Steven
Member
Hi Novac18 . Just waking up so my mind is numb. At the moment I fully qualify for ofdaves comment about not being able to learn... give me a few hours and I"ll be awake.
New member welcome thread..
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Hi Novac18 . Just waking up so my mind is numb. At the moment I fully qualify for ofdaves comment about not being able to learn... give me a few hours and I"ll be awake.
BobWitte
Member
Three Score & 12 and Building a CTX700 trike!
At age 72, I think that I have finally passed the point where my oft cited claim that "most people my age are dead already" is no longer a joke! But in any case, I'm glad to be signing on here having stumbled across this yesterday (Google knows all!!)
You may have seen a version of this history elsewhere, but even so, here it goes again. I started riding career one bright sunny morning in August of 1958 (it was my 14th birthday). I hit the road right after I passed my exam for my "restricted" license. At that time in Florida, you could get a daytime-only-license which allowed me to ride a small motorcycle or scooter. And I hopped on my new-to-me, recently purchased 200cc Triumph and didn't look back for the better part of the next decade.
Over the next 9 years I packed on something like 200,000+ miles on one of my four trusty steeds I had along the way. I quit riding back in late 1967 in favor of tooling around in a 1964 MGB roadster. I gave $700 in cash and traded in my last bike of that era, a 1966 CB72 Honda. As it turned out, it was a good thing I didn't still have that Honda Hawk when I met my future wife Karen.
Although we had our first date on a Friday night and were engaged the next Sunday night (yes, just 2 days later!!) I later found out that she might never have agreed to even go out with me in the first place if my only form of transportation was that Honda! It wouldn't have mattered that Mr. Honda spent millions on convincing the USA that "You meet the nicest people on a Honda!" She was petrified of all motorcycles and according to her would have passed on my pursuits. (however, I don't think so. I was that determined she was “the one” – and after more than 48 years, I'm proven right!).
Anyhow, we were married just 6 weeks after that whirlwind weekend (culminating with our engagement on 1968's New Year's Eve). Fast forward thru a year of air combat missions in SE Asia, 3 boys born to us in a half dozen years and five years later one girl adopted as our youngest, 8 out-of-state moves, and an equal number of career changes (including a stint of 6 years in full time Christian education ministry).
Blink twice, click your heels and turn around. All of a sudden, 38 years have whizzed by during which I never even sat on a motorcycle. However most of you will understand it when I say that I perked up every single time I heard the "music" roaring out of a set of pipes on a motorcycle going by.
All that changed in 2006. With all our kids gone and married I felt it was time to come back to “a first love” of mine – motorcycling! By now I'm well into in my 60's so I promised my long-suffering wife that I would do at least 3 wheels. And I embarked on an extensive research program. I checked them all, trikes, sidecars and the "training wheel" systems which are actually 4 wheelers. Therefore, I call them "fourples" not trikes). I got so involved in it that since I couldn't afford to buy the trike I really wanted, I wound up starting a trike conversion company of my own in 2007 (The Trinity Trike Mfg. Inc.).
My partner in this was Richard Yelvington and we designed and built almost 100 units. However, we didn't have very deep pockets (just barely shoe strings!) and we ceased Trinity's operations in Dec 2011. I went back to full time software development and luckily for the sport, Richard later partnered up with some other local investors, and carried on. You can see his stuff on www.yelvingtondesigns.com. Note on the “Trikes” pull down that one of their standard models is a CTX700!
The very last Trinity Trike conversion was to be my own personal ride that was put together with some Frankenstein like "left over" parts and a lot of my "spare" time. Actually it was to be out Trinity prototype for the millions of Honda Shadows build over the last couple of decades. It has been a work in progress for some 3.5 years (with some long pauses along the way). The donor bike is a rather pristine 1982 Honda GL500i SilverWing Interstate and has only now finally been finished.
In October 2015, I talked the wife into going to the huge AIMExpo motorcycle trade show in Orlando. My daughter and a next door neighbor (who wanted to see about getting a trike) were already signed up to go with me. Even though I think my wife volunteered just to avoid being home alone on a Saturday, much to my surprise, she really enjoyed it!
Amazingly she said something that day and again a couple days later that brings me to the reason I have just signed up on this forum. After seeing the several newer bikes done as gorgeous Yelvington Trikes, she opined that perhaps I should sell my 82 Honda and get "one of Richard's trikes instead." Her thinking was that it would be much newer and therefore more reliable. I didn't realize she actually meant it until she brought it up again a couple of days later. Once she told me twice I sprang into action straight away. This being her idea might give me more leverage in convincing her to actually go riding with me (at least once in a while).
So here I am. I came across a 2014 6 speed last December that had low miles and an even lower price. I've been working on a new paint job and some body work ever since awaiting the sale of my GL500i. That has just happened and I have all the remaining parts on order to finish triking my CTX. My goal here is to get on the road as quickly and for as many miles as I can muster while I’m healthy enough to do so. And with the number of Seniors still riding their trikes around here (who are well into their 80’s and even beyond!), I’m hoping for a lot of miles yet!! I'm really looking forward to getting one of the first Yelvington Hybrid Independent Rear Suspensions after they are released this Fall (and what a "wow" product that is!!).
I'm looking forward to being back “in the wind” with some regularity and I'm also looking forward to gleaning much good information from you folks here as well as well as passing on a few good ideas myself.
At age 72, I think that I have finally passed the point where my oft cited claim that "most people my age are dead already" is no longer a joke! But in any case, I'm glad to be signing on here having stumbled across this yesterday (Google knows all!!)
You may have seen a version of this history elsewhere, but even so, here it goes again. I started riding career one bright sunny morning in August of 1958 (it was my 14th birthday). I hit the road right after I passed my exam for my "restricted" license. At that time in Florida, you could get a daytime-only-license which allowed me to ride a small motorcycle or scooter. And I hopped on my new-to-me, recently purchased 200cc Triumph and didn't look back for the better part of the next decade.
Over the next 9 years I packed on something like 200,000+ miles on one of my four trusty steeds I had along the way. I quit riding back in late 1967 in favor of tooling around in a 1964 MGB roadster. I gave $700 in cash and traded in my last bike of that era, a 1966 CB72 Honda. As it turned out, it was a good thing I didn't still have that Honda Hawk when I met my future wife Karen.
Although we had our first date on a Friday night and were engaged the next Sunday night (yes, just 2 days later!!) I later found out that she might never have agreed to even go out with me in the first place if my only form of transportation was that Honda! It wouldn't have mattered that Mr. Honda spent millions on convincing the USA that "You meet the nicest people on a Honda!" She was petrified of all motorcycles and according to her would have passed on my pursuits. (however, I don't think so. I was that determined she was “the one” – and after more than 48 years, I'm proven right!).
Anyhow, we were married just 6 weeks after that whirlwind weekend (culminating with our engagement on 1968's New Year's Eve). Fast forward thru a year of air combat missions in SE Asia, 3 boys born to us in a half dozen years and five years later one girl adopted as our youngest, 8 out-of-state moves, and an equal number of career changes (including a stint of 6 years in full time Christian education ministry).
Blink twice, click your heels and turn around. All of a sudden, 38 years have whizzed by during which I never even sat on a motorcycle. However most of you will understand it when I say that I perked up every single time I heard the "music" roaring out of a set of pipes on a motorcycle going by.
All that changed in 2006. With all our kids gone and married I felt it was time to come back to “a first love” of mine – motorcycling! By now I'm well into in my 60's so I promised my long-suffering wife that I would do at least 3 wheels. And I embarked on an extensive research program. I checked them all, trikes, sidecars and the "training wheel" systems which are actually 4 wheelers. Therefore, I call them "fourples" not trikes). I got so involved in it that since I couldn't afford to buy the trike I really wanted, I wound up starting a trike conversion company of my own in 2007 (The Trinity Trike Mfg. Inc.).
My partner in this was Richard Yelvington and we designed and built almost 100 units. However, we didn't have very deep pockets (just barely shoe strings!) and we ceased Trinity's operations in Dec 2011. I went back to full time software development and luckily for the sport, Richard later partnered up with some other local investors, and carried on. You can see his stuff on www.yelvingtondesigns.com. Note on the “Trikes” pull down that one of their standard models is a CTX700!
The very last Trinity Trike conversion was to be my own personal ride that was put together with some Frankenstein like "left over" parts and a lot of my "spare" time. Actually it was to be out Trinity prototype for the millions of Honda Shadows build over the last couple of decades. It has been a work in progress for some 3.5 years (with some long pauses along the way). The donor bike is a rather pristine 1982 Honda GL500i SilverWing Interstate and has only now finally been finished.
In October 2015, I talked the wife into going to the huge AIMExpo motorcycle trade show in Orlando. My daughter and a next door neighbor (who wanted to see about getting a trike) were already signed up to go with me. Even though I think my wife volunteered just to avoid being home alone on a Saturday, much to my surprise, she really enjoyed it!
Amazingly she said something that day and again a couple days later that brings me to the reason I have just signed up on this forum. After seeing the several newer bikes done as gorgeous Yelvington Trikes, she opined that perhaps I should sell my 82 Honda and get "one of Richard's trikes instead." Her thinking was that it would be much newer and therefore more reliable. I didn't realize she actually meant it until she brought it up again a couple of days later. Once she told me twice I sprang into action straight away. This being her idea might give me more leverage in convincing her to actually go riding with me (at least once in a while).
So here I am. I came across a 2014 6 speed last December that had low miles and an even lower price. I've been working on a new paint job and some body work ever since awaiting the sale of my GL500i. That has just happened and I have all the remaining parts on order to finish triking my CTX. My goal here is to get on the road as quickly and for as many miles as I can muster while I’m healthy enough to do so. And with the number of Seniors still riding their trikes around here (who are well into their 80’s and even beyond!), I’m hoping for a lot of miles yet!! I'm really looking forward to getting one of the first Yelvington Hybrid Independent Rear Suspensions after they are released this Fall (and what a "wow" product that is!!).
I'm looking forward to being back “in the wind” with some regularity and I'm also looking forward to gleaning much good information from you folks here as well as well as passing on a few good ideas myself.
Steven
Member
If I understand it correctly, having a hybrid suspension would make for a better ride, better handling, and possibly let the bike lean a bit into the corners. Sounds good to me. Compared to your GL500, the CTX should be a step up in power too.
Nice story!
Nice story!
randy1149
New member
Welcome Bob. I'm 76 still on 2 wheels so you've got a lot of years ahead, trike or not. And yes please keep posting the progress of the trike... you may have some future customers?
Woodswoman
Member
Bob!! Glad to see you here!!! 
Pull up a chair; there's beer in the 'fridge.
Pull up a chair; there's beer in the 'fridge.
Retthib
New member
Hello everyone
New member from New Orleans. Wife rides crotch rockets and has been on me to get a bike, so once I saw the Honda with the DCT, I gave in. Truly enjoying my experience so far. Luckily living in the deep south, weather allows us to ride year round, so I have been breaking the new bike in nicely. You know how when you buy a new vehicle and suddenly start seeing that vehicle at every red light?, well that hasn't happened with the CTX yet, so everyone say hi.
New member from New Orleans. Wife rides crotch rockets and has been on me to get a bike, so once I saw the Honda with the DCT, I gave in. Truly enjoying my experience so far. Luckily living in the deep south, weather allows us to ride year round, so I have been breaking the new bike in nicely. You know how when you buy a new vehicle and suddenly start seeing that vehicle at every red light?, well that hasn't happened with the CTX yet, so everyone say hi.
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Retthib
New member
@ofdave
I have a mra touring screen windshield made for the ctx in transit, next purchase will be the breakaway throttle lock and i saw a phone holder and usb outlet hook up that looks interesting. The addiction has begun. As far as the cajun fest, i have no objection. Lol
I have a mra touring screen windshield made for the ctx in transit, next purchase will be the breakaway throttle lock and i saw a phone holder and usb outlet hook up that looks interesting. The addiction has begun. As far as the cajun fest, i have no objection. Lol
randy1149
New member
Welcome Retthib, you have chosen one of the best motorcycle for new riders like yourself. What makes the bike so fantastic is you'll never grow out of it. Us old farts can testify too it. It's a perfect bike that will make you hoot with joy as you explore what this bike will do... so easy. I see you're already putting your signature on your bike with accessories. There's a lot of modifications documented with pictures to keep you busy and a lot of very smart and knowledgeable members to help the way. Have fun and great to have you here.
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Retthib
New member
Thx
Thx for the kind words randy, i have been looking at pics of all yall mods and definitely have ideas in place. Looking forward to browsing through the rest of the forum.
Thx for the kind words randy, i have been looking at pics of all yall mods and definitely have ideas in place. Looking forward to browsing through the rest of the forum.
Hoosier Rider
New member
Hello to the group:
I just joined the forum earlier today & thought I would get on board. I am 72 yrs. old, been riding for 58 yrs. My most recent bikes have been a 1998 Valkyrie that I owned for 16 yrs, a 2008 650 V-Strom that I had for 6yrs. In 2014 I traded both of them for an F6B which is still my current ride. I am looking into maybe getting a CTX dct to replace the "6". It's a great bike, but at 805 lbs it's getting to be a bit ungainly for me to move around the garage & slow parking lot speeds. I recently stumbled across this forum while searching for info on the CTX. Seems to be a good group. Hopefully I can share some experience with you. I'm not a great wrench, but I have tried a lot of gear(helmets,protective clothing, and luggage) over the years and can offer opinions on what works/worked or didn't for me. I'll continue to frequent this site and hopefully by Spring I will have decided what I want to do. I may have a few questions too, so be patient.
Doug
aka Hoosier Rider
I just joined the forum earlier today & thought I would get on board. I am 72 yrs. old, been riding for 58 yrs. My most recent bikes have been a 1998 Valkyrie that I owned for 16 yrs, a 2008 650 V-Strom that I had for 6yrs. In 2014 I traded both of them for an F6B which is still my current ride. I am looking into maybe getting a CTX dct to replace the "6". It's a great bike, but at 805 lbs it's getting to be a bit ungainly for me to move around the garage & slow parking lot speeds. I recently stumbled across this forum while searching for info on the CTX. Seems to be a good group. Hopefully I can share some experience with you. I'm not a great wrench, but I have tried a lot of gear(helmets,protective clothing, and luggage) over the years and can offer opinions on what works/worked or didn't for me. I'll continue to frequent this site and hopefully by Spring I will have decided what I want to do. I may have a few questions too, so be patient.
Doug
aka Hoosier Rider
welcome aboard, Hoosier Rider
we have fun here and try to give/share plain old honest advice.
Had a 98 Valk myself (2 actually) and a 650 and 1000 V-strom.
Not as old as you (only 71) but can identify with the garage and slow speed aspects of heavy bikes. Just not worth the worry anymore.
You'll find the CTX will make you happy. It may be down on power compared to your F6B, but the way it handles will make you happy.
Many ride long distances often and others (like me) do 150-250mile days frequently, and others commute-it's a do-all bike.
You'll notice that unlike most other forums, there are no threads dealing with this problem or that problem as being common to the bike. The CTX doesn't have any issues. It just runs and runs. It's easy to maintain and pretty easy to service too.
we have fun here and try to give/share plain old honest advice.
Had a 98 Valk myself (2 actually) and a 650 and 1000 V-strom.
Not as old as you (only 71) but can identify with the garage and slow speed aspects of heavy bikes. Just not worth the worry anymore.
You'll find the CTX will make you happy. It may be down on power compared to your F6B, but the way it handles will make you happy.
Many ride long distances often and others (like me) do 150-250mile days frequently, and others commute-it's a do-all bike.
You'll notice that unlike most other forums, there are no threads dealing with this problem or that problem as being common to the bike. The CTX doesn't have any issues. It just runs and runs. It's easy to maintain and pretty easy to service too.
randy1149
New member
Welcome Hoosier, I'm 77 and came from the same big Valks and Wings also that became too much for me. Going to a CTX will be an easy change over. The CTX is the easiest bike I've ever ridden, the DCT puts the candles on the cake.
You'll miss the likes of self cancelling and cruise control but the DCT never having to shift will more than make that up. The chain was the only thing bothered me, but adding a self oiler mitigated the maintenance to only adjusting 5 to 10K miles.
You'll miss the likes of self cancelling and cruise control but the DCT never having to shift will more than make that up. The chain was the only thing bothered me, but adding a self oiler mitigated the maintenance to only adjusting 5 to 10K miles.
Welcome to the forum Hoosier Rider
This is a fine bunch over here on this forum...always worrying about helping others out and sharing in the Xtasy of our CTXs
I took off on a 500 mile ride right after buying mine off the showroom floor with 10 miles on it that I put there with a test ride and
left my Wing in the parking lot of the dealership as a trade-in. I have another V-twin large that is at another bike shop for sale to get a little extra cash for my Zumo and auto oiler...the only two things left that I haven't added myself to my CTX. Once again ...good to have you here and any questions at all just ask away.
This is a fine bunch over here on this forum...always worrying about helping others out and sharing in the Xtasy of our CTXs
I took off on a 500 mile ride right after buying mine off the showroom floor with 10 miles on it that I put there with a test ride and
left my Wing in the parking lot of the dealership as a trade-in. I have another V-twin large that is at another bike shop for sale to get a little extra cash for my Zumo and auto oiler...the only two things left that I haven't added myself to my CTX. Once again ...good to have you here and any questions at all just ask away.
MJC
Super Moderator
Welcome Doug. I agree with heavy bikes being hard to handle. I had many of them and now have the CTX700 DCT, it is the smallest bike I ever had over the past 30 years. I needed the DCT for health reasons and found that it comes with a great bike, lol. Ask away with any questions you may have, people here are patient and you will find many are a lot like you.
GimmeTorq
New member
Hello...
New member coming from the "other site"...
Still have my barely broken in 2014 CTX700N and just looking forward to the 2017 riding season and the new forum.
New member coming from the "other site"...
Still have my barely broken in 2014 CTX700N and just looking forward to the 2017 riding season and the new forum.
randy1149
New member
GimmeTorq welcome to the judgement free forum for the Honda CTX700 riders. We're a "mod free" site with lots of interesting and talented people, so jump on in and enjoy the ride.
Yup, us folks on the wrong side of the Jet Stream most of the time are chomping on the bit for the 2017 "riding season"... and we're getting close.
Welcome again.
Yup, us folks on the wrong side of the Jet Stream most of the time are chomping on the bit for the 2017 "riding season"... and we're getting close.
Welcome again.
Steven
Member
Welcome and join in any time.