Mark’s 1982 Honda CX500 Eurosport. Too cool.
Rider: Mark Wiggins, Boerne, Texas
Age: 49
Occupation: Construction manager
Rides: 1982 Honda CX500 Eurosport, 1982 Honda CBX, 1995 Yamaha XT350, 2002 KTM 250 EXC
Mark’s story: “After leaving high school in 1980 and moving from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to South Africa, I got my first CX500 before migrating to a 1979 CBX, which did many 1,200-mile trips from South Africa to Rhodesia. As the years passed, I yearned as everyone does for the bikes of their youth.
“I found this 1982 Honda CX500 Eurosport in the U.K. on eBay when I moved there. Having always preferred the Euro styling, I purchased it sight-unseen with 11,500 original miles. After many happy rides I unfortunately had an accident and it was written off by the insurers. I then shipped it to the States in boxes when I moved here and set about rebuilding it. All I have done is a cosmetic restoration, replacing items damaged in the crash with NOS parts sourced on eBay U.K. and Germany (a large source of Euro parts), and eBay U.S. What’s nice about this CX compared to the U.S. version is the more sports-orientated styling, which makes it a very pretty bike to look at. It now has 17,000 original miles, and although not quite perfect (it needs the correct Euro-style exhausts) it still draws a crowd wherever I ride it, as they were never sold or imported here. I was told it was an early pre-production Spanish launch bike, but cannot confirm that. I do know the red color was produced for Australia and maybe Ireland, but not the U.K.”
Readers, send us photos of your bike at editor@motorcycleclassics.com –MC Staff