Dig Out Your Legwarmers: 1982 Honda CX500 Turbo

Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Personal home computers. Digital displays. The Space Shuttle. Princess Diana. The Falklands. Epcot Center. The early 1980s were a time of excess, and of Turbos. For this was the era of the factory turbocharged motorcycles, and leading the charge was the 1982 Honda CX500 Turbo. For certain the concept of boosting intake manifold pressure was not a new invention – both driven superchargers and exhaust gas turbochargers had been around since relatively early days of motor design. But use in a street-bound motorcycle, as built from the factory, was a brand new thing. Purists will point out the Kawasaki Z1R TC, but that was an aftermarket mod. The CX500T was the real deal, soup to nuts. And what a deal it was!

1982 Honda CX500 Turbo for sale on eBay

Honda already had the beefy CX (think liquid cooled Guzzi) design laying around, and thought it would be a great platform to accept forced induction. There was some work to allow the bottom end to accept larger bearings, but with liquid cooling and robust components the CX platform was nearly turbo ready. What it was missing was a suitable fueling mechanism. For that problem, Honda assembled a brain trust to develop a computerized fuel injection system that would provide power and control while allowing for a safely margin under load.

From the seller:
1982 Honda CX500 turbo. Extremely low miles. Excellent condition. Runs and drives as it should
Photos tell it all. Any questions welcome.

To compliment the cutting edge technology that went into the CX500T, Honda designers went overboard with a Buck Rogers theme and color palate. The bike screams TURBO! from no less than eight locations, including the backwards “OBRUT” badge on the front of the fairing (to make it obvious in a driver’s rear view mirror). At 570-ish pounds the Turbo was not a sport bike, but alongside the big six-cylinder CBX the CX500T looked positively svelte. Decent wind protection made for a torquey and fun sport tourer, and roll-on power was never really a problem.

Although cutting edge in design and tech, the Honda CX500T was a failure in the showroom. It was too complicated, too heavy, too expensive and too different to appeal to the mass buyer. Rideability was also noted as an issue, with low-to-no power off boost and a knife edge when all the power became available. It was an important milestone and a major technology credit to Honda, but it was not what the buying public lusted after. Today’s machine does have low miles for the year, and looks to be complete. Sadly it has suffered from at least one tip-over if not two (remember, these are heavy!), and replacement parts and plastics are not readily available. Check out all of the details here, and then decide whether boost is for you. Stay safe, and good luck!!