June 1978 and the Honda CX500Z arrives in town. With camchain tensioner issues. The problem is quickly fixed with a longer tensioner support, but what could have been bigger sales are compromised. The bike is good. A little heavy and a little top-heavy – but way comfy and easy to chuck around. Despatch riders adore it.
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| “Hacked it up to make a mono rear and get the weight down to a very creditable 125kg” |
Production stops in 1983. Most have been despatched to death, the remaining few are cared for by riders who value economy and dependability over being ribbed for riding a ‘plastic maggot’.
Scroll forward to 2016 and the Honda CX500 is achieving status as the new darling of the customising classes. It’s a V-twin – always a good start. It’s cheap – better yet. Its monolithic 497cc water-cooled lump can be used as a stressed-member – easy to wrap fresh tubing around (should you have the desire and skills).
And now the best bit: they’re still almost sensible money. At £500 for a non-runner, £1200 for an average runner and £2500 for an immaculate import, this is still a bike, a good bike, within spending range for builders of vision and good sense. Like this…
Sacha Lakic out of Luxembourg, Europe did this. ‘I’ve always been a great fan of the motor,’ he said. Not alone then. But he chopped up the frame rear to make a monoshock and installed 50mm Marzocchis getting the weight down to a very creditable 125kg. Very tidy pipework too. In limited production now too (unsurprisingly).