If you've ridden in London, you've probably been overtaken by a nutter dispatcher on a CX. No doubt with a set of bar muffs, duct-tape on the seat and a couple of  MoT failures in the electrics.  But dispatchers will ride anything reliable, cheap with decent theft protection (the looks).

The CX 500C was my second CX. The first, a Eurosport model, broke my wrist, wrote itself off and made a sizeable dent in a red Vauxhall. However, that is a different tale.  After my wrist healed and the insurance paid out, an ex-housemate mentioned that his CX was for sale as he'd bought at VFR750. I test rode another mate's CX 500 (a B), both to remind myself what a big bike felt like and to get my confidence back. (Crashing and writing off a bike you've only owned for a week does knock your confidence slightly.)

The CX500C was bought back from Goole and test ridden. I took it out for 45 minutes; I'd only intended to go out for 30 but got lost around in the suburban sprawl of northern Cambridge. And then I became the proud owner of a 1979 vintage CX 500C. The C stands for custom.

So what is it? A whopping great 498cc transverse 60-degree V twin with twin undrilled front disc brakes, a drum rear, a huge great barn door of a nonstandard fairing, and a very very very large amount of road presence. This thing is *long*. And *wide*. At the last 'Can I Have A Go Mister'-fest the only bike that I rode that felt similar was Dodger's Wing, which gives you an idea of the size of the beast.  This shouldn't be a surprise; the GoldWing was developed from the SilverWing, which was the other name for a GL650, which is derived from the CX500/650.

All CX500s are broadly similar sharing roughly the same engine (although the dodgy automatic camchain tensioner got better in later models; they still need fettling every couple of thousand miles); the A and B versions were available from 1978-1982. Not much to say amount them. The C is the 'Custom' version, with lower pegs, wider bars, silly size (and hence expensive) wide tyre; everyhing you'd expect from a custom. An E version -- also known as the EuroSport model -- had a small rear disc brake, and slightly different tuning (ie more power) on the engine. A 650 model was also produced, don't known if this was simply an overbored version or not. And because it was fashionable and not at all sensible, a 650 factory turbo version was also around. Not surprisingly, you don't see many of these still working.

So what is it like to ride? Amazingly, not as bad as you'd think. I found it fun to make progress on. Redline is at 8000rpm or thereabouts (might be 9) but the lack of large amounts of power (50ish bhp max) means that it stops pulling at around 90mph. You know that nice long downhill bit on the southbound M6 near the M1 junction? I hit the ton there a couple of weeks after getting it (allegedally officer).  But everything, including my teeth, was shaking sufficiently and the amount of directional influence I was exterting small enough to convince me that this was a rarely repeated event. The bars are very wide, and the a very sit up and beg riding position. More BSH than PB. None of this sportsbike-wannabe tuck-in rubbish here. The seat is also wide, and not perfectly comfortable. Certainly good enough for the crappy tank range of about 100 miles to reserve. The seat isn't great for pillions, which isn't surprising when you actually look at the size of the pillion seat. The topbox makes a convenient back rest for pillions though!

But the handling is utterly screwed by a pillion, even with the shocks at their stiffest (the only possible suspension change!). This is possibly due to the fact that the shocks were cheap replacements not really designed for the large mass of the bike. But anyway, I rode alone more often than not because of that.  And when everything was set nicely (which considering the only variables are tyre pressure and
spring loading doesn't take long to find the right setting), it was nice to chuck round corners. The pegs would deck out first, then, as they are hinged, when really going for it, exhaust (but only on left handers!), and then if you're a real hero, the panniers. I got the pegs down, both left and right, but nothing more. Actually, that's a lie; I got the engine bars down on the right hand side. But that was when I dropped it when I first tried a U-turn on gravel. The engine bars, also non-standard, are invaluable as otherwise the cylinder heads would get cracked in a drop, which would almost certainly make it 'uneconomic to repair'. Given a damn good thrashing (ie treating the throttle as a binary interface) it will keep up with, for example, badly ridden CBR600s and TransAlps piloted by mad Germans. The brakes are just about enough to safely stop you, but they certainly encourage forward observation. Which is never a bad thing. People tell me that CXs are crap in the wet. Well, so am I. So that's okay. The fairing, which I think I've mentioned was the side of a house in a previous life, keeps you dry in all but the worst downpour as you as you are travelling above 30mph. In town, you'll be wanting some waterproofs. But as it's a transverse V, the cylinder heads are by your knees, so its easy to warm your hands on them at traffic lights. What else would want/need to know? Well, I'd certainly recommend it to a novice. The shaft means that you don't have all that faff with a chain. The lack of performance means that no-one expects you to keep up, and they are surprised if you do. Would you rather be a slow rider on a fast bike or a fast rider on a slow bike? A twenty year old engine will always appreciate regular oil changes, and by doing those and fiddling with the camchain tensioner means that you either learn not to be a mechanical numpty or make a local garage very rich.  As you'd expect from a 22 year old bike that is still running, reliablility is good if looked after. Dispatchers took some of them round the clock at least once. Japanese engineering; you can't knock it.Would I have another? Possibly as a winter hack, but then it wasn't sufficiently nice in the wet either. And I want more power in the dry, and when I look over my shoulder walking away, I want to feel a sense of pride in the vehicle I just got off. But that doesn't mean that I don't miss it now it don't have it. It got me where I wanted to go. And after riding a CG125 for 6 months, it was fan-bloody-tastic. I think of it as a stepping stone  between a CG125 and something silly, like a V-max or a Bandit-12. There clearly can be no finer biking apprecentiship.