CX500 - will this project ever happen?

well hello everyone. it might be too early to start the thread but i figured i'd go ahead and give it a shot. about 2 years ago i got a cx500 for $40.00 just to "tinker" on. i wanted to learn how to work on brakes without screwing mine up. when i got the bike i realized that almost all of it was there. it wouldn't take much to get it on the road (a little gas in the carbs and it started right up). but i still didn't do much with it. mainly because there's no title and the bike has a very old lean on it.

fast forward to a few months ago... i kept looking at the bike and seeing cx's that has been turned into cafes and decided to actually do something with that $40.00. about a month ago i started the process to get the lean taken care of. i sent a certified letter to the last known address of the lean holder. it came back. i took that to dmv and now they have a certified letter out. it's been about 3 weeks but they still haven't heard anything. i call about once a week and get the same answer. hope to hear in the next two weeks though.

after that is taken care of i'll deal with the title. i have a few options. i know nc isn't an easy state to get this done... but i have faith.

well, here's the bike the day i brought it home... and pretty much as it sits today.


as soon as i hear back from dmv i plan on ripping into it. i've recently gotten a deluxe tank (much better for a cafe than the custom tank) and gl500 forks. the forks are slightly larger (35mm vs 33mm) and fit right into the frame without any modifications. the major plus is that i move from a single piston caliper to two dual piston calipers for better stopping.

there are more things i want to buy to get ready but i'm keeping myself from doing so. for now, it's just research, dreaming and asking questions. here's to hoping there's more to post in the future.

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

while i wait for paperwork i'll go ahead and ask a question. i want to do something fun with the exhaust... something different.

options:
- do a 2-1 with a single upswept can on one side. possible, but not at the top of my list.

- 2-1 with a can under the engine. this is pretty recent in the thinking. i was thinking of beull's when i saw whitexk's bike in the bike of the month and he inspired me to keep thinking about it.
i could get a single slip on like whitexk and cut it to size. i could get a motorcycle one or even
one of these.
i've even wondered if i could do it with a single emgo shorty muffler. it wouldn't take much space, but i don't know how it'd sound and it's probably be much louder than i want.

- 2-1-2 with a single oval shaped can under the engine. basically like up above but i'd make a single can that would sorta be like two slip ons in one housing.
or again, using two emgo shorties.

- 2-1-2 underseat. this is what i really want to do but it'll be hard to pull off. i don't want to just do straight pipes. i've thought of a few ways to get it done.
a - make my own small slip ons to mount under the rear hump area.
b - use two emgo short mufflers
c - put a single muffler under the riders seat (where he current airbox is) and run pipes to give me the look of it being under the tail. main problems with this is i would not want to take the sidecovers off to expose a muffler. i wonder how hot that'd get under there. there will be air flow because i plan on taking out the large mudguard and making more of a hugger. i still wonder how it'd work.

thoughts?

also, i plan on having black headers and would like a black can if you can see it.
and i like the under engine ones for weight. but someone on here is making a battery box to mount their battery where the "h-box" mounts. i really like that idea but i wonder if there would be too much head from the exhaust being too close.

anyway, i know that's long, but that's what keeps going through my head.

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

They easiest idea will be the 2-1 with an upswept pipe on the side. The others will be more difficult. The underseat one is obviously going to be awkward but not impossible, there's someone on this forum who's done it and i personally know someone here in adelaide that's building a race bike with an exhaust that way. My thinking is that once you get going on the build things may become clearer and the idea may come to you.
One thing worth mentioning is the collector box in the exhaust you have can be quite a rare breed so i'd check it out. If it's fairly uncorroded inside and complete it'll be worth selling on, so be careful with it. Those things are getting harder to find.

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

Nice! Another CX'er!

Look forward to seeing what exhaust idea you go with. I went back and forth between a 2-1 or 2-2 and finally went with the 2-1 because it just seemed to be the simpler design, and it worked with my "under-the-gearbox-battery-box" that you mentioned. There's enough clearance from the exhaust, but i'll have other preventative measures too (i think i'll be wrapping the exhaust at some point).

Cheers

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

I'm sticking with my 2-2 with a crossover getting built in. Why? I love the emgo's that are on it and i love the low slung pipes. Hey, should we get up a DTT CX badge? Whatta ya think? We've got rodders and steve f too, plus maybe a few others... just a thought.

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

I also went with 2-2 as I think it has more of a classic look where as a 2-1 is more sports bike and this ain't no sprts bike no matter what gets done to it Anyway, looking forward to watching another build and hope to get back into mine soon when I take a break from this great weather and stop riding it

Cheers
Steve

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

Anything happening with this? Bump.

Re: CX500 Cafe - too early to start a thread?

not much. i didn't have paperwork for the one i wanted to use. i tried to remedy that and hit a dead end. i got another frame and started ripping into it today. this one doesn't have a title either, but at least there's no lean. my only update came in another thread.

http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=16347.0;topicseen

i need to get the frame stripped down and repainted. the other thing on tap is i have 2.5 cx engines and one gl engine. i know the gl's aren't completely enterchangeable, but some parts are. i'm hoping out of these 3.5 engines i'll get a solid engine for the bike. gonna order a gasket set next week.

anyway, not much of an update. but that's where i am. i stink at thinking to take pics. i've thought about doing videos like you're doing. they're great to watch.

Re: CX500 - gonna start engine work soon

ok, it's time to get started on this. i'm still waiting to get the frame titled so i'm not going to do anything there, but i am going to start on the engine. because regardless, i can drop it into any titled frame.

soooo, i'm going to be ripping through an engine or 3 and trying to get a good one to come out of the process. my work space will be a lean-to on the side of my shed with nothing but dirt for the floor. i have a tarp to cover my work when i'm finished for the day.

what i'm thinking about is having some sort of motor stand/table so i'm laying it on the dirt and bending over all the time to do the work. i'm thinking maybe some cinder blocks and a sheet of plywood? or maybe some milk creates and plywood? has anyone else been in this situation and come up with something? wondering if you guys might have some better ideas that i'm not thinking of.

btw, i'm thinking about naming this the turtle cause it's going by so slowly.

Re: CX500 - gonna start engine work soon

My "garage" is pretty close to your set-up I use my cart port. It has no electricity so I use extension cords. No air compressor to speak of (can't run air tools). I also working above a sandy ground.

I used 2x8's and two layers of 5/8" plywood to make a bike stand that I rolled the bike on and started to disassemble. It's not quiet as high as I would like but I usually sit down and scrub the engine with a toothbrush. Or sand the frame down so it's worked pretty well for me. Considering my workshop, or lack of...

I have a 1980 cx500c that I'm working on. Still a long ways to go though.

Re: CX500 - gonna start engine work soon

ok, so i'm not so good at remembering to take pictures and post in my build thread. i have a few pics to show a little bit of progress. more to come.

as i said, i picked up a new untitled frame. i don't have to worry about a lean on this one and will be getting it titled up. here is what it looked like when i picked it up.


and here is where it sits now... waiting for me to strip it and paint it.


i've picked up a few things along the way. one is a gl500 front end so i'd have dual piston/dual calipers. here's a shot of them.


not sure if i'll use these or not, but i got a set of softail pipes for cheap off craigslist. was hoping to get a set of sportster cans since they're a smidge smaller, but these might work. we'll see.


i also have a cx500 deluxe tank i've picked up but no pics of it. maybe later.


and the moment you've all been waiting for... my workbench/shop. brace yourselves for the shear wonder and beauty of my shop.

from a distance


up close


i'll introduce you to the engines starting top left and work my way clockwise.
upper left is the engine i'm hoping will work out for me. i have my gasket/o-ring kit waiting on me and have started ripping into it. more on that to come.
upper right is an engine that is locked up and i don't know why. hopefully i won't need to crack it opened for this project. i might in the future to see what's going on.
bottom right is part of a cx500 engine. i'm not sure there is anything there for me to worry about, but i'm not going to get rid of it until i have my engine up and running.
bottom left is actually a gl500 engine. there are differences so i can't just go swapping parts. but there are many similarities should i need to start investigating.


didn't get pictures, but i have the valve covers, radiator and thermostat off. i had to stop there for two reasons. 1 - i need to get a bolt to act as a fan puller to get the fan off. 2 - i got all the bolts holding the heads on out... but my heads won't budge. i know there are no other bolts holding them down. i went out and got a rubber tipped hammer that i plan on using to knock them free. is that a bad idea? is there a better method?

well, i think that's all for now.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

You've got a road to travel but it's gonna be great! Congrats! i notice the frame you picked up is a 79 and the bike without a title has reverse comstars which means it may be a later non cdi bike. I'm under the impression there were slight differences in the frame how it attached to the engine on these models, but don't stress, i'm probably wrong. In fact the fact that it has an early radiator surround means the wheels might have been added later. I think the differences were just on the cx500 euros. I'm just suggesting you do a thorough comparison of the two before you get really stuck in.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

in the u.s. they kept it pretty simple for us. all the cx's are cdi's except for the 82's and 83's. the original bike i was going with is an 80 custom (cdi) and the one i'm going with now is a 79 deluxe (cdi). we lost out on a few things over here. the only twisted twins we got with dual brakes were the interstate gl's. and i know europe (and maybe y'all) got an 18 inch reverse comstar on the standards. standard only lasted in 78 and beginning of 79 for us... which means the only 18 inch rear we have the the silver comstar. and we continue to miss out on the great bikes. but that's another story for another day.

this will be a long road. i'm actually thinking of taking your method of video posts since i'm going to have so many questions along the way. we'll see how it goes.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

Sounds like you've got a bunch of stuff that'll fit together quite well then. Go the video's, folks seem to enjoy em.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

had time so i took a few more pictures. i'll get the little things out of the way first.

complete gasket/o-ring kit


a very important (and expensive) part. bragging rights to the first one to figure out what it is.


oh, figured i'd show you what my "shop" looks like during the off hours.


someone on another board asked what i do to keep all the dust and things off the engine when i'm not working on it. i do have a tarp, but at this point this is the best solution i have. i plan on going and buying some little containers for parts as i start taking them off to help keep everything organized.


here's a pic showing what i've taken off so far.


and lastly, a look under the valve covers (cause i haven't had time to knock the heads off yet).


since i'm taking this apart, i'm assuming it'd be a good thing to clean little things like this. would i just clean them in something like gas or kerosene... or is there some sort of cleaner i should be using?

this'll probably be all for a few days. just got back from vacation and have to get to doing some work.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

nice to see another cx It could look similar to mine when done. I will be interested to see what you come up with ;D

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

dean owens said:

a very important (and expensive) part. bragging rights to the first one to figure out what it is.

Click to expand...

I have one too but my bike is all torn appart too while I'm stripping the frame so I haven't tested it yet.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

dean owens said:

had time so i took a few more pictures. i'll get the little things out of the way first.

complete gasket/o-ring kit

Click to expand...

Whats the quality on that kit? I have been looking at one for my bike but dont want to get some paper nonsense.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

honestly, i don't know. i haven't opened it up. i just did a look on ebay and didn't pick the cheapest or most expensive. and i asked a few of the gurus and they said this one will be fine. biggie was that it had everything, and not just gaskets. i won't be opening it up for a few weeks. when i do, i'll let you know what i think of it.

Re: CX500 - engine work has begun... slowly

hmmm... im thinking an electric fan instead of the one driven by the motor. then remove the shaft and everything that drives it... plug hole.... should give you a good 5 horses or so!
;D


soak the stuck engine with PB blaster and then whack the sides of it after a couple of hours of soaking with a rubber mallet. Soak it some more and then try turning it over slowly. should break free unless if the crank bearings are stuck, or some other major issue is there.