As with many a mower or weedie-wacker.....people will curse em but run the same plug and filter when it left the shop 5 years or more ago....I've always said that CXs don't die, they're murdered with neglect.
great way to deal with a 40 yr old bike. Nothaven't done much of anything. don't know this adjuster. i suppose the bike will die at some point. i'll probably get in a few repairs along the way. i don't have it to preserve it. i'll use it. hope to get a few years out of it. yes, it's abuse. I also have a wonderful huge old Ariens snowblower from the same period that i barely keep running. i also have bicycles older than the CX500 that i ride hard every day and put away wet and they keep working. i swap out parts as they wear out.
(#23 noted...)how easy is it to adjust valve gap and timing chain tension?
I've never cleaned a carb.
i'm concerned about slippery slope and making things worse.
i understand that you can keep your bikes running and mine will die. hopefully, as i said, i'll achieve my stated goal and get a few years out of it. i'm not interested in proper, full maintenance. but i can do some things. i can change oil. i've never been inclined to fiddle w a carb. it wd truly be best for me to have a bike w fuel injection. that's required nothing from me on any vehicle in past 20+ yrs. nice.
It sounds like dry starter bushings. they make noise under load sometimes, depending on temperature.I have a 1979 custom 12k miles runs great. Its cold now. I've been getting weird sound from my starter. The sound comes and goes. It usually comes on after like a minute of trying to start. A hard start. I got the bike this fall. Never made the sound. Once it got below freezing and I didn't ride it for weeks at a time, it would make the sound during the longer times it took to start. Once it started, the sound would go away on warm restarts. But when cold some machinery definitely changes, and there's a very different bad sort of sound after a minute or so.
[REVISING TO ADD INFO ON THE HARD START: Whew, it took like 5 minutes of cranking to start this last time. I vary all the options. Is there a standard way to hard start in the cold? I try choke out, choke in, throttled a bit, twisted a couple times, no throttle. Sometimes it starts turning over with starter still engaged then it quits when I release the button. In the warm weather it often only takes like a 1/2 second to start -- touch the button, bang. So nice.]
Can you tell me what's happening with this sound? Here's a link to the Youtube....
Because these bikes are so reliable you will probably achieve your few year goal. It’s unfortunate your goal isn’t to learn about your bike and how to maintain it. You might come out ahead trading your bike in while it’s still running for a newer one with fuel injection and an onboard computer and no personality. Happy riding.i understand that you can keep your bikes running and mine will die. hopefully, as i said, i'll achieve my stated goal and get a few years out of it. i'm not interested in proper, full maintenance. but i can do some things.
