I hope to be working on my CTX soon

The CTX project bike has been mostly sitting unmolested this year, but I'm hoping that will change soon.

What is happening to change things? I'm finishing a 15 month project of emptying 500 sq feet of warehouse storage space filled with 30+ years accumulation of bikes/parts. With luck the last load will be picked up from the house today (it is already paid for). I turned in the keys for the space last Monday, and I was pretty happy to do so.

These last four bikes and parts to go were all vintage dirt bikes. I think I ended up moving about 15-18 bikes and related (and un-related) parts.

I started riding "vintage" dirt bikes 50 years ago when they were new, but I'm hanging up my involvement in both vintage and dirt riding. The closest dirt riding is a minimum of a 1.5 hour drive away, and with SF Bay Area traffic often being less than perfect it is easy for that to stretch out to 2 hours or more each way, which is too long for a half day of riding.

There will be no more wire-spoke wheels, drum brakes, dirt bikes or old bikes. I've had my share, someone else can have them now. If I can't store something here at home, it won't be bought.

I've got the CTX and a 250 KTM-engined track day bike project that are being kept. I won't consider a third bike until those projects are done.

The clean-out/organization has been applied to the garage/shop at home too. I've unearthed floor that I haven't seen for what seems like decades. It will be nice to be able to easily walk around the CTX as it sits on the Handy Lift because there's no longer a couple of dead vintage dirt bike projects crowded around it.

I'm a pack rat and not a neatnik, so I've had to struggle with this process, but I'm getting the hang of saying "this goes" and I'm liking having clean floors and not having to worry about tripping and impaling myself on something as I step over things in the garage. And it is surprising how much stuff I'd accumulated that had been given to me when friends cleaned out their stuff. I've never had a big block Ford, why did I find a new freeze plug kit for one in a box of stuff?

If you've been thinking about clearing out some deadwood in the garage I'll encourage you to do so. It is easy to get to where our stuff owns us instead of the other way around, and "someday" may never come for that project bike that has been "resting" for the last decade (or in the case of some of mine, nearly 3 decades).

cheers,
Michael
 

Woodswoman

Member
Congratulations on successfully vetting your projects and storage. No easy task!

What projects are you planning for your CTX and your track bike, respectively?
 
I'm doing a feet forwards (FF) conversion on the CTX; there are some sketchy details on progress to the beginning of the year on my website

http://www.eurospares.com/HondaCTX700.htm

The KTM 250 is a 50 hp/50 pound two-stroke engine and I've got 125GP/Moto3 wheels/brakes for it. My plan is to do an FF track bike, though at this time I'm not sure if it will be front engine like a Gurney Alligator or rear engine. The expected dry weight is 200 pounds (sadly, less than the rider).

I've been interested in FFs for some decades and I purchased the DCT CTX specifically for a street FF project.

Pressure on my hands from sport-bike low bars makes them go numb in 15-20 minutes, and I"m starting to get twinges of arthritis in them at times. With clip-on bars on the track I can't get my head up/back well enough to see around some corners. The FF riding position will deal with those ergonomic issues.

I'm also planning on new bodywork for the CTX to improve the aerodynamics for more fuel efficiency. I'm going to try and have the KTM frontal area with rider be no more than a Moto3 bike with rider in a tuck. It may not be quite as recumbent as Bob Horn's track bike:

http://www.bikeweb.com/node/3153

The next thing I need to do on the CTX is try and find a source for the terminal clips in the fuse/relay box as I need to relocate a lot of electrical components. I've found a number of OEM terminals/plugs (like those for the ECU) but I need a bag of them for the fuses. Honda didn't put any extra wire in the harness to make it easy to relocate things, and there are a LOT of wires with EFI, DCT and ABS.

cheers,
Michael
 
That's why there will be a seat back and the rider is also moving forward and down. The typical chopper/cruiser with no seat back and the rider emulating a parachute makes no sense to me, I'm going for a Porsche/sports car seating position (which is what Dan Gurney did on the Alligators).

Think of FFs as how motorcycles might have been designed if no one had ever ridden a horse. :)

Here's a shot of a Voyager, a very short production run FF made in England. The goal was for a GT/grand touring vehicle:

Voyager.jpg

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/FF/Voyager.jpg

cheers,
Michael
 

randy1149

New member
I had to move my feet back and down with floor boards and 2" offsets to stop the back pain instead of changing the seat on my CTX. With my feet forward puts me sitting right on my spine.
 
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