A bit of back story on this bike; I bought this bike new from Honda of Springfield in 1980. Honda had over-hyped the bike and sales were not what they had expected. So in 1980, brand new in the crate 1979 models were still available.
My wife and I had been doing short day trips on a 1974 CB550, but were interested in doing more serious touring and the CBX looked like it would be a perfect fit. Over the course of several summers we toured Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In total we put about 10,000 miles on the bike.
By 1988 we had two young children and my wife was suffering from some health problems. In the fall of ’88 I put the bike in my Dad’s garage and there it sat for the next 36 years.
When my wife passed away in 2016 the thought of getting the bike in working order seemed like a good idea. Life once again got in the way as I was diagnosed with cancer a few months later in the same year.
In the fall of 2023 I came to the realization that I was not going to live forever! Getting the bike back on the road was taken off the back burner and I brought it home from Pop’s garage in December of 2023.
Having sat for all those years, and not being put away correctly, it was in need of some serious attention. The brake fluid had dried up in both the front and rear brakes. So the master cylinders and calipers would all need to be rebuilt. The carbs were full of varnish and needed to be completely gone through. The fuel tank was full of rust on the inside and the petcock was frozen with rust and varnish.
Now it wasn’t like some neglected barn find, but it certainly wasn’t as I remembered it when I was riding it either! The plan was, get it running by doing the carbs. Then get it ride able by doing the brakes and the fuel tank. Once it was rolling under it’s own power I’d sort out the tires and anything else that came up.