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A legend to
this day
The double overhead
cam, air cooled, six cylinder
engine was a short stroke unit
(to enable safe high revving to
10,000 rpm) with a bore and
stroke of 64.5 mm x 53.4 mm
giving 1047 cc, a compression
ratio of 9.3:1, topped off with
an awesome 24 valve head. With
four valves per cylinder, the
spark plug was mounted centrally
in the combustion chamber. The
crankshaft was a one piece forged
component driving a 350 watt
generator. Six 28 mm carburetors
with accelerator pumps fueled the
engine which produced 105 bhp at
9000 rpm (measured at the crank).
Transmission was via multi-plate
wet clutch, five speed gearbox
and 630 size chain final drive.
Engine width was
kept to a minimum by mounting the
CDI and alternator behind the
crankshaft. The motor sat in a
light chrome molybdenum diamond
type frame with eight mounting
points; four at the cylinder head
and four at the gearbox.
Suspension came courtesy of oil
damped 35 mm telescopic forks up
front and 'FVQ' twin shock
absorbers and swinging arm at the
rear. By modern standards, the
Comstar wheels were shod with
skinny sized tyres - Dunlop Gold
Seal 4.25 x 18 in rear and 3.50 x
19 in front.
Braking was handled
by twin 10.9in discs up front and
a single 11.6in disc at the rear.
The whole package weighed in at
545 lbs dry. Class-leading
11.55-second quarter-mile times
came easily to the CBX. It was
the quickest, most powerful
production motorcycle the world
had ever seen, and an
unbelievable technological
achievement.
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