Create an account CBX Home ·  Topics  ·  Your Account  ·  Honda CBX Forums  
Login
Nickname

Password

Don't have an account yet? You can create one. As a registered user you have some advantages like theme manager, comments configuration and post comments with your name.

Lost your password?

Main Menu
 Home

 Features
 CBX Forums
 CBX Technical
 Photo Gallery
 CBX Registry
 Just For Fun
 Member Map
 Tools
 Your_Account

Who's Online

Welcome, Anonymous
Nickname
Password

· Register
· Lost Password
People Online:
Visitors: 68
Members: 0

We received
122851142
page views since
May 2003

Server Date/Time
14 February 2025 01:16:00 EST (GMT -5)

Feature Site




Posted on Friday, April 22 @ 01:03:52 EDT by Administrator

Technical dkrager writes "

Turbocbxmans Blake Turbo CBX project. By Jem Miller and Reginald Lilly.


I had heard stories about a Turbo CBX terrorizing Oklahoma City for quite some time. In 1984 I met the original owner of the bike through a good friend of mine. He happened to have a 1981 CBX for sale at his motorcycle repair shop, and I was in the market. Over the next year we became friends and I heard more stories about the Turbo bike that he had sold just prior to our meeting the previous year.

In 1985 I received a call from Bob Jansen who was the service manager for Jandebuer's Cycle. He said they had just traded for the infamous Turbo CBX and that if I wanted it, I'd better get over there before it went to the shop for service, and then to the sales floor. At the time I lived only a few blocks from Jandebuer's, so I stopped on the way home from work to take a look at the bike.

Don, the owner of the shop met me at the door and hustled me back to the service area. There I finally got my first look at the bike. It was scratched up and dirty, and had bald tires. Bob fired it up and it sounded like it had a dead miss on one cylinder. Sure enough, Bob said it had at least one bent valve on the number 3 cylinder.

The asking price was $1,000.00. After looking the bike over and talking to Bob for a few minutes, I agreed to buy it. We loaded it on Bob's trailer and hauled it to his house, where he did motorcycle work on the side. We put it on his rack and started tearing it down that night. The next evening we had the head off and all of the painted parts removed so I could start the restoration process on them. I took the Rajay turbo with me so that I could check its health and rebuild if it necessary. At the time, I did restorations on 1974 and earlier muscle cars and street rods. I also specialize in fuel injection and turbo charging systems.

Don Jandebuer called me a few days later to tell me about a CBX he had in storage that had kicked a rod through the side of the case. It was a 1979 CBX and had about 800 miles on the clock. I bought it with a salvage title for $500.00 so I had parts available for the turbo bike. CBX parts, back then, were expensive and hard to find, so it was a good investment.

After about a week of working in the evenings, the engine was back together, and we were both satisfied that it was as good or better than the day it left Bill Blake's shop in Muskogee. Wanting some history on the bike, Bob and I went to see Blake to get an idea of the capabilities and cut through the rumors. We spent several hours with Mr. Blake talking about the project and especially the testing process.

He said that the original design turned out to be so dangerous that he had to redesign the wastegate and other components to bring the horsepower down to a manageable level. The first design made over 400 horsepower, but was so hard to control that it scared his professional test rider. Mr. blake settled on a boost limit of 3 to 18 PSI, which yielded a maximum horsepower of around 280 at the rear tire. His test rider was able to get times in the high 8's with a slick and bar on the bike.

After describing the bike to Mr. Blake and answering several questions about the intake manifold and headers on the bike. He confirmed that this was indeed the prototype that was used to base the other 8 kits that were produced. All but one of those kits were shipped overseas, and he said that the US Turbo CBX had been destroyed in an accident a couple years ago. As far as he knew, mine was the only Blake Turbo CBX in the U.S. and was the only one with extensive history and test data. All other Blake Turbo CBX's had cast aluminum intake manifolds with raised fins and Blake's name cast into them. Mine had a sheet metal intake that was painted crinkle black with no markings at all. It also has a series of washers welded inside to divert flow to the cylinders equally.

I decided to change the look of the bike by using a two tone candy brandywine. I mixed a gold base coat for the darker sections and a silver base for the light sections and laid out the design. The small fairing, tail piece, and tank were done in two tone, and the side covers were in the darker shade. The wheels, frame, and engine were painted and detailed, and all of the chrome was restored. The Corbin Gentry seat had a high step in it that acted as a seat belt under throttle. The seat was original to this bike, and needed nothing.

After a couple weeks, the bike was ready to go with a fresh engine and all new paint. Bob said that the previous owner had probably missed a gear. The head had a total of 4 bent valves, but no other damage was found. My first ride on the bike was pretty subdued. With the baffle in the exhaust, it will only make about 9 PSI of boost, but that is plenty. I went to boost a couple times on that ride, but only for short spurts.

I spent the next week breaking in the new rings with only occasional torture to the engine. I must have ridden it for a month or more before I finally raced another bike. I kept the boost at 8 PSI for normal riding, and left the baffle in just in case. Even at 8 PSI, I never had a problem with another bike on the street except my brothers modified V-Max.

Over the years, I began losing interest in motorcycles, and when I did take the Turbo CBX out, I found that, if it did something unexpected, that it scared me. I have always believed that if a vehicle scares you then you have no business on or in it. About 6 years ago, I parked the Turbo CBX after it developed an igniter problem, and it just sat there.

I had long since sold the igniter's from the parts bike, and most of the rest of that bike. My wife would never ride with me on the bike, and parts were through the roof, so it sat. Even after I bought igniters for it, it just sat there with the replacement parts still in the bag. Oh I'd show it to people, and show off the 1st place trophy it won at Darrel Starbird's car show in 1987, but it still sat there.

In 2004 I started thinking about selling the CBX. I had long since sold the 81 CBX that I rode almost daily for many years. After selling a car to Reggie, I showed him the Turbo CBX, and he fell in love. He's already talked to Bill Blake and started the restoration process on the bike. It does my heart good to see someone get the bike that knows what it is and wants to put it into new condition again.


"

 
Related Links
· More about Technical
· News by Administrator


Most read story about Technical:
New CDI MPS-200 OKI system


Article Rating
Average Score: 4
Votes: 4


Please take a second and vote for this article:

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Regular
Bad


Options

 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly



 
Theme Graphics By Ian Fox

All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner. The comments are property of their posters, all the rest 2002 by me

PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2004 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.