One of the reasons I like the CRM was the availability of spare parts. It may be an 18 year old bike but it was ahead of its time in design and you could still get most parts for it.
After the last trip out, it was suspected the oil pump throttle cable was pinched somewhere causing the sticky oil pump action, likely after having had the tank off. I finally got around to taking the tank off and it was clear this was not the cause. Even having isolated the cable from the splitter box with the main throttle cable, it was still not moving freely. Even with the cable totally removed from the bike, it wasn’t clear why it wasn’t happy although there was a nasty looking stretch in the cable outer just as it exits the oil pump. Fiddling with the cable, a strand of frayed cable appeared at which point it became clear there was hidden internal damage. I got a little more forceful in separating some of the fittings and found it really was rather worn being down to a couple of strands:
I was lucky this hadn’t snapped, cutting off the bike’s two stroke oil supply. So, no problem, I’ll just buy a new one. Upon enquiry with the usual purveyor of parts for CRMs I was told that it was not possible to order one and they had no replacement, sorry. This was a bit of a surprise and apparently likely due to the Japanese Tsunami disrupting the Honda parts supply chain. The likelihood of them ever retooling to produce these parts again was remote. I really wanted to have the bike available for use over the holidays too.
Not to be stopped by something like this I went and took a look at my brother’s box of throttle cable components and found he had the right pieces to make a new one (new end fittings, cable, inner liner and outer). The end result:
Its now on the bike and should work as required. I’ve rerouted it a bit to avoid pressure like the original had. I also had to tighten the return spring on the oil pump since the it wasn’t fully closing the oil feed at closed throttle and is evidently weakened with age and probably the previous damaged cable. Longer term, the lack of spares for the CRM might start to become an issue as there are many things that can’t be copied as easily 🙁