Cycle World magazine puts together a regular American Flyers feature with custom motorcycles outside the usual fancy paint and chrome category, to get into the lineup you need something really special. This Honda CBX gets past the velvet rope without any discussion, it’s a stunner.
Tryg Westby is an ex-racer, pro bike builder and long time CBX owner. Though he’s owned several of the Honda sixes and still owns the first one he bought new, he managed to get a low mileage (348 miles!) engine from a crashed CBX with the intention of building a bike around it.
He ordered a frame from Spondon and finally got one after a second order came in and they decided it was time to get out the 7020 aluminum alloy tubing and put a couple together. The bike is a laundry list of high end parts, besides the Spondon frame are Ohlins on both ends, Marchesini front wheel with rim mounted brakes, custom machined and hammered pieces and a healthy mix of superb craftsmanship thrown in. The result is a 375 pound jewel of a CBX. This is a great example of what some of the best bike building is all about. I like it!
Hustle over to the news stand and pick up a copy of the December 2006 Cycle World, lots of other good stuff in there, too.
Also check out our Honda CBX for sale page. Maybe you can find a project bike for yourself.
hoyt says
cool ! excellent….
that engine always needed a chassis like this, especialy with a 180 or 190 mm rear tire.
it must sound good too
Mark Savory says
It just goes to prove that a 20+ year old engine still looks good today wrapped in a modern frame and components. Fantastic job!
Brian says
I really, honestly, truly believe that this is the golden age of motorcycles. It seems anything and everything is possible, which is wonderful!
Larry says
I agree with Brian …
Matt says
Brian,
You may be on to something there. It seems to me we’re seeing horsepower wars similar to those of the muscle cars in the 60’s. Like that trend we’re probably going to see some serious backlash from the insurance companies, but in an even more power sapping trend we’ll probably see action taken by the EPA to really rein in the emissions level of motorcycles. I am really intrigued by all the different technology that’s being tried on bikes, like electrics and fuel cells, but I’m really going to miss some of the bike that have been produced for the last 20 years.
I’m seeing more and more people on various forums questioning why bikes are allowed the kind of emissions and non-enforcement of the emission-related equipment once a bike leaves a dealer’s lot. While I have no doubt Honda and Yamaha , and the other Japanese companies, are going to be at the forefront of clean running bikes, I can’t help but think that it’s going to be tough for HD, or even Ducati to stick with their current lineups and be able to make ’em run clean.
hoyt says
Yep — I agree it is a golden age. But, we could be living during a time where we have the golden age doubled up with the “second-coming” of the motorcycle. In other words, while we are happily running around on petrol-powered bikes, we also have little hydrogen-powered bikes just starting out (comparable to the little peddle-engined motorbicycles 100 years ago).
Imagine living back then with all the new ideas —- so many people creating and selling so many different bikes. I look forward to seeing a portion of that ambition while still having the current crop of OEM and custom bikes to ride.
Good engineers will find a way to still offer great performance using a very clean petrol-powered bike with high mpg, for the rest of our days at least.
So, we have the golden age and then some. (just keep squashing the illogical arguments of banning high performance bikes)
I’d like to see a Spondon chassis around a new Stratosphere engine
zipidachimp says
get ’em while they’re hot, before they’re dumbed down!
bob says
i remember when sport rider magazine used to do a feature similar to the cycle world american flyers section. that was the best part of the magazine and now its the best part of cycle world. nice to see someone building something thats not a cookie cutter design like everyone elses.
Mayakovski says
Sweet
I Want One.
Johnny du Pont says
I don’t know why Mr. Westby got so much coverage on his Spondon, I ordered mine in March of 2000 and got it in December of 2001. I had it up and running by July of 2001, tagged titled , and insured. submitted photos and info to multiply magazines and never got an article till I took a CD of photos to the Streetfighters show in Shefield England and handed it over to Mr Dave Manning. Mine was in iSSUE # 138 OF STREETFIGHTERS MAGAZINE. Mr Westby claims 375 lbs for his, mine weighs 460 fueled and ready to go, now, granted I don’t have carbon wheels, Olins forks, and the Spondon single sided swing arm, and I do have a Magnuson supercharger on it, but maybe he was reading kilos not lbs?