CX500 Cafe - Reba

[rusche]

Soo long story short picked up this stock as a rock CX, with a bad stator for $250. Perfect little girlfriend bike.
Roommate bought a CX, came with a bunch of extra parts, including spare engine. Swapped it out, got it to run, let her ride it a bit and then started steadily ruining any collectors value. The seat was done by a local guy. Cover was an old welding jacket.
Still need to paint rear fender. Lower front fender, a few knick knacks. But got to rip it around the neighborhood a bit today. Need to work on the jetting a bit.
The pipes are a bit of experiment. Long term some short upswept mufflers I think. but for now theres a baffle in each pipe before the dump, to try to create some backpressure. Its a very interesting sound.
Overall very simple and budget. A bit of fun for the girlfriend.

Helpers

Humpdy dump

Heres the CX my roommate had for a while, and my daily, V65

 

[LateralSage]

I like it! I have been seeing a lot of cx500 love recently

 

[rusche]

Going to need a bit of exhaust work. a 2-1 probably a better option

 

[Kamn]

looking good so far
if you are looking to make any improvements on it, here are few things
1. single pot caliper canbe swapped out to a 2 piston from an early cb450 (like an 82 nighthawk) you just need to check the distance on the mounting braket to the forks.
2. new pads and a braided line together with the newer caliper will make braking MUCH better
3. use quality pods like the K&N (style)...not the shity little cones from emgo.....the lip on the inside of the cone blocks the atmospheric ports on the carb.....usual jetting for this is 90/120
4. the forks you have can upgraded with springs and emulators from racetech (i did this) and the forks change from night to day, the bike is a greater pleasure to ride.
and if you have any other questions about the cx...just ask

 

[rusche]

I heard 90/130? tried that and way too rich. Right now I believe im at 87/122? Used carbketkits.com - had good luck with some V45 stuff there. Bike has very little bottom end pulls ok up top.
Pods are Unis, dont block inlet.

 

[Kamn]

Also Siriusconinc.com for jets
Fix the exhaust and the bottom end will come up a bit more
And good to hear about the filters.....a lot of people just toss on the cheapy's and wonder why it wont run right

Last thing, to improve ignition you can get rid of the resistor in the spark plug cap and swap it for a brass rod since most plugs are resistor type and these caps are notorious for corrosion in the cap.. here is a link to the how to http://cx500forum.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Servicing_the_Sparkplug_Caps

 

[DesertKZ]

I have a CX, one of my favorite bikes. Love what you've done here!

 

[adventurco]

That seat cover is killer!

 

[rusche]

That seat cover is killer!

Thanks man. I think its my favorite part of the whole thing. Now that shes ridden it all summer she wants something with moaarrr poweerrrrr!!