One thing we rarely talk about in the custom world is the ability of the rider. But maybe we should. Because a client who takes a Gixxer to track days and runs fast laps is unlikely to be happy riding a retro roadster with Firestone tires and a flat spot in the middle of the rev range.
So when we heard that Bolt Motor Co. had built a bike for a four-time World Champion, we were intrigued. Their client was Jorge Martínez Salvadores, known as ‘Aspar,’ and the bike is a 1981 Honda CBX1000 inline-six. It?s over 40 years old, but undoubtedly well-sorted.

?Aspar? is an official Dorna MotoGP Legend, alongside guys like Agostini, Doohan and Hailwood, and today he runs the Aspar racing team. The man with the tricky task of designing a bike for him was Bolt boss Adrián Campos, who has something of a head start in this territory: he also runs a racing team, but focused on F2 and F3 cars. The first job was to choose the bike. Adrián and Aspar settled on one of the finest old school muscle bikes of all time, the mighty CBX1000.

Adrián is well aware of the history of this machine. ?The CBX1000 was designed by Shoichiro Irimajiri, an engineer also responsible for the bikes that Taveri and Hailwood rode when they won the 1966 and 1967 championships,? says Adrián.
?Irimajiri became managing director of Honda, and led the CBX project. It has a generously sized engine suspended from a steel chassis…and that six-cylinder is difficult to access. Just ask our mechani...