pics of my cx500 project
this is a 1982 cx500 custom...

i picked this one up for around $400 with title. ran but needed waterpump seal replaced (po didn't tell me that part)
below, i had bent some pipe and made the exhaust and put on some clubman bars.

i didn't really like the gas tank. so i picked up a tank on ebay for a 1978 standard model. I had started to make a solo seat out of some sheetmetal.
i also made some quick rearsets that moved the pegs up 3 inches and back about 3 inches.

i had started to sand the tank and get ready to spray it. i thru a cb750 tank on it to see what that would look like. not bad, but not easy to mount. so i decided to stick with the cx500 stardard tank. i wasn't happy with the clubman bars so i put on some clip ons and i lowered the headlight and dropped the front end about 3 inches to get rid of the 80's jap chopper look it had. the gauges looked retarded so i ditched the speedo and made a bracket that lowered the tach and made it sit flatter. i have some LED's in the bracket for the neutral and oil pressure light. also no turn signals now.


the seat wasn't turning out all that well so i made another one from a cb360 gas tank. i painted the sidecovers and tank also.

i had to cut and shorten the clutch cable as that thing was about 8 inches too long. sprayed the seat and added a lucas tail light.



now the seat is getting upholstered. i had some clutch issues from the waterpump seal contaminating the oil. all the plates stuck and rusted together. i borrowed the discs from a cb550 and cleaned up the cx500 plates and thru it back together. grabs nice now and worked like a charm.
i hope you have enjoyed my mini project. total investment is around $600 and lots of time. its not the fastest thing for sure and has around 40whp with a top speed of around 110mph. it doesn't handle that great, but much better then stock. i don't know if tires are budgeted most likely not. But this thing gets around 60mpg and is an eye-catcher for sure. so i'm going to list it for sale and try to make enough money to pay for a few months rent and start on my xs650 and another cb550.
man i get a lot of pleasure out of messing with old bikes. but there doesn't seem to be any money it. free therapy i guess.

i picked this one up for around $400 with title. ran but needed waterpump seal replaced (po didn't tell me that part)
below, i had bent some pipe and made the exhaust and put on some clubman bars.

i didn't really like the gas tank. so i picked up a tank on ebay for a 1978 standard model. I had started to make a solo seat out of some sheetmetal.
i also made some quick rearsets that moved the pegs up 3 inches and back about 3 inches.

i had started to sand the tank and get ready to spray it. i thru a cb750 tank on it to see what that would look like. not bad, but not easy to mount. so i decided to stick with the cx500 stardard tank. i wasn't happy with the clubman bars so i put on some clip ons and i lowered the headlight and dropped the front end about 3 inches to get rid of the 80's jap chopper look it had. the gauges looked retarded so i ditched the speedo and made a bracket that lowered the tach and made it sit flatter. i have some LED's in the bracket for the neutral and oil pressure light. also no turn signals now.


the seat wasn't turning out all that well so i made another one from a cb360 gas tank. i painted the sidecovers and tank also.

i had to cut and shorten the clutch cable as that thing was about 8 inches too long. sprayed the seat and added a lucas tail light.



now the seat is getting upholstered. i had some clutch issues from the waterpump seal contaminating the oil. all the plates stuck and rusted together. i borrowed the discs from a cb550 and cleaned up the cx500 plates and thru it back together. grabs nice now and worked like a charm.
i hope you have enjoyed my mini project. total investment is around $600 and lots of time. its not the fastest thing for sure and has around 40whp with a top speed of around 110mph. it doesn't handle that great, but much better then stock. i don't know if tires are budgeted most likely not. But this thing gets around 60mpg and is an eye-catcher for sure. so i'm going to list it for sale and try to make enough money to pay for a few months rent and start on my xs650 and another cb550.
man i get a lot of pleasure out of messing with old bikes. but there doesn't seem to be any money it. free therapy i guess.
Last edited by 20psi 240sx; Apr 10, 2008 at 09:43 AM.
that's a sick bike. i REEALLY dig that exhaust. the whole damn thing just flows real nice though, 'specially since it started as a butt ugly "wrong way" twin. damn thing came a long way!
you should look into a cx500t "swap" and boost that sucker! that'd be killer if you could get it done without cluttering up the bike too much.
nice work bro, my hat's off to ya.
you should look into a cx500t "swap" and boost that sucker! that'd be killer if you could get it done without cluttering up the bike too much.
nice work bro, my hat's off to ya.







