Summary

• Honda’s CX500 Turbo was the world’s first manufacturing turbocharged motorbike, showcasing Honda’s engineering capabilities.
• The CX500 Turbo featured progressive expertise like liquid cooling, gasoline injection, and a novel shaft last drive system.
• Despite its complexity, the CX500 Turbo was surprisingly regular to journey and preserve, showcasing Honda’s reliability and engineering prowess.

Honda is the world’s largest two-wheeler producer, and it does the gross sales figures it does largely on the again of small capacity, reliable runabouts in third-world countries. However, on the different finish of the spectrum, it is usually one of the most successful brands in motorcycle racing. Its engineering is so succesful that it will probably make a bike of no matter kind it desires to, with out worrying concerning the product’s monetary return. The firm has repeatedly tried to show the latter, and one of many boldest proofs is the CX collection: the CX500 Turbo. Or generally often known as the world’s first manufacturing turbocharged motorbike.

But that is not the one means you possibly can outline this beast. It featured an engine that Honda placed on sale for a mere 5 years, however the classes realized from it are being utilized by Honda (and everybody else) to at the present time. So let’s take a more in-depth have a look at the CX500 Turbo, and why it was necessary not only for turbocharged bikes, but in addition for the world of two-wheelers.

To guarantee accuracy, the data compiled on this article was sourced from the producer, in addition to different authoritative sources comparable to Cycleworld.com, Motorcycle.com, Motorcyclenews.com, and Visordown.com.

The Background

The Reason Behind The Turbos

The Eighties noticed Japanese producers blossom and their dependable, sweet-handling bikes took priority over good ol’ torquey American Iron. The US authorities beneath Reagan then imposed a crippling import tariff on basically Japanese imports above 700 cc to guard American motorbike makers from having to close store due to their lack of competitiveness. This made the Japanese innovate and attempt to provide equal efficiency to American producers (specifically Harley-Davidson) and their massive displacement engines by different means. This ‘other means’ was pressured induction for middleweight bikes, and all four Japanese manufacturers got in on the concept.

In a number of years, the tariff was lifted and there was no want for the particular Japanese turbocharged motorbike to exist anymore. However, there was a race among the many Japanese producers to be the primary one to answer the American tariffs, to not point out to be the primary manufacturing turbocharged motorbike in historical past. Honda gained that race with the CX500 Turbo, beating Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha.

The Firsts

A Lot Of Game-Changing Tidbits

Slightly little bit of context is required right here. When the CX collection was launched on the finish of the 70s, we had been only some years faraway from the Vietnam War. Heck, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was lording it over his friends on the time. Tube amps supplied amplification for everybody as a result of transistors hadn’t fairly taken over but. With this backdrop in thoughts, let’s take a look at the CX series’ options, after which the Turbo specifically.

This wasn’t the primary water-cooled manufacturing engine Honda had made, nevertheless it was shut, solely crushed by the Gold Wing launched in 1974. This makes the CX collection one of many first ones to have liquid cooling—a game-changing technology that changed motorcycling forever. Moving on, it was positively the primary V-twin that Honda had made, armed with pushrods—a essential inclusion due to different selections Honda made.

Honda selected an 80-degree transverse v-twin, holding the engine format longitudinal like the Gold Wing, and gave it a shaft last drive to make it tourer. Shafts require no upkeep apart from an everyday oil change, not like a series that must be cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted now and again. It additionally picked up the contra-rotating gearbox tech from the luxurious tourer. This allowed the motorbike to withstand the side-to-side rocking that we get from bikes with longitudinal engines when the throttle is opened and closed.

To maintain the downpipes from fouling with the rider’s legs and to maintain warmth away from them, Honda selected to rotate them by 22 levels. This made it inconceivable to make use of the same old cam chain and overhead camshaft, so a single camshaft sat on the base of the engine’s V and operated pushrods. The naturally aspirated CX500 had carburetors, however the CX500TC Turbo had gasoline injection, which grew to become a primary for Honda (and simply two years after the primary gasoline injection system on a manufacturing motorbike). With the inclusion of the turbo, you had 64 % extra energy than the conventional CX500.

The chassis aspect of issues wasn’t far behind the engine’s; the engine was a confused member of the body and hung from it like a contemporary sports bike. The CX500’s modular wheels had been distinctive for the time, and so they allowed the motorbike to be fitted with tubeless tires – one other unusual characteristic of that period. The suspension, in the meantime, was space-age for the time; the entrance forks ran with compressed air, and the brake calipers, after they gripped the disc, actuated an anti-dive system.

At the rear, the now-famous Pro-Link rear suspension made its debut on a manufacturing Honda bike. In a transfer that may be exceptional at the moment, the CX500 TC Turbo additionally had an instrument cluster that was utterly totally different from the usual CX500. It had digital parts that gave the rider warnings when one thing went mistaken with both the turbocharging or injection system.

The Result

Surprisingly Normal

Despite all of the complexity and the various firsts, particularly with the turbocharging, the Honda CX500 Turbo was as regular as another motorbike for the time to journey and preserve, excluding the turbo lag. It was dependable, clean, and really outstanding. The latter is a giant deal as a result of even at the moment, when somebody launches model new tech, particularly when it’s as complicated as gasoline injection and turbocharging, there are all the time some hiccups earlier than it runs easily. For Honda to launch one thing this complicated and have it run so properly is price each final little bit of reward it will probably get. Today. there are proprietor golf equipment of the CX collection not restricted to the Turbos, however the blown ones deservedly get the respect and appreciation attributable to them.

The Bigger Brother

Bigger, Better, Faster, But Just As Short-Lived

It could be remiss of us to not point out the CX650 Turbo, the successor to the CX500 Turbo. As the identify suggests, it had a bigger displacement engine and the next compression ratio to make efficiency a bit higher off enhance. To maintain issues in verify, it additionally obtained a smaller turbocharger in comparison with the CX650, which makes the transition from off enhance to on enhance smoother.

The CX650 might need been a midsize displacement for the time, however no motorbike might match it for torque and in-gear acceleration as soon as that turbocharger was on enhance. Just just like the CX500, the CX650 Turbo was yanked from showroom flooring after only a yr of being on sale. We would not see pressured induction on any manufacturing machine after this period till the Kawasaki Ninja H2 debuted three a long time later. Even that does not get a turbo, although.