Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes Honda CBX in line 6

Only the 2nd one I've ever seen and the first I've seen on the road. The six mufflers caught my eye so I got a pic on my phone when we stopped for a light.. now if I can just figure out how to get it from phone to the computer, I'll add it to my collection.

Is that the old 1980 one, or have they made a new one? If it's the old one a friend of mine had one years ago - big, heavy, ugly bike, huge 1047cc engine sticking way out to either side, but MAN could those things move quick when they wanted to!

The second model had a govenor installed from factory to limit the massive power, but his was the first model that could just about strip the white lines off the road with a twist of the wrist.

Matt

I test rode one when they first came out back in 1981, it scared the living bejesus out of me. I couldn't keep the front wheel on the ground. I took it back quickly and bought the CB900 custom instead.
Those darned things leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Well let me ask you a possibly dumb question about the CB 900's... on the 10 speed models was that just a hi/low thing? I know they had two shifters but the reasoning escaped me.

There was one at the toy run last weekend, looked like it just rolled off the show room floor. So, thats 2 that are left. Most of them have gone to the wreckers, way to much power.

It was an older model but the thing was in great shape and yes the engine did stick out the sides quite a bit.

I also test rode one, fast but really lousy on the handling. Very vague like it was tied
instead of bolted together.
I may be wrong because I am relating this bike to a specific incident in my life, but I think it was actually 1979.

Imagine synching 6 carbs!

I see these every now and then, about once a month. 2 weeks ago at the Sandia Classic, they had 6 or 7 of them lined up all in a row for one of the bike shows that weekend. Check out this pic I took of them.

The 10 speed was just that, dual shifters, one for high/low, the other for 1-5. As the salesman very acurately put it, "5 speeds for tickets in town, 5 for tickets on the highway." Nearly lost my license several times on the thing.

Edit:
The whole design of the dual shifter came from the fact that they had a right hand driveshaft and left side power, so the transferance of the drive from one side to the other and some really ingenious Japanese engineer that thought, "hey, let's hook another gear on this crossover drive rod, what the heck, a few more parts and ooh doggy!" very very clever and worked fantastic. You really need to ride one to appreciate the genius behind the design. I rode it, I bought it.

I would jump all over one if I found a good one for sale though. By far the best bike I ever owned (sorry, no offense meant, but it was Schweeeet)
I usually rode it like a 6 speed though. 1st, 2nd in low, then shift into high range, then up through the rest of the gears; 3rd,4th,5th. Sucker really flew down the road, shaft drive and air shocks all around made it like riding a cloud.

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now if I can just figure out how to get it from phone to the computer, I'll add it to my collection.

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Just e-mail it to yourself.

I think the CBX's were incredible. I had an '80 6 cyl Kaw 1300, it was called the B-1 (like the bomber?) bags, fairing, the works. It was a top heavy monster but there wasn't nuthin like it when it came to speed. Always suspected the CBX could take it, but I never found one to race...

Thanks for the tip... now if I can figure out how to e-mail from phone....
Low-tech guy in a hi-tech world...

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now if I can figure out how to e-mail from phone.

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Borrow someone's kid.