CX650 Eurosport
1 Donor

Nelson to Auckland: 871 km on a trailer

The red 1982 CX500E Eurosport from the left, parked beside the timber bench under cover
Home at last: the Eurosport parked up next to the bench, still complete, on the first teardown day.

The bike was in Richmond, just out of Nelson, at the top of the South Island. I’m in Auckland. That’s 871 km by road with the Cook Strait ferry in the middle, for a bike that hasn’t turned a wheel on the road since 2013.

Booking it

I’d looked at the door-to-door bike carriers, but ended up listing the job on Wise Move instead. You describe the load, the carriers put their prices in, you pick one. It was amazingly easy: one form on the phone the day I bought the bike, a handful of quotes back within hours, and a booking locked in without a single phone call. All the seller had to do was be home when the ute turned up.

The run

Velocity Transport took the job. A long flat-deck trailer behind a ute, tie-downs over the fork legs rather than the bars, and a crew who clearly shift bikes for a living. The pick-up photos are theirs: my bike sharing the deck with a ride-on mower and a Royal Enfield at dusk in Richmond. They ran a day later than first planned, which, for a bike that’s sat in a shed for twelve years, didn’t matter one bit. What did matter was the comms: a message at every step, pick-up to ferry to drop-off, so I always knew where it was. Easy to deal with, and easy to get the bike off the trailer at my end.

The route’s the one on the map: Richmond to Picton, the ferry across to Wellington, then straight up the island to Auckland.

What I did while it was on the road

The week it was travelling turned into the busiest planning week so far:

  • Bought a decent socket set and decided the motor goes to a shop for its rebuild, not to me.
  • Settled the bench design and got building.
  • Asked Murray’s Carbs which carb kit to run. His answer: send a photo and the final-drive bolt count first.

Arrival checklist

Before a single bolt comes out:

  1. Photograph it all round for the Stage 1 “before” set.
  2. Count the final-drive nuts: 3 or 4.
  3. Photograph the frame and motor number prefixes (the serials stay off the blog).
  4. Measure the steering stem and fork length for the front end.
  5. Compression, charging, cam chain rattle, and whether the forks and frame are straight.

It’s home now, parked up under cover next to the bench. Next: the first afternoon of the teardown.

Map of the bike's route from Richmond near Nelson, across Cook Strait to Wellington, then north to Auckland
871 km door to door: Richmond to the ferry, then up the island to Auckland. Map © MapTiler, © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The red CX500E strapped down on a flatbed trailer at dusk, next to a ride-on mower and a Royal Enfield
Pickup in Richmond at dusk: strapped down on Velocity's tilt trailer, sharing the deck with a ride-on mower. Photo: Velocity Transport (Used with permission).
Front wheel of the CX500E with blue ratchet straps over the forks and the ute's dirt bikes behind
Straps over the fork legs, not the bars. These people move bikes for a living. Photo: Velocity Transport (Used with permission).
Rear three-quarter of the CX500E on the trailer, loader tightening a strap at the front
Last look at the rear end as it left Nelson. Everything behind the shock mount is coming off. Photo: Velocity Transport (Used with permission).
White ute towing a long flatbed trailer loaded with the CX500E, a mower and a Royal Enfield, under a cloudy sky
The whole load: ute, trailer, mower, two other bikes and one 1982 Honda, heading for the ferry. Photo: Velocity Transport (Used with permission).