CX500 Turbo Gold

CX500 Turbo Gold

This gold from the Number Five line does not aim at a body but at accessories. The subject is the anodized ComStar wheels that Honda fitted to the turbocharged CX500. Gold on them was not a decorative detail: the wheels were unusually wide and against the white bodywork they made one of the most striking pairs a production motorcycle of the time offered. The gold moreover did not stop at the rim of the wheel but covered the riveted spokes as well, so it stretched across the whole view of a wheel.

Where the subject comes from

Honda presented the CX500 Turbo in 1982 and put into it everything it then had. Alongside the turbocharged V-twin the machine received a reworked version of the ComStar wheels, in which the spokes are riveted to the rim instead of classic lacing. The anodized gold finish went with exactly this version and set it apart from the other machines of the CX line. The wheels are therefore among the details by which a model is recognized even at a distance.

Where the color is used

• Rims and spokes of the wheels of Japanese motorcycles of the early 1980s
• Gold accessories, fork frames and small fittings on period machines
• A contrast against the light bodywork of the same model
• Details where metal is meant to be colored rather than silvery neutral

Who it will serve

It will be appreciated mainly by those who finish the small parts of motorcycle models and do not want to mix a gold of their own from an ordinary metallic. It will also be used where it should be clear from a single look which version of a machine it is.

Do not leave the paint lying in a car in the sun or near a source of heat.