What did you do with your CB500 today?

muttley1 wrote:Spent 150 miles on the M40, bike running well,
Drank tea, ate cake and talked bikes with a decent bunch of guys. A row of Honda's finest looked oddly familiar,
Tried to win award for loudest bike in car park,
Looked out rear light unit in bag of spares back home,
Looked at cleaning kit too, drank more tea,
Thought about cafe racer look for cb5, found this to plan around...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HONDA-CB-500-TT-GENUINE-AND-VERY-ORIGINAL-BIKE-BEAUTIFUL-CONDITION-/231289438414?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item35d9ecc0ce

m1

And it was jolly nice to meet you, too! As I'm sure you're aware, that bike's a GB500TT, the half-faired 400cc JDM version is cock-stirringly pretty. Although they did make a half-faired 500, too.
 
Fuck knows why Honda saw fit to give us the underwhelming XBR500 instead  

I got bollocked for parking here:

So's I could take pictures of this:

My Grandad didn't die in two world wars so's I couldn't park wherever I wanted! I just said, in plain English, "sorry mate, I don't speak English". Twunt.

'Lowering the tone', you say? This is one of the most famous CB500s on the web! Don't you know who it is!??

badseeds wrote:...
'Lowering the tone', you say? This is one of the most famous CB500s on the web! Don't you know who it is!??

I'm guessing that you didn't go in... or did you?

I was in need of a shit, but thought I'd best go for a Mcshit instead.

Having seen Sully's home-made Fenda Extenda idea at the Ace Caff soiree, I thought I'd make my own from an Alaskan number plate sent to me by a customer (I didn't ask him to and it's been kicking around for a couple of years).


Yeah, I'm thinking Dragon's Den, too.

I may be wrong, but I have a slight feeling that it's not quite straight....!

sullivj wrote:I may be wrong, but I have a slight feeling that it's not quite straight....!

Get your glasses checked, John. I used a vernier caliper when fitting that mud-flap. They're dyslexic calipers, mind.

Had a cracking rid out today with a friend of mine. He owns a RR600 and he was surprised at just how quick the CB can be.
Did slow town stuff through Salford then blasted up around Bolton and Chorley. Really needed the ride out after the week ive had at work.
Even managed to find out that im getting around 60mpg and that's not been taking it easy.

Today, I did this:

http://www.cb500club.net/t2946-operation-tango

fitted some orange braided brake pipes to the bike today. nice easy job but the new bolts didnt fit which was a shame. bit of an odd size the bleed nipple on the calipers im finding its an 11. will see if it effects anything but i did it just for cosmetics really and the fact the bikes never had a new set after 17 years lol.

Weird. I had to use all my old bolts. Will message them. The lines work well though.

Picked up my CB from Dave Wilkins, he has put a different engine in there and £250 later it has cured my heating issue!

Was that to fit the engine? Sounds not too bad!

Yep, total price. Just need to get the chain tightened, doesn't feel as smooth.

Took the CB out for the first time in weeks. I've been slowly sorting a few things on it and had to wait for a few parts etc. Didn't really have a lot of confidence in the handling as it was, especially as I'm only learning I wanted it sorted before I went out again.

5 or 10 minutes out I had a bit of a 'Wahoo!!' blast along the straight , the enthusiasm carried into a set of twisties. 

There I totally stuffed up the last one, drifted a bit wide and ended up coming round a blind bend totally on the wrong side of the road... Umm... 
Could have had a head-on 10 minutes from home!  Obviously nothing was there but I was seen, some poor woman in a hatchback coming the other way gave me a horrified look.

Didn't do it again but then I completely failed at doing a u-turn and went home feeling a bit like maybe this biking lark isn't for me.

I suppose I must have come off the throttle when I started going wide and made it worse? It was an uphill left-hander.

You got outa jail there.
You'll be fine provided you understand why it happened and put the lesson to good use next time.
If you felt you had to come off the throttle in the corner instead of gradual throttle on, then either your positioning, entry speed or gear (or maybe all 3) must have been all wrong. It'll come with practice.

Balanced the carbs. Amazing how rough it can run when you get used to it drifting out over a period of time. 

Anyway, she's purring like a kitten now.

Celt500 wrote:Took the CB out for the first time in weeks....

There I totally stuffed up the last one, drifted a bit wide and ended up coming round a blind bend totally on the wrong side of the road... Umm... 

Didn't do it again but then I completely failed at doing a u-turn and went home feeling a bit like maybe this biking lark isn't for me.

That's not good, but not really surprising: I have done similar things in the past, hopefully I have learnt enough to stop me from doing them again.

The 'proper' answer at this point would be to say 'go and get some advanced training' and this probably would be the right answer: IAM, RoSPA or your local bike training place can teach you how to go round corners fast for varying levels of payment/commitment. I have found the small amount of such training I have been exposed to useful, although I did this more recently (not when I had just passed my test).

The 'other' answer is this: go and have another go, a good bit slower and make sure you can get round the corner (or corners) as you would like, in control of the bike. Apart from a very few specific things, the only way you learn these skills is by doing them, so practice makes perfect. If you don't know what 'counter-steering' is then you should probably go and look it up...

Don't get disheartened and put off biking - you obviously enjoy it or else you wouldn't have been going for the ride in the first place, you just need to take this as a warning that you need to keep learning and improving the skills you have all the time.

New Hagon shocks and new Dunlops going on. Hel brake lines on order.

Felt a ping in the clutch cable this morning and shortly followed by another and then a twang as the last strand snapped... Luckily I had bought a spare and had it under my seat from the clutch awareness week post a month ago.
First clutch cable changed on the side of the road = success!!

All thanks to this forum.

Well done, the satisfaction of knowing you had spare with you must have almost outweighed the inconvenience of it snapping! Removing the cam chain tensioner yesterday I kept getting sharp pain in my hand and arm, soon realised it was the frayed clutch cable digging into me where it leaves and rubs it's housing at the engine end... so that's getting replaced pronto!

This is why we try to always celebrate National Clutch Cable Awareness Week here at the cb500 club.

Or Nuckuckow as it's come to be known.

My mechanic mate who knows CB500 pretty well reckons that if you remove the frame cable guide and put both adjuster nuts in front of the crankcase mounted anchor the cables last much longer.  Suppose it makes sense 'cos everything is free to move and align it's self so there should be a lot less friction and rubbing.
I'm trying it anyway

Mine is also now sporting a shiny new genuine Honda clutch cable. Yay for Nuckuckow / National (actually shouldn't that be International?) Clutch Cable Awareness Week!
Very smooth.

Adjusting the new one according to Mr. Haynes made me realise how overly tight the old one was. Can't help with the fraying that.