1979 honda reviews

Overall a good bike, easy to ride but hard to get off the line because of lack of bottom end power. Hard to find a front tire for the 23" front wheel. Show less

Heavy and slow. There is hand fatigue after a couple of hours of riding at high speeds (over 60), because of four cylinders instead of six. The first gear is too high. You have to rev it quite a lot to get it going. Otherwise, it is quite a pleasure to look at and ride. Mine has 13,000 original miles and still has a lot of good days ahead on it. You can pack a lot of gear on it (with saddle bags, and travel trunk). Floor boards can be nicely added to the engine guards. When this bike is shined up and in good clean condition, it really is a beautiful sight. It gets a lot of attention. The new ones are nice, but the old ones have everything out there for you to see. If you can find a nice one with low miles for less than $1,500, buy it. Show less

My first Bike was a 75 Honda XL250. I wanted something bigger, and my boss offered to sell me his unused CX. It had 1200 orig. miles on it, needed a new needle jet for one carb, and a battery. That was a year ago. I have put 5000 miles on it since then including a couple overnight camping trips in Wisconsin. It has a fairly plush ride with an upright riding position, gets 44 mpg, brakes well, uses pushrods and rocker arms instead of an overhead camshaft, but still revs happily to 10,000 rpm and though it has only 500 1979 vintage CCs, it gets out of its own way. don't race anything bigger or newer though. These were some of the first bikes to combine electric start, water cooling, electronic ignition, tubeless tires and shaft drive on a medium-sized chassis. Also, it has a couple nice peace-of-mind features. It can be push started and driven even with a dead battery or blown master fuse because the ignition system is self energizing and is seperate from the rest of the electrical system. It has 3 bright tail lamps. Handling is telepathic. It will drone all day down a highway without any nervousness, but even at medium or high speeds, just think about changing lanes, and it's already done. I have yet to put dime one into this bike except for correcting the errors of its previous caretakers. Suggested upgrades: sissybar and luggage rack, modern shocks and springs, xenon headlamp. Very reliable, easy to handle, do-it-all bike. I can't see ever getting rid of this thing, even if I get a new bike. Oh, and I paid 450 bucks for it. Best damn money I ever spent. Show less