Bruchure: French MBX80W and MTX80S

Honda MBX80W and MTX80S

NOTE; The single front disc with dual piston calliper and the built in rear indicators!

Brochure: German 'Supersport in der 80er klasse'

"Supersport in der 80er klasse. Honda MBX80" or "Super Sport in the 80 class. Honda MBX80"

Brochure: German 80cc 'Volles Programm'

I have some new brochures fresh in from Germany, here is the first.

"Volles prorgamm die 80er von Honda" or Full program the 80 Honda!

Brochure: German Market small range poster

Here is a new brochure I picked up from Ebay. It was printed for the German market and is A3 folded to A4 size.

The models are Rothmans (mk 2), full fairing and bikini (DX version).

Cover

model side un-folded

MBX models

Owners bikes: Carsten from Germany

I had this nice message from Carsten Hammer from Germany, its also really great to here that all our experiences are so similar! Can't wait to see the finished bike.

Hello from Germany!
I was just as you, an 16 year old MBX80 driver in 1986! I owned myself  a black one, with the neon-like tank design and full fairing. Just weeks ago, I bought an white one with full fairing, and now I´m gonna do the restoration work.
MBX was a fascinating bike at the 80`s, and my first one (that i bought new!), lefts me with more then 20.000 km after 2 years. Can´t forget that horrible moment....
Hope to get things done, with my white one now...spares are difficult to find sometimes. Even the radiator shield for full fairing models (missed when I bought mine), seems to be a problem to get.
So hope you enjoy the bike in the future, I sure will (when it`s rebuild).
There`s a quit big mbx scene in Netherlands did you know?

Send you a pic with this mail), that shows my MBX 80 in the state I bought it, few weeks ago.
It looks much better on the pic, than it is in real life...so still a lot of work to do!
At the moment it is stripped fully, and the frame is sanded, and rebuild (in German i`ts called "Pulverbeschichtung" don`t know the right words in English <Powder coating, I will be doing the same to my frame!>)
Enjoy !

Owners bikes: Rothmans MBX80

This is Stefan from the Netherlands MBX80 Rothmans edition. Stefan would like to convert the bike to dual disc brake (like the UK model), if you have any parts that can help him please mail me and I'll pass the details on.

set-up: 80cc tuned cylinder, 4 valve membrane, 24mm Mikuni carb, original air box, Techno exhaust pipe, CDI mps300.

My Bike: parts, NOS speedo cover

I needed a speedo cover for my build but according to the Honda M shop these were now discontinued. So I was very surprised to see a new old stock item pop up on ebay. I used www.cmsnl.com to check the value of what they should be (£40ish), so I bid honestly to its actual value and won! To say I was pleased was an understatement as it was evident that were other bidders, sorry!

Owners bikes: Rob from Belgium

Rob Dever from Belgium owns this rather nice MBX80 re-sprayed in a more subtle take on the original 'rainbow' paint scheme.

My Bike: Restoration, swingarm

Recently I got my Dad on the case with the restoration with he swing arm!

Firstly I stripped the swing arm down and inspected it for ware and tare and most importantly rust. There was very little surface rust and the swing arm looked like it was a good usable unit, so I handed it over to my Dad to work his magic.

The swing arm was then degreased, shot blasted and coated in primer, which is the state you see in the images. The next stage will be to spray it silver and add the orange pro-link decals.

a freshly prepared swing arm awaits paint

the underside is very clean

shock mount, you can see pitting from the surface rust, but this is now been completely removed.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all your emails this past year, it gives a real lift to here I wasn't the only MBX enthusiast!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

My Bike: Parts, NOS parts

Whilst restoration news is a little light, while some parts are being currently worked on, I thought I'd post some more new old stock parts I have recently collected. 

I wanted genuine Honda petrol cap as I heard that the replica caps found on ebay were not very good and I didn't want to take the risk on my NOS fuel tank. The left hand handle bar clamp bracket was allegedly the last one... The throttle housing completes all the parts on the handle bars. The left hand side panel was relatively cheap and as mine had a broken lug I had to have it, it will also be used to colour match a little paintwork. And lastly the liquid cooled decals are now very rare, and will complete the radiator cowl. For these parts I used our friends at the Honda M shop. 

When I stripped the bike down I noticed the exhaust was rotten, fortunately a new genuine exhaust came up on ebay. It has a couple of paint scrapes on it, but after 25 odd years of storage its nothing a quick spray wont hide.

genuine Honda is the only way on fuel caps

clutch bracket plus throttle covers

right hand side panel

decals

exhaust just needs blowing over after 25 + years of storage 

My Bike: Restoration, Suspension forks

Let’s assume you have the complete fork unit of the bike, if you are transporting the fork you will need to re-fit the bolts that held the fork to the upper crown as the top nuts have holes in them!

First I wanted to get the lower legs back in a presentable condition, rather than attack them with wet and dry (which is very aggressive and will end up with a highly polished finish) I decided to remove the corrosion with wire wool and Autoglym metal polish. I spent about half an hour on each lower leg to get them looking kind of how I wanted them – almost a brushed alloy finish, to get close to the original. I have to say I am fairly happy, but I am sure I will probably spend some more time on each leg to get them ware I want them.

before and after

Before and after...

Both stanchions were pitted so I have sourced two NOS genuine Honda stanchions (one from ebay, one from Honda M shop) plus a new pair of oil seals (pattern, wemoto). The dust seals are in good condition so I decided not to replace these.

Next was to pull the legs apart, just remove the top plug unit from the stanchion (this can be tight), remove the spring and drain the oil.

At the base of the leg is a 6mm hex socket, one of mine was rounded off so had to be drilled off. Once these are undone the stanchion will come out, keep a look out for the oil lock piece (often called a foot buffer) at the base of the damper rod.

a complete fork leg disassembled 

Remove the dust seal, oil seal cir-clip and price the oil seal out with a big flat bladed screw driver, now clean, degrease and inspect everything and note the ‘back up ring’ that sits under the oil seal.

To install the new oil seal I grease the internal and external part of the seal and seat  (don’t forget to fit the back-up ring) and drive the seal in with a large socket as close to the outside diameter of the oil seal as possible, re-install the cir-clip and re-fit the dust seal.

Drop the damper rod through the stanchion making sure the top out spring is retained on the rod, then add a dab of grease on the end of the damper rod and fit the oil lock piece – the grease just keeps it in place. Guide the stanchion through the oil seal making sure not to damage it.

Re-torque the bottom foot screw to torque to 20NM – this value is not clearly stated in the owner’s manual, but working of the thread size torque guide (8mm) of 18-25NM. As mentioned before I had to drill mine off, spares are easy to get, Honda part number 90116-383-721 so it might be worth replacing these as a matter of course? For speed I ordered form David Silver spares.

Re-fill with oil, the manual says 150cc of ATF fluid (automatic transmission fluid), however using this type oil is very old fashioned. ATF fluid has a very low viscosity so for a modern improvement I used SAE7.5w synthetic suspension fork oil.

Check your main spring to see if it is still within the manufacturing tolerance, it should measure a minimum of 482.5mm. Re-fit the spring with the tight coils to the top and refit the top plugs, these need to be torqued to 15-30NM.

For grease I used Morgan Blue Calcium grease, oil SilkolenePro RSF 7.5w.

fork exploded diagram

My Bike: Restoration, it starts...

Over the past year I have been collecting NOS parts (I have more goodies on the way), but now is the time for the actual restoration to start.

The first task is to strip the bike to the bare frame so this can be powder coated, the strip down was rather uneventfully. Expecting the worse, after all it is a29 year old motorcycle, the only real problem area were the nut and bolts that hold the rear mudguard on. The lower nut sits under a cover (for weather protection) but just spins. The bolts that hold the bracket that located the rear of the seat were also sized, and after a fight snapped, so out of the whole bike one snapped bike was very pleasing!

The other things that were apparent was just how much rust was on the lower front of the frame, however nothing that can be cleaned and treated. This cannot be said for the exhaust, the rot on the down pipe is so extensive I don’t want the headache of trying to fix it…. 

This weeks job is going to be the front fork, to be continued...

its started

engine out

suspension off