If you were of a certain age in the 1980s, you likely poked fun at the fads, or you jumped in with both feet and followed them. One of them was turbocharging almost anything and everything, including hairstyles and even motorcycles. This 1982 Honda CX500 Turbo is listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Appleton, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $4,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!
Four grand for a CX500 Turbo?! YES. Hagerty’s at $6,600 for a #3 good example and $12,700 for a #2 excellent example. They can and do sell for more than that, but this one has a few needs (don’t we all?). The seller says it has a bad injector (don’t we all?), and it’s missing a few small parts, although they don’t list those. I’m assuming hand grips are one of those things, and a cracked tailpiece, etc.
Honda offered the CX500 Turbo for the 1982 model year, and that’s it. Other manufacturers made turbo motorcycles, and Kawasaki is generally credited as having the first “semi-production” turbo model in 1978. Yamaha offered the XJ650 Seca Turbo in 1982, with Suzuki and Kawasaki following shortly. Honda followed up the 500 Turbo in 1983 with the CX650 Turbo, but this genre never really caught on, unlike supercharging. Thankfully, 1980s hairstyles never caught on either. Or pushing up your sleeves, or acid-wash jeans, leg warmers, fanny packs, etc.
I’ve been following/watching a Wisconsin guy named Joe Weber on his YouTube channel, 2Vintage, for about a decade, and it’s an incredibly fun place to spend some time. He buys old motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc., in non-running condition, and goes through them methodically to get them working again. 99 times out of 100, he gets them running by the end of the video. It would be fun to see him tackle this CX500 Turbo.
The engine is Honda’s 497-cc OHV turbocharged, four-stroke, water-cooled V-twin with 82 horsepower and 58 lb-ft of torque when it’s running. It’s backed by a 5-speed manual transmission sending power to the rear wheel through a shaft drive. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more 1980s-looking motorcycle than this. At $4,000, this one is probably worth a gamble as they can be worth triple that easily, but can you get it back in perfect condition again?
It should come as no surprise, I poked fun rather than follow kooky trends, didn’t get me anywhere. We’ve seen 3 of these in the past couple years,( all from Jeff) this is the 1st from SG. Before I go any further, let it be known, I like ALL motorcycles, some more than others, others I plain didn’t care for. The CX500 is one I didn’t care for. Before coming to Co. I spent a summer in Upstate NY, and the guy I stayed with had a CX 500 Silver Wing. I was grateful he let me ride that thing all over the Catskills, but a poorer bike, I don’t think I ever rode. It handled funky, poor rider position, iffy brakes, shaft drive quirks, engine buzzed like 7 grand was 65mph, and certainly nothing I would buy. I can’t imagine what a “hairdryer” would do, for a 500, it had plenty of steam, and again, ( and again) you want half a loaf of bread, here you go, but give me that Z1 any day! :0
You better know how to ride if you saddle up a big cc turbo bike 🏍
Got that right, however, I’ve always maintained the fact, don’t these contraptions go fast enough? I read, the CX500B did 0-60 in a respectable 5.2sec, but ran out of steam, with the 1/4 mile at about 14.2@ about 89mph. The turbo changed all that, adding 34 HP, and 0-60 was about 4.1sec, but blasted the 1/4 mile at just over 12 sec. @ 106mph, so a clear improvement, if you have the grapes, that is. I don’t think Harley ever offered a turbocharger on an Electra-Glide, and that’s fine by me.
Referring to the featured bike with a story of riding experience of another model? I miss the point
For the record, yes I own one
I would find the cx650 instead. This is nice. But, the bugs were worked out on the cx650. Cool concept.
Yes. I rode a cx650 turbo for years. Amazing machine. I wanted to live longer so bought an older 1000 Goldwing
These really made the bike magazines sit up and take notice-especially when the bigger 650 came out to counter the competition from Yamaha (Seca 650-looked like seen on Battlestar Galactica) the Suzuki XN85 (more sci-fi cool designs) and the King of the Stock Turbo Bikes the GPZ750 Turbo about 115 HP IIRC.
All were cool engineering flagships, all were scary fast and all were scary to ride on a twisty road in the day!
I would not call the scary – unless one gets on the boost on a damp road and deep lean. CX500T is actually a very nice touring bike, XN85 sort of sportish.
Naturally they are children of eighties and riding characteristics are from period including frame flex and mediocre brakes
I have one of these and they can be big fun, but as a first effort having both fuel injection and turbo, the fuel mapping is dicey. The engine initially feels quite porky until you hit 3k-3.5k rpm, then the turbo kicks in with a bang, similar to a carrier launch. Make sure you have a good grip. Maybe that’s where the missing grips went? From a quick look, there are quite a number of trim pieces missing including the rear grab bar, handlebar cover around the ignition lock. The front fairing has mismatched paint as well. And since the seller states it has a bad injector, I suspect that there is no way to accurately assess the turbos condition. Parts for this bike are very limited so good luck finding the needed missing trim. Between the engine’s needs and the missing pieces, bring your wallet and prepare to open it often. The later 650cc version is much more refined and a far better purchase. The sellers price is way high for what this is, a pig in a poke.
I have a friend who bought one at auction for under $3000. Being a turbo I just had to try it out. Reminded me in a way of the Porsche 930 turbo. Slower than a VW bug until the turbo spools up at around 3500 rpm, and then you get a little poke but it’s not a fire breathing monster bike. Way too complicated, way too slow, and even way too heavy for a 500cc bike. After my test ride I would never buy one.
Yes, as I recall, you asked me what the hell I was doing when I bid on that bike at the Daytona auction! I still like it!