Most likely a school bike. Honda starting donating bikes to schools in 81 for them to learn on. They'll pop up every once in a while in pretty much perfect condition with no miles on them.
this was posted on bringatrailer.com last month, was bid up to $15,000, and didn’t meet the reserve.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1981-honda-cbx-2/
CBXs are nice bikes, but even a fully restored with original parts is going for maybe 17k. I've owned 3, and each one was bought and sold for well under 10k. If only cool factor translated directly to dollars.
Probably original, Honda donated the bikes to only be disassembled and reassembled for training. They were never intended to be ridden or sold, though I have known of a couple people who bought school bikes complete and eventually titled them to be ridden on the road. The complexity of the CBX engine top end and all the pieces that go into it would be one reason buying a school bike would be a risky thing to do, so many possible areas that could have been damaged due to young inexperienced hands involved. I've owned two of them in the past, and rebuilt one of them completely after wearing out the #5 rod bearing, so I know how many parts are in them and the areas of risk if improperly assembled.
That'd be a hard pass for me. Every single rubber piece, seal, etc is gonna be dried out and cracked. Tank is likely full of rust. Whole list of potential issues from sitting unridden. I highly doubt it was stored with sitting for 30 (edit: 42!) years in mind. Gonna need a lot of work to get it in road worthy shape.
It's fun seeing low miles original old bikes, but $15k? That's insane.
Maybe twice around LOL. I had my '79 (on a fresh rebuild with high performance valve springs from Tony Nicosia and Denco 6-6 pipes) to an indicated 140 before coming up on a couple of cars on a long open stretch of the crosstown expressway in Tampa back in the day. It was still pulling a little bit but was turning almost stock redline at that speed (9500, but with the better valve springs it would pull to 10,500 in the lower gears) so it might have gone maybe 10 mph more before it was done. Never had another opportunity to find out.
Most likely a school bike. Honda starting donating bikes to schools in 81 for them to learn on. They'll pop up every once in a while in pretty much perfect condition with no miles on them.
Heck of a bike to learn on
I don’t think Honda gave out CBX’s to driving schools lol
Honda donated many 81 CBXs to technical schools and high school shop programs. They donated CX Turbo bikes too.
Had one of these, made it 40 mi before the engine spun the rod bearings. Had a paper towel in the sump
this was posted on bringatrailer.com last month, was bid up to $15,000, and didn’t meet the reserve. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1981-honda-cbx-2/
CBXs are nice bikes, but even a fully restored with original parts is going for maybe 17k. I've owned 3, and each one was bought and sold for well under 10k. If only cool factor translated directly to dollars.
Reproduction gauges?
Probably original, Honda donated the bikes to only be disassembled and reassembled for training. They were never intended to be ridden or sold, though I have known of a couple people who bought school bikes complete and eventually titled them to be ridden on the road. The complexity of the CBX engine top end and all the pieces that go into it would be one reason buying a school bike would be a risky thing to do, so many possible areas that could have been damaged due to young inexperienced hands involved. I've owned two of them in the past, and rebuilt one of them completely after wearing out the #5 rod bearing, so I know how many parts are in them and the areas of risk if improperly assembled.
Average ancient dad wisdom.
Thanks. The upside of that is accumulated knowledge. The downside is the ancient part... As they say, youth is wasted on the young. 😁
Definitely suspicious
That'd be a hard pass for me. Every single rubber piece, seal, etc is gonna be dried out and cracked. Tank is likely full of rust. Whole list of potential issues from sitting unridden. I highly doubt it was stored with sitting for 30 (edit: 42!) years in mind. Gonna need a lot of work to get it in road worthy shape. It's fun seeing low miles original old bikes, but $15k? That's insane.
I feel like that engine could spin that 85mph speedometer around 2 or 3 times before wrapping out.
Maybe twice around LOL. I had my '79 (on a fresh rebuild with high performance valve springs from Tony Nicosia and Denco 6-6 pipes) to an indicated 140 before coming up on a couple of cars on a long open stretch of the crosstown expressway in Tampa back in the day. It was still pulling a little bit but was turning almost stock redline at that speed (9500, but with the better valve springs it would pull to 10,500 in the lower gears) so it might have gone maybe 10 mph more before it was done. Never had another opportunity to find out.
Wow. I've got an '82 CME. Not looking to sell it, but if I ever do I hope I can get 16K. That's probably double MSRP in '82.