1979 CBX Restomod

[NobleHops]

Conan, this is the info we were just speaking about:

"APE, the leading manufacturer of high performance fasteners for powersports is making a run of heavy duty cylinder studs for the Honda CBX motorcycle. We have made these in the past as special order, but only the 10mms. Now, that Honda has discontinued the oem part, we are making a run of complete sets.
If there is sufficient interest, more may be made. Price will be $120.00 per set. If interested, e-mail sales@aperaceparts.com
http://cbrzone.com/"

APE_Studs.jpg

[Z3n]

Thanks Nils!

[NobleHops]

Thanks Nils!

[herdygerdy]

If you are considering replacing the cam chains (and suggest you do) Brent, aka Captain on the 1100F.net site or as 605brent on cbxworld has the very best A and B chains money can buy. Highly recommended as the ones you get these days are nowhere near as strong as these.

Great build, love your work and attention to detail. Following with great interest now...

Cheers...Tony

[Z3n]

If you are considering replacing the cam chains (and suggest you do) Brent, aka Captain on the 1100F.net site or as 605brent on cbxworld has the very best A and B chains money can buy. Highly recommended as the ones you get these days are nowhere near as strong as these.

Great build, love your work and attention to detail. Following with great interest now...

Cheers...Tony

I am replacing the cam chains - thanks for the recommendation, will reach out.


Does anyone have a source for the large transmission bearings with the hole for the locating dowel / oil holes / retaining groove? I need to remove them for the WPC coating process, but obviously will need to send them to a machine shop for careful removal if they are NLA. Also reaching out to a buddy who does specialty bearing stuff in case I can find them from somewhere else, but they don't seem like they're standard bearings.

[jnnngs]

Does anyone have a source for the large transmission bearings with the hole for the locating dowel / oil holes / retaining groove? I need to remove them for the WPC coating process, but obviously will need to send them to a machine shop for careful removal if they are NLA. Also reaching out to a buddy who does specialty bearing stuff in case I can find them from somewhere else, but they don't seem like they're standard bearings.

The bearing on the mainshaft (with a groove in it) is NLA from Honda, but is available if your search around (a few are on ebay at the moment). The equivalent bearing on the countershaft doesn't appear to have a separate part number, and came complete as a unit with the shaft itself - not sure if it was ever available separately.

The needle bearings with the hole for the locating dowel are also typically NLA, but CMSNL (Europe) has them.

http://www.cmsnl.com/products/needle-br ... 3ytRY-cFhE

Like all things CBX, you need to search the many / various suppliers - SixCenter, CMSNL, David Silver, Louis, ...

Paul.

[daves79x]

Those bearings will be fine. Might be overkill to have your transmission coated anyway - I'd leave well enough alone and just bag up each gear cluster until reassembly. Just check carefully the shift forks and sliding gear grooves. They are typically the only parts that wear.

Dave

[Mouse]

OK, so my ignorance will be here for all to see, but what else is new, so here goes,
What is WPC coating?
And why do it?

[Z3n]

OK, so my ignorance will be here for all to see, but what else is new, so here goes,
What is WPC coating?
And why do it?

It's a surface finishing technique for engine internals. I don't expect power gains out of it, but I do think it will boost reliability and wear :)

Here's a bunch of words on it from the moto iq guys:
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... ngine.aspx
http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ ... t-WPC.aspx

Those bearings will be fine. Might be overkill to have your transmission coated anyway - I'd leave well enough alone and just bag up each gear cluster until reassembly. Just check carefully the shift forks and sliding gear grooves. They are typically the only parts that wear.

Dave

Those parts both spec out wonderfully - plenty of meat left and no real wear on the shift drum or forks. A little thought last night made me realize that I can get the vast majority of the benefit by simply applying the coating to a few of the transmission components that typically wear - mainly, the shift forks, drum, and the rod that goes through the engine cover. Doing so will reduce friction and provide a lighter transmission feel (not that I expect it needs it, but I didn't need to tear the bike down in the first place! Part of this project is a chance to experiment!)

[NobleHops]

Here we go Conan!

[Z3n]

Here we go Conan!

Excellent!

The head studs are spiral studs, but they were painted - does anyone have a reason I shouldn't just strip them and re-use them? Do the head studs stretch on these bikes on installation?

[Z3n]

Oh, and some pictures!

ZRX front end fitted - loses about 1 inch of front ride height. Should still be ok.

And momentarily throwing everything together for giggles - those bars are far too tall.


Anyone interested in buying the OEM 79 wheels/swingarm/forks?

[Z3n]

Time for an update!

I first recieved the parts back from WPC coating, which turned out fabulously:

Conrods/bearings:

Refinished bearings:

Oil pump parts:

Shift drum:

Wristpins, etc:

And shortly thereafter, another pile of boxes:


Pulling this stuff out of the boxes was pretty amazing:

For an example of how little the vapor blasting process changes the metal, here's some etching from the PO in the oil pan:


I also have to give a massive shout out to Restocycle here - Nils does amazing work, the parts look fantastic - in fact, the biggest thing that his work has exposed is how rough the OEM castings actually are:


After I saw the covers on his bike I had to have the same style with the lettering picked out in b lack, and he went through the process of pulling the covers back out of the box, and worked through five attempts before he got something he was satisfied with sending over. The parts are so clean, the wear from the years shows up to contrast the paintwork - this is going to be a bike to be ridden that should look nice as well, so I think the raw and used look is a good one:


I highly recommend him for any work you might need. I know he spent longer on the parts than he charged me for (I've been doing this for a long time, and I know how much work goes into doing things right, and he did the job right, unquestionably). I told him the goal for this bike was to get the engine looking relatively consistent to draw the eye to the engine as the massive block of engineering it is, and you can see that in the parts in the pictures - most of it is aluminum, but some of it is magnesium, and some of it is steel - and it all looks consistent, exactly as I asked him to do. Very pleased. Now I have to go through all the work of making sure that the parts that go into the these nice clean parts are actually clean enough to justify using them. :laughing

He didn't even complain about how dirty the parts were...just compare this:

To this:


Finally, on to the CCT:

I've received a number of random cam chain tensioner parts, and now that I have the CBX parts back, it's time to start prototyping. We'll see how things go in the next few days :)

[daves79x]

Yes, Nils does fantastic work. As I said before, don't be tempted to leave the aluminum/magnesium bare. It needs to be painted or it won't look that nice for long.

Dave

[Z3n]

Yes, Nils does fantastic work. As I said before, don't be tempted to leave the aluminum/magnesium bare. It needs to be painted or it won't look that nice for long.

Dave

I'm gonna go with a regular application of boeshield on the bike, as recommended by Nils - this won't be a garage queen, but it will be perhaps a garage squire.