Matjaz's CBX 550F story, 2nd

Sorry you haven't heard from me sooner. I'm riding my bike for more than two months now and I hardly find time for anything else.

Here is the story of how I've got that engine from Italy.
I've picked four friends of mine and I had organised a two day trip in Italy. We went there the first weekend in May.

Firstly we decided to split the travel expenses, choose where to sleep, where to travel... We started at 6.30 in the morning and made nearly 500 kilometers on the italian highway. We found the place, where my engine was, at 2.30 PM. This was a building with almoust 200 broken or crashed bikes some kind of a motorcycle used part shop. In Italy they call it motodemolizioni. There were bikes from late 70' to the newest one ( of CBX series they had 550, 750, 1000 ).

The CBX 550 F2 was almost complete. There was missing only the alternator and battery. It was very well preserved and it wasn't crashed or anything. If I only knew in what conditions it was, I'd take the entire bike for only 650.000.000 liras.
But unfortunately we were in five in one car so I could take only the engine for 400.000.000 liras (that's around 400 German Marks- DEM).

Acording to the indicator it had 32000 km and the only test that I could do is to see if the engine isn't blocked (quite a risk!). My friends went to city to eat something and I stayed there to help dismount the engine from the frame. It took the two of us around an hour and a half to do it.

After that we placed the engine in the car, I payed the bill and we fully loaded went toward our next destination. We decided to spend the night in youth hostel in Como which is a city near Como lake. We have got there in the evening and went to see the city for a while.

The next morning we have made one small touristic tour around the city and then started our journey home. I had to leave the engine in Triest ( Italy near the Slovenian border ) at some people I know because the customs are not working on the Sunday evening.

We came home at around 11.00 PM. I went alone next morning to Triest to pick up the engine and then to the border where I payed around 12.000 Slovenian Tolars for import taxes (that's around 100 DEM).

It took me 15 hours to reassemble the bike. During the reassemblance I've done some mistakes; for example I've tried to turn the engine's crank shaft with a wrench key without checking if something could block. Later when I opened the head cover I've see that I've broken the tachometer gear system. So now I don't have RPM indication.

Since then I'm riding wherever I want. So that's the story. Here are some pictures that were taken during the assemblance.
Hope you liked the story.

Here are some adresses of motorcycle used parts that I've found on the net:

United Kingdom:
www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/bikes_frame.html (only new parts)
www.jurassic-parts.com
Germany:
www.motorrad-best.de
www.motorradtechnik-muenchen.de
www.Motorrad-Ott.de
www.gebrauchtteile.com
www.vis.de/spaengler
www.grc-gmbh.com
Italy:
www.fuorigiri.com
www.foreverbikes.com

Matjaz

The engine as I've got it from Italy. They didn't left me the starter motor, oil cooler, the carburators and the alternator was already missing. But they have left me spark plugs!!!!!!

The broken dents of tachometer gear system. To repair it I have to change the entire exhaust camshaft.

IT'S ALIVE!!!! The engine started at the scond try. Firstly it just gave a short ignition and then died. The picture is taken one minute after start.