Bought it: a 1982 CX500 Sport off Trade Me
On Sunday 18 October 2026 I bought a bike on Trade Me: a red 1982 Honda CX500E Eurosport, a shed find that’s been off the road since about 2013, from a private seller just out of Nelson. It’s going to be a café racer.
Finding it
I’d been keeping an eye out for an ’82 Eurosport for a good while. Plenty of CX500s come up on Trade Me, but the ’82 Sport is the rare one, and the one I wanted. This listing turned up on the Saturday night, the same evening I was reading about Sacha Lakic’s CX500. It was listed as a “CX500 Sport”, which is what Honda NZ called the Eurosport here.
First job: make sure it really was a Eurosport, not a Standard with the right stickers on. Five tells in the photos:
- the “CX500 SPORTS” decal on the side cover
- the Boomerang Comstar rear wheel
- a cast alloy pillion-peg hanger on a tubular rear frame
- no shock visible behind the motor (the Pro-Link sits underneath)
- the stock reverse-cone megaphone
By Sunday morning I’d made my mind up: either way, this is the best bike to start from. Put an offer in that evening and it was accepted. Fair money for a non-runner that needs everything.
Why this bike
Two things made the ’82 worth waiting for. The rear suspension: Honda’s Pro-Link mono-shock tucked under the motor instead of twin shocks, so the rear end I want is already half done. And the triple-tube frame, the three-backbone chassis it shares with the GL500 and GL650. That frame is the whole reason the idea of a 650 motor as a straight swap exists. Still to be confirmed on the bike before I believe it. The seller reckons it starts and runs. I’ll believe that when I hear it.
What the paperwork says
A plate check on CarJam and the police stolen list, done on the 20th:
- Not stolen.
- Last WoF in 2013, which lines up with “off the road since 2013”.
- About 62,000 km on the clock.
- The rego is on hold, not cancelled. It stays on hold right through the build. Once it’s LVV certified it needs a WoF and the licence picked up again, not a re-registration.
Still to check when it lands
- Frame number starts PC06, motor PC02E: a genuine Sports with its original motor.
- Final-drive nut count, Pro-Link bushes, drive splines, compression, charging, cam chain rattle.
