| How I Got This Bike - Jan.
2003 My good friend John Mishanec owed me some serious money for a 'little incident' on a road trip. We had already seen this bike at a friend's Harley restoration business (The Vanishing American) in Big Flats NY. We went there in the winter of 2002 to pick up a 1981 KZ1100 frame for the owner of PCWRacing, a local performance shop where we get work done. I was a sucker for John's suggestion that he could repay a debt by getting this bike for me. So, we went back to Big Flats in January of 2003 and picked up this CBX in even exchange for a basket case Harley that John had (a pre-1960 Sportster).
Sportster parts, Jan. 11, 2003 in the back of my van that went in trade for the CBX |
In mid-winter, my driveway
was too icy for me to push the bike uphill into the garage. I had to beg my
next-door neighbor to let me store it in her garage for a few months. She
had professed a dislike for bikes and bikers (an ex-husband thing, for sure),
but I persuaded her that it would be out of there as soon as the ice was
gone. By the summer of 2003, I've started up the bike, after changing the plugs, and ridden it around just a little. Carburetors need work as it isn't running smoothly. My friends and mentors at PCWRacing tell me that it's got potential and could easily be worked on and fixed up to run well. |
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The heart of a CBX (but not mine - no disassembly yet) |
What the engine looks like in stock trim (but not mine - see below for 6-1 new exhaust in 2005) |
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In 2004, I started
work on the brakes, which were spongy in the front and frozen at the rear.
It was tricky to remove the rear brake piston until I realized I could pump out the
piston with the brake line connected and the caliper in my hand. New pads and cleaning the
inside of the caliper restored this to excellent working condition. The bike was registered and insured (4th bike on the road) in July 2004. It's been ridden to work a few times. The #6 spark plug fouls on occasion, but cleaning/replacing is quick fix. |
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| The sound is way too loud with the shorty exhaust system that came on the bike, so at the end of the 2004 season I find a DG exhaust on ebay for $419 including the shipping. | New exhaust installed Sept. 2005. Might need some baffles removed as the sound is timid. Retained the center stand by using a black hanger bracket from another system as a return stop for the stand. With regular use, it starts up easily and can be ridden reliably. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The gas mileage is only about 25 mpg when riding vigorously but hardly better under any conditions. I had suspected this low number but finally did a more careful check in Oct of 2005. |
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 Before going into storage |
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I put the bike in storage in 2010 and don't take it out again until June 2015 when I put on the repainted tank, fender and tailpiece. The paint job looks great and the bike gets sold to a guy from Connecticut who is the first to see it. (There were plenty of callers but I didn't have it back in my garage to work on it). |
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 Nicely set up - June 2015 |
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I am able to get it running with plenty of carb cleaner, starting fluid, a good battery from the Harley Fatboy and some effort on my part. But it does start and sounds fine, though the carbs leak a bit. I don't get to ride it before I sell it the next day. |
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| The Last Day - June 6, 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| More Photos / Slide Show | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Last Update Jan. 11, 2011 |
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