Sold for $20,600: New-in-crate 1981 Honda CBX Supersport

That’s on the upper end for a CBX, except this gem is still unassembled in its original shipping container. The buyer, username Fever22, says “It’s staying in the crate.” Fever did win a 1980 CBX back in February, so it’s not like the wail of Honda’s big six is out of reach.

So why didn’t anyone ever put this Charcoal Grey beauty on the road? The story goes that Honda donated CBXes to schools back in the day so students could learn to work on them. The CBX wasn’t a big seller towards the end of its production run, so that was one way of unloading leftovers. Lots of schools had no idea what to do with a six-cylinder motorcycle (or instructors didn’t want to deal with six carbs and enough students to strip every screw on them), so some of these CBXes were put in storage and forgotten. My high school had lawnmower engines, and those were gone by the time I had any tech classes. I better not find out they were hiding a CBX somewhere.

If you aren’t familiar with Honda’s CBX, it was a radical bike in its day with its transverse, inline-six cylinder engine. Honda wasn’t the first to do the straight six, but the CBX is probably the most iconic. Even today, the CBX is counted among Honda’s most legendary motorcycles.

I wish that I knew the bike was going to auction sooner, but bidding was almost up by the time it hit my desk. If a Common Tread reader picked this bike up, that would be a great story. Even so, the CBX is a sweet piece of engineering and moto history.

It also asks that inevitable question: What to do with a crated bike? Do you leave it as is? Some would argue that it’s just another bike with low miles, nice paint, and a lot of dry rubber parts if you take it out. Its present state is what makes it unique. On the other hand, Honda built this motorcycle to do more than look cool. And they certainly never intended for the CBX to spend its years in a cage.

If it were mine? I’d sell this time capsule, buy an uncrated CBX to ride, pocket the difference, and make the debate someone else’s problem.