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CBX rubber
Copping a nail –
Sunday shed wrap
April 2, 2026, by Guy
'Guido' Allen
The lovely Honda
CBX1000C copped a nail recently and so we went into
full nurse mode
The rear tyre on our 1982 Honda CBX1000C copped a nail
recently, which meant it was toast. It had done maybe a
few hundred kay. There might have been a time decades ago,
when I was struggling to pay a mortgage, that I would
consider repairing it with a plug. It would have been a
false economy and just might have denied my kids of a
father.
It was literally the same problem this week, albeit with
grand-kids now in the equation.
Though an old bike, it's also powerful and heavy. Let's
talk about 270-ish kilos and 100 horsepower with roughly
200km/h in reach. If that goes tits-up, we're talking
about a long sojourn in hospital.
What drives me nuts with these bikes is the full-on
wrestling match you undertake when changing the rear
wheel. In the case of the CBX, you need to loosen off the
left-side exhaust system so you can remove the rear wheel
axle.
And then there is the usual balancing act to deal with a
rear wheel of that era: spacers both sides of the hub, a
drive chain to be dropped and remounted, chain-adjusters,
a rear brake to be dealt with, plus a spectacularly heavy
wheel.
It's a process I've been through many times over the
decades and, because I'm no longer in my first blush of
youth, it's a bit more of a struggle though still okay.
In this case, we're dealing with the Comstar 2 series
wheels – much heavier and stronger than the originals on
the CBX1000Z. And here's a tip for home mechanics: take
some photos along the way, so you can be sure of some
important details such as which way the cush-drive plugs
are mounted (above).
Aside from the issue of swapping over the wheel, the tyre
itself was cheap. It's a Bridgestone BT46 and the invoice
says Au$250. I reckon that's about what they cost 20 years
ago. Amazing...
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