Whats a SilverWing?
By: Chuck Gardner Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with motorcycles knows a GoldWing is Japanese Hog Heaven, but even experienced bikers return a blank stare when you mention a SilverWing. Back in the late 1970s Honda developed a shaft driven, water-cooled, turbocharged bike which had a Motto Guzzi style perpendicular mounted V-twin engine. Those who rushed out to buy one quickly discovered that waiting for the turbos to spin-up and the power to kick it is not something you want to do when you are leaning into a tight curve at 100 mph, so this $10,000 was not very popular. (Note: For a detailed — and far more accurate — story about the development of the Turbo and CX please see this background story contributed by Eirik Skjeveland, of Norway.) Not one to let expensive R & D and tooling go to waste Honda built and marketed a conventional street bike — the CX500 — around its radical — for them — 500cc water cooled engine. The CX500 was a moderately successful, albeit ugly,
