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Motorcycle User Reviews - 1981 Honda CX500 Deluxe 
My absolute favorite street bike, the CX500 has been a model of reliability for me. The engine is a very forgiving longitudinal V-twin with a useful 50 horsepower. Powerband runs from 5500 RPM torque all the way up to the 9000 RPM redline. People often complain about the engine's high revving highway gear ratio (about 6,000 rpm at 70 miles per hour), but this engine was designed to do it. The weakness of the design is the stator, which is an engine-out repair. I've heard of stators dying as soon as 15,000 miles, and holding on as long as 40,000 miles. The single disc, single caliper brakes are lacking, but there are some dual caliper upgrades that can be done to help this. The handling was generally considered spongy, but a pair of Progressive suspension springs solved this problem quite nicely. They also tend to be top heavy, especially when they have full fairings. The CX500 is a great generalist design. Big for the 500 class, the seats can hold two 200+ pounders (you do have to upgrade the shocks). It's not a fast bike, but it is fast enough (over 100 mph naked). It's not a cruiser, but because of a large seat pan, two riders can tour for some very respectable distances. They just don't build 'em like that anymore. -- CX Rider User Reviews for Other Honda Models
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© 2008 Walter F. Kern. All rights reserved.
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