This is not the bike, but it's similar. Selling for $500, has two new coils still in the box. No dings or signs of abuse.
I'm going to Cafe it over the winter, run it for a while and then give it to my son.
Any bad habits or "psh, everyone knows that" I should be aware of?
I'm hoping to go in this direction. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouUMmvYOyBc&feature=related
Thanx, Dan
I've heard they struggle at freeway speeds and are hot on the knees. That being said, I would love one cafe'd out.
Cooling fan can get loose on the motor shaft, rattling noisily.
Carburetors have a diaphram on the idle mixture circuit that is known to fail.
Cylinder heads need constant retorquing of the bolts to keep from blowing out the head gasket.
They have a bit of 'top heavy' feel to them, but will run forever and go like stink when asked to. I never had an issue running at highway (and beyond) speeds. The conservative Honda redline is around 9500 and they will pull well beyond that. With some decent pipes the sound at the upper end will make you wet your pants.
The CX500 Customs have goofy pseudo-chopper suspension geometry and riding position, if you can get past those things.
Grtechguy wrote: Blah, blah, blah...
Drool!
They are hideous without a lot of work to change the looks.
I rode one for 8 years and never had a real issue. Never had to re-torque or adjust anything. Never did much maintenance. Never babied it. Rode two-up at highway speeds all day. They are the cockroach of the motorcycle world, you cannot kill them. I broke a 30-year old clutch cable that was improperly routed. That's it.
Copied from Motu Mucci: "A common problem with the CX500 is with it's timing / cam chain tensioner. The '78 models had a recall on this part, due to the guide bolt backing itself out. If your '78 model had the recall remedied by a dealer, you will see 3 punch dots on the engine casing in this location:
If your bike is a '78 and does not have these punch marks, you need to update the tensioner although I have never seen one that still hasn't had it done.
There are a ton of great resources on the web for the CX500 so you can find out anything. People think that they were ugly. (I disagree with that, but I am biased being so ugly myself.)
I still have those hard bags, I'll have to get the on Ebay.
That was my first bike. A bit top heavy and the carbs could gunk up if it sat too long (which is basically saying the bike has carbs). But it's one I would be tempted to own again - at least, if there wasn't the Goldwing Standard.
Pinchvalve covered the timing chain issue. The other issue I've heard of them having is that using coolant with silicates in it can make the water pump leak. Other than that, they're pretty tough. Mine also had a weird issue with one of the plug boots that made it lose spark on one cylinder, but I was eventually able to find and fix that.
As for problems with freeway speeds - only when it was running on one cylinder. Or if you are trying to keep up with some GSXR600-riding friends who are well on their way to getting their licenses revoked.
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