CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

for those of you that have M.B.S. (multiple bike syndrome) and have the "silver wing" models.
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aircraft_electrician
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CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#1

Post by aircraft_electrician »

While at the grocery store I saw a fairly beat-up CX500D in the parking lot, so I parked next to it to get a closer look. It's the same color as the one I wrecked, was missing both sidecovers, the seat was torn and I didn't see a bit of chrome that wasn't rusty. Anyway, when I came out of the grocery store the owner was strapping a bag to the seat so I spoke with him for a couple of minutes, and he tells me the condition really isn't all that bad when you consider the mileage. So I peeked at the odometer and it showed about 23,000. I didn't want to insult him, but I pointed out that my CX looked almost like new before the crash and it had over 30,000 miles on it. He just laughed, and then said "that thing hasn't been accurate since the first time I hit a hundred thousand," and then explained it's actually got 2 hundred thousand more miles than it says.

In 200,000 miles it's had the clutch replaced twice, the stater and water pump mechanical seal replaced 3 times, and the timing chain and guides done twice. That's it for internal engine work. I guess these little bikes are pretty reliable, eh?

Tom
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#2

Post by Toehead »

Very! I've got 90,000 on mine. It is a fantastic little bike.
2012 Golf TDI, fast and frugal oil burner
1980 CX500C, All around road warrior (Sold)
1975 TS125 (Sold), old smoker
1977 naked GL1000, Highway cruiser
'81 GL1100 14,000 (reconditioned and sold)
'81 GL1100 50,000 miles (under construction)
2X 1981 CM400 beginner bike (sold)
1980 CB750C (sold)
1994 Virago 750 (Wifey's bike)
'76 GL1000 Sulphur Yellow (Megasquirted efi build) http://www.ngwclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=59774
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#3

Post by sunnbobb »

One of my favorites for just that reason.
I found the end of the internet

---- Bradshaw Bikes custom polishing for your wing. Visit us on facebook!

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aircraft_electrician
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#4

Post by aircraft_electrician »

Yep, just one more reason why I miss mine...I guess I've just got to find another one in good shape. Hmmm....maybe a GL this time instead of the CX.
Tom - '82 GL1100 I

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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#5

Post by clgielin »

That's a lot of seat time! I had a '82 GL500 for a few years, but sold it in '02 with 18k on the clock.
Chris

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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#6

Post by Sidecar Bob »

I've heard of a couple of these bikes with over 100,000 miles on their original stators, water pumps & camchains. They were in places like California and Australia, had been in regular year round use since new and had never been stored.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#7

Post by Bufobufo »

aircraft_electrician wrote:In 200,000 miles it's had the clutch replaced twice, the stater and water pump mechanical seal replaced 3 times, and the timing chain and guides done twice. That's it for internal engine work. I guess these little bikes are pretty reliable, eh?

Tom
A 100k per camchain seound very good on any Honda and I always remember the standard CX ate camchains, there used to be lots of hi mileage ones here in the UK as the dispatch riders used them and I was told by a specialist who looked after their bikes the standard CX did about 30k on a Honda chain if you were lucky and a lot less on a DID one. I had a GL500 with an auto cam chain adjuster and they were better.
Someone once told me that the chains had a hard life in that engine as all the cam loads came over a short bit of the chain and always in the same place as the chain was placed symetricaly, if the sides had been a different length the hi load point would be moving round all the time?

I bought my GL cheap with a rod through the side of the engine at about 50k (again not unknown in the UK where they got thrashed). I used a freeby early CX engine from a friend, built the GL bits onto it, all the back end and electrics are different, including the auto adjuster with a new camchain and guides as the old one was near letting go, could have been a factor in the engine rod coming off?
It went well, very easy to ride both commuting through heavy traffic and touring, used it for years and only went when I got a GL1200. Ten years after I sold it I heard it was still going.
JohnR - 76 GL 1000 Yellow Bird - in Cold Old England.
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#8

Post by Sidecar Bob »

No CX or GL 500 came from the factory with an auto adjuster. Auto camchain adjusters came only on the 650 models in '83 & '84.

Many in the CX community would disagree with you about the auto adjuster being better. A manual adjuster works well as long as the bike sees proper maintenance and when it reaches the end of its adjustment range nothing happens except that the camchain slaps and wears into one particular bolt head (if left long enough the camchain can break). When the camchain & blades are replaced a manual adjuster can be reset to the other end of the range and then re-adjusted and you start the whole process over again. About the only thing that usually goes wrong with a manual adjuster is failure of the o-ring that seals where its lock bolt protrudes through the cover.

The auto adjusters, however, can be destroyed by a loose camchain slapping against them when they are fully extended. Replacements are hard to find and expensive enough that a few have changed to manual adjusters (this requires changing the rear cover too).

As I said, the ones that have had exceptionally long camchain lives have been used year round. They are generally one or two owner machines that have been looked after properly since new.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#9

Post by Bufobufo »

Sidecar Bob wrote:No CX or GL 500 came from the factory with an auto adjuster. Auto camchain adjusters came only on the 650 models in '83 & '84.

As I said, the ones that have had exceptionally long camchain lives have been used year round. They are generally one or two owner machines that have been looked after properly since new.
Well mine certainly had auto adjuster and the different engine back end and later electronic ignition as did all the 500 and 650 GL and EC variants of the CX theme. This may have been a Europe only mod as mine had some big E plaque on it but I cant remember what year it was, maybe 81 or 82. It was in good nick, apart from the engine which had not been looked after.
Fitting the auto adjuster to an early CX engine meant drilling out and tapping the block for the larger mounting bolt or the cowards way out, that I chose, a high tensile M6 bolt and sleeve scrounged from the wreaked engine. It never let go.

I think that many bikes in the UK have a much harder life, specially those used by dispatch riders and ridden in winter. I met a guy at the airport once with a burgundy GL like mine but all cracked, bashed and corroded. That was a working bike with over 200k miles. He just took it to a specialist for camchains, waterpump seals ect.

The CX got the 'Eurosport' treatment in the early 80's here and was then a very good looking bike, cant say that for the original. I have seen a few nice 650s go past on ebay but with the garage full or three bikes, three bicycles and all that timber and other 'usefull' bits I cant bear to throw away, where would I put it?

And now back to the decorating, a mans work is never done!
JohnR - 76 GL 1000 Yellow Bird - in Cold Old England.
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#10

Post by Sidecar Bob »

The E models are Eurosport. We didn't get the 500E in North America (although I understand that a handful have washed up on our shores), but Honda Canada imported a few CX650Es in '83 & '84. I guess it could be possible that yours had a 500ER engine and that came with the auto adjuster, but it is more likely that a PO changed the rear cover & adjuster for one from a 650 and then you moved those same 650 parts to the new motor.

BTW: My winter machine is based on an '84 CX650E that was a bit past easy restoration when I bought it. Most would have made it a parts bike, but I needed something to power the sidecar before it snowed so I put it back together ("we have the technology") with parts from at least a dozen other known bikes. Since it was for winter, it got the full Honda fairing from my GoldWing (same as the SilverWings had). The original tank wouldn't fit over the fairing bracket so I had to use the tank, side covers & seat from a SW. This year it got a SW topbox too - what's next, the saddlebags?

I doubt any courier bike in the UK sees much more abuse than my winter machines. I'm sure they put on a lot more mileage, but the conditions are much nicer in the UK. The middle of winter in England is like nice early spring or late fall weather to a Canadian (even here in the 'banana belt" of Southern Ontario). I remember a few years ago having a week where the highest temp was -20c, and I often tell of checking the thermometer after one particularly cold 100 Km trip home from a meeting late at night many years ago and discovering that -40 was the same on both scales!!!

This winter is forecast to be particularly mild, so I doubt I will see -30c and most of what is usually snow will probably come as rain, but just to put things in perspective, the average annual snowfall here is about 193 cm, sometimes starting in October and continuing until May, but more normally from late November until late March. When they think it is going to snow they spray the roads with brine and if snow accumulates on the roads the snowplows spread a layer of salt & grit behind themselves.

And I drive my sidecar outfit to work every day, no matter what.

Until now, I have usually retired winter bikes after 4 or 5 years because of concerns about rust inside the frame, but I have been using an oil spray that creeps uphill to cover the surface & prevent rust since I got the 650 (lots of openings to spray it inside the frames of these bikes) and I plugged the open ends of the main frame tubes at the back end with silicone so that salty water can't get in that way, so maybe this one will last a bit longer tumb2
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#11

Post by Bufobufo »

This auto camchain adjuster, I think I have cracked it.
My GL500 certainly was original build with the auto adjuster as the mouting bolt provision is larger, maybe m8, than the manual adjuster.
Checking on the csmnl site that only has US bike fisches, 81 and 82 were 500 manual adjusters, 83 and later were 650 auto adjusters, so 83 was when they changed over.

Now it just happens that I have a Honda UK 1983 brochure and the GL that we got is a 500, as is the CX500C that visibly has the 'original type' engine. No idea why they stuck with the 500 when they could have had the 650 model. But the Eurosport is a 650! Honda UK often refused to supply some models even in the face of private imports on quite a scale. Dont think we ever got the 650 GL or C models officialy.

Riding in ice and snow!!! Well you win on that one, I never want to do that again. Once did several hours in freezing fog and nearly got hypothermia, took hours to warm up.
Then going the work at Heathrow in the winter on the GL500 I found myself in heavy traffic at about 20 mph next to a large bus wheel that was static, worse the whole bus was sliding slowly towards me and I was between lanes with no where to go, no braking!!! It only lasted a few sconds before the bus got its grip back but that was it, in winter I put up with the car park and bus hassle.

Keep warm!
JohnR - 76 GL 1000 Yellow Bird - in Cold Old England.
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Re: CX500 with 223,000 Miles!

#12

Post by Sidecar Bob »

The UK got 500s in '83? Odd - the CX/GL MCC UK Partsfinder doesn't show a 500 later than '82 in any country. But then again, nothing anywhere seems to say that any of these bikes were made later than '83 but my CX6550E definitely says "1984 model" on the builder's plate and the one I parted out a few years ago did too.

Re snow & cold: Don't get me wrong - I don't go out on 2 wheels in the snow. I tried that once and ended up having to find a place where I could leave the bike overnight and take the bus home. But with a sidecar, well, sidecar outfits are practically made for snow. And I have to admit that the cold isn't as much of an issue for me as it was 15-20 years ago. I have learned a lot about how to set up the machine for winter and how to dress to keep myself warm since then. I learned long ago that what will keep a snowmobiler from freezing will keep me from freezing too. I know they have snowmobiles in the UK now, but I don't know if they have a trail network. Over here, the snowmobile clubs maintain a network of groomed trails (when there is enough snow - not yet this year frosty1) that you can actually take some decently long trips on. Once the lakes freeze over some of those guys go out and run back & forth at full throttle all day. We used to live near Lake Simcoe and on Friday & Saturday nights you could hear them out there most of the night too.
Mr. Honda ('83 GL1100/Dnepr) summer How a motorcycle evolves thread
The Famous Eccles ('84 CX650EI/VeloUral) winter Never Ending Build (CX500forum)
Click: Colour schematics for all GL1000 & GL1100 and GL1200 standard models plus instructions on how to download the full size version
"A guy with two sidecars can't be all bad." - Cookie
Another guy with two sidecars..... Hmmmm... must be something to that....
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