BAGNELL & CHENOWTH 2012 Bonneville Speedweek CX500tc TURBO

[grumm441]

Larry Storck at JIMCO got the rear wheel & wheel discs finished
Jacob took them to be polished & anodized. We aren't going to paint much on this bike ,parts are going to be powder coated or anodized. Jacob keeps saying" this bike is going to look BITCHEN.....

Hey Guys
Nice build
Just one thing with the rear wheel disc, when you get to tech inspection, they need to see that you have a metal valve stem and metal valve cap. so make sure the hole is big enough to see it and also big enough so that if you drop the valve cap in there, you can get it out
G

[bigdaddyusmc]

This has nothing to do with the salt cycle but it need to be mentioned...
Jacob Bagnell III, OUR RIDER, is a teacher at Anderson Valley Junior/Senior High School in Booneville California
He has been named the 2012 California  Science Teacher of the year at the 2012 California State Science Fair.
CONGRATS JACOB
I wish I had a photo of him with his students , but I don't,  Here is the best photo I have of him. This was taken last year when we were working on the #200 Belly Tank for speedweek 2011

[bigdaddyusmc]

Jacob Bagnell ( our crew chief ) & has son Jacob Bagnell III ( our rider ) right after Jacob III was named 2012 California Science Teacher of the Year

[bigdaddyusmc]

The stock air box coming off the turbo needed to be modified to improve air flow

Here it is after jacob modified it & Randy re-installedon on the bike.  While we had it off we had it  powder coating red

Here it is again , it is a bit hard to see stuffed in above the motor & the between the red motor mounts


We also got another set of valve covers & those were also powder coated red. They will be installed in the next few weeks

[bigdaddyusmc]

Randy being the main photographer on this project . He doesn't get seen much in the photos. But every once in a while Jacob will grab the camera & snap few photos. I always know when Jacob has the camera because before he takes any photos we always hear him say " How do you turn this stupid thing on "
Here is Randy installing the air box

[bigdaddyusmc]

Jacob got a COOL new racing battery that is half the size of the stock battery. Here is Jacob modifing the battery box. I think he is going to move the fuel pump in next to the battery.

[bigdaddyusmc]

We had to modify the top of the triple tree to get the GPR steering stabilizer to fit. That meant miling off the stock handle bar mounts.
That wasn't a problem because we wanted to move the bars down on the front shocks anyway.
Jacob was going to make the clamp-on bars , but he found this set at a great price. Here they are on the bike , with the kill switch & new blue anodized aluminum controls.

[bigdaddyusmc]

Kent Willis at A to Z Metal Finishing do a BITCHEN job on the rear wheel discs & the foot peg mounts.
 

I can't wait to get the new gas tank & front fender finished. Those will go to A to Z be anodizes gold also.
If anything this is one bike that will not be hard to find at the salt flats.

[bigdaddyusmc]

  A SPECIAL THANKS TO Seldom Seen Slim

[bigdaddyusmc]

OBSOLETE PARTS HUNT & DEALING WITH THE HONDA CX CULT....        

Finding parts for this bike can be a pain , I mean  regular stuff like gaskets & filters ....But a few times we have needed good  hard parts that the Honda dealer just don't have or they say they are OBSOLETE......

Here is our most recent problem....... The rear brake master cylinder on our bike was trash & couldn't be rebuilt. We checked with Honda & they don't carry that part for the CX500TC anymore . We searched online for a CX500TC master cylinder with no luck. Every place said OBSOLETE or NOT AVAILABLE. We looked on eBay, I had seen them in the past. HELL , No one has one listed right now on eBay. There are rebuild kits , but if you need the master cylinder itself your out of luck...We thought about getting a master cylinder from another bike & modifying it or fabing up a new mount.. But before we went there . I did a little research & found that the rear master cylinder on the CX500TC turbo is the same as a the master cylinder on some of the CB Honda Motorcycles from the same time period. I called Honda again & they have one in stock for the CB Motorcycle.....I asked the parts guy to check & see if it is the same as the CX500TC. He says it checks out as being the same. So we are going to take our old one to Honda & double check to see if it the same.
 KEEP OUR FINGER CROSSED

We had the same problem with the fuel pump ,no one offers a fuel pump for the CX500TC turbo. But with a little research we found that a Honda Prelude uses the same fuel pump. Who would have ever thought to look there . NOT US....A CX rider in Australia hooked us up with that little bit of info....
CHEERS MATE  

When a factory parts guy says a part is no longer available or is obsolete. Don't give up. Ask the guys that have that bike or car & ask them what  they do for parts. We have picked the brains of CX riders all over  the world. 7 times out of 10 we get a solution to our problem. Some of the times you have to take what the CX riders are saying with a grain of salt & I don't mean Bonneville salt. When they find out we are building a salt racer out of a  CX500TC . They won't give up any info at all.
They act like we are committing a sin against their CX CULT.       ...LOLOLOL

We had one guy offer to help us if we restored our bike back to factory specs, but wanted noting to do with us as a salt race team.
 I hope we don't offend to many CX guys by chopping up a  good street bike , just to run it on the salt. BUT isn't that what dry lakes guys & Hot Rodders  have been doing for decades. If we have to  make a few people mad & step on a few toes just to go fast -
 I think the SALT GODS will be happy with us

[JimL]

Just a money saving note.... You can get from any JPN brand master to about any caliper by using Speedway AN3 to 10mm metric adaptors.  I thread a piece of steel round stock for 10mm all the way through.  The original banjo fitting bike hose threads into one end (Speedway has bolts also).  I braze the "AN to metric" adaptor into the other end.  Speedway sells the braided stainless lines for 15-20 dollars in many lengths.

Cheap way to mix and match and get things hooked up that are no longer in original position.  If you are not fairing restricted, its nice to have the rear brake on the handlebar instead of the foot.....nice for loading and maneuvering on foot.....easy to do with long brake line available.

JimL

[bigdaddyusmc]

JIML
Thanks for the info on the rear master cylinder modification. Honda only wants $56 bucks for a new CB Master cylinder. If fit checks out we are going to run it. If not we had already figured how we would fab up another one
It's funny , Honda wants $56 for a little motorcycle master cylinder , I just put one on my ford truck & it was only $43  

[saltwheels262]

bd usmc,
try carolina cycle warehouse for nos parts.
many diagrams, good prices and fast service.

[bigdaddyusmc]

Been a while since I have gone to Jacobs shop to get caugth up on what Jacob has been doing on the salt cycle.  It was 7:15am Thursday morning when I arrived & Jacob was already out in his shop working on the bike



The first thing I wanted to see is the rear master cylinder. We went through hell finding one. We thought we had a line on a new one from the Honda dealer. I called & talked to the parts guys , I gave them the part number & they said they had one in stock. I told them to hold it & we would come pick it up. When Jacob went there they gave him a rebuild kit. Jacob went round & round with them & got nowhere. Jacob purchased the rebuilt kit because we figured we would need it. We did some searching online & found a good used one. When it was delivered , Jacob cleaned it up ,had it powder coated & rebuilt it.


Jacob mounted the master cylinder & installed the caliper & new brake line

[bigdaddyusmc]

The next thing I noticed was Jacob had the new brake linkage finished & on the bike. With the pegs set back it all had to be fabricated.




Then I noticed the shift linkage on the other side was almost finished. All it needs is to go to powdercoat. Moving the shifer back seem like a simple thing , but those of you that are familiar with the CX motor will appreciate that this is not as easy as it sounds.