bike, but decided that with 3mm of tread left on the Roadrunners I might be able to ride through the twitches that had developed and get at least another 1000 miles out of the beast. Besides the 'vanilla' CX500B, models after 1980 sport dual piston calipers replacing the single piston caliper of the earlier models. Seems to me that it was a great shame that such an excellent bike was killed off before it really had a chance to establish itself.Cable length is satisfactory, but the distance between the peripheral connectors should be 150mm, at least. The 88% operational efficiency is ideal for those who want a compact, yet power consistency throughout your build without additional energy costs. The computer controls were simplified and the gearing ratios were adjusted, with a wider gap between fourth and fifth. The result of trying to play the gearbox like a lunatic was an excess of undignified lurches and not much by way of additional acceleration. Many of those I ride with have BMW r600/750/800 so had to get something different and found this in Cardiff when I was looking for something quite different on the internet.