What did you do with your CB500 today?

Just had a look at Timmelsjoch is listed. One of the easiest roads I've ever ridden, think I'll take it with a pinch of salt.


OMG Reschenpass is also listed, it's just sweeping corners.


now stelvio pass...


Umbrail Pass - this is one where the bike crash happened.

Flüela Pass - beautiful road, mainly straight with sweeping corners but with it been swiss you don't go past the speed limit (e.g 15kmph more) like you can in Italy

Think I'll use this site a a guide to roads I should ride as I've ridden all the ones above.

I rode up the #308 in germany #199 in austria heading upto the austrian border (Oberjoch) and that's the same area (accidentally got the peg down while going up hill and I wasn't even pushing


As for camping stuff. it depends on what you plan on taking with you as my topbox mainly was filled with my laptop in a rucksack. As in 70% of it was the rucksack.
I'll try to break it down



Topbox,
laptop, charger, power inverter, basic tools - hexkeys - 24mm socket and ratchet, 8mm 10mm, 13mm, 12mm, 14mm, spanners (think chain maintenance and common bolts that may work loose) and a J.I.S screwdriver, my DSLR. Odd bit of food and a bottle of water. Oh and some tyre goop/repair spray.

On the seat, holdall/rollbag general clothing. I wouldn't bother with jeans unless you've got some armoured ones. Take up way too much space, mainly underwear, pj bottoms (you'll love loose light clothing on long/hot days), socks and tshirts, sleeping bag fit in it and this time I'll be taking a towel with me of some sort. (I ended up using a t-shirt to dry off after showers).

I bungeed this onto the footpeg hangers and then the tent over the top of that.

As for the bike, spare bulbs and tyre inflator lived in the rear section behind the tail light.

Behind the underseat storage there is a slight gap where the seat lock is, you can fit bandages and plasters there.

Underseat storage, another first aid kit, a ybx14bs battery (running in parallel I'll explain this later) spare gloves incase my others get soaked)


I used 2 batteries on this trip, the standard battery wired in parallel with the ybx14bs. I connected them together with a 30amp fuse in between them incase they somehow grounded out. I removed the fuse when I were removing the battery for use on an evening.
I put this in my tent and ran my 300w ac inverter from it. This allowed me to run/charge my laptop for about an 1hour to download my gopro footage from the day, then shutdown the laptop, recharge my phone as well as the 20100mah powerbank that I used to power my gopro throughout of the day. With all that the battery was completely flat by the next day and often my phone didn't get a full charge.

In the morning I would reconnect up the battery (DO NOT PUT IN THE FUSE AS IT'LL BLOW) Start up the engine and get the bike running. Then put in the fuse, this is essential to do in this order. If you connect the two batteries up with the fuse in place and then load up the bike you'll have 2 flat batteries and you'll have to bumpstart the bike... on a campsite far from ideal... apparently..

I'm not sure how the standard cb5 charging system would cope so maybe a couple of spare reg/recs might be worth getting, or making a form of fan mod to cool the reg/rec. I'm running a vfr800fi/cbr1100xx stator in mine and a mosfet reg/rec running completely separate/independent of the loom. http://www.cb500club.net/t3130-charging-battery

Jameshambleton wrote:
In the morning I would reconnect up the battery (DO NOT PUT IN THE FUSE AS IT'LL BLOW) Start up the engine and get the bike running. Then put in the fuse, this is essential to do in this order. If you connect the two batteries up with the fuse in place and then load up the bike you'll have 2 flat batteries and you'll have to bumpstart the bike... on a campsite far from ideal... apparently.. :roll:

It might be worth putting a switch (maybe one of these) in there to isolate the batteries as well as the fuse, then you can keep the fuse in there and just isolate/connect the batteries as required.

I had been thinking of something like that but currently this system works for now so I'm sticking with it, until I can properly look into it and get something designed up.

I'm thinking more along the lines of using a relay of some sort and a switch on the handlebars, but as I say it's something I need to look into, switching the ground between the two would be safest, incase anything shorts against the frame. The real issue would be the accessories, I believe.

Continuing on with my bikes issues, replaced the switchgear and that solved the horn/dipping of headlight issue. After somewhat testing the issue has gotten worse, put in the 1st now and it dies, opposed to 2nd (which also still kills the engine).

I've tested the clutch switch and that's within spec, I've tested the diode thingy and that's working properly.

I replaced the pull throttle cable after finding that the carbs weren't seated they'd somehow come loose.

After further testing, It's now definitely a grounding issue of some sort.

Yesterday I went for the first ride on my CB500 for about 2 months! Had some enforced non-riding due to my finger injury (now healing well). Other than the knackered battery and a lack of MOT (it expired!) it went well.

Spent a good bit of today changing my rear tyre - I now have a Pirelli Sport Demon rather than the rather-lacking-in-tread Avon Ditchrider. Will try and do the front tyre tomorrow... if only there was an MOT place near me that worked Sundays I could get one of them too! As it is that will have to wait...

Jameshambleton wrote:
Think I'll use this site a a guide to roads I should ride as I've ridden all the ones above.

As for camping stuff.
I'll try to break it down

Right. The site's title may be a bit click-bait-like. However, it's still great inspiration and if there's something for you to find, I'm happy.

Camping gear. Okay. I've got none of the double-battery-powered stuff on my bike. Which means I'd probably run out of power when camping. Hmmm...

Everything else you listed seems recognizable to me although I've so far weighted things differently. Less tools, more clothes - which have been surplus anyway. I'll note the tenting-related items for reference
I've replaced the topbox with a rather large tankbag that hold all the valuables AND zips off as a rucksack. Keeps the weight better centered and enables me to leave the bike when @ a POI, leaving only the nonvaluables (ex the bike itself!) behind. To ensure the bike would be there when I returned back, I brought a big ugly ABUS chain lock - stored in the luggage compartment due to its weight.
Tools in my case are - the OE toolset. Add a small sachet with assorted screws and nuts + cable-ties. Done.

I learnt yesteryear how utterly inconvenient it is, being forced to bring everything to a safe store when sightseeing. Visited Carcassonne and had to haul the lot half a mile to the local Herberge de Jeunesse for keeping. In the baking sun. Wearing leathers.
No fun.

This year I had pannier boxes - lockable. I see on the picture of your bike you have racks too. Not using those?

Well, after some tyre wrestling, I now have a new front tyre to match my rear tyre.

When I've got an MOT (or maybe a little before!) I'll tell you if they feel better than the ancient Avons.

TBH they would have to be *awful* to be worse than the wornout tyres I took off - the rear was certainly past (tread worn out) it and the front wasn't far off. Both had that 'cracking' that suggested they had stopped being properly rubbery some time ago...

I found the panniers a waste of time, you can't fit much in them easily, stuff falls out of them. At least for me they made the front end go ultra ultra light even when empty, felt like the front was skimming rather than treading and anything above 50kmh the front would just go skywards under acceleration. Usless for me and my riding style, I also found that they made filtering on motorways impossible.

As for the power if you're able to charge up things as you ride then you'll be fine. If you need mains ac 120/115v then you could always take a power cord with you as most sites have mains electricity hookup but I found the battery and ac inverter + 10mins of riding was more practical and cheaper in the long term (as I can/do use the battery in a different bike when I'm not riding)

Jameshambleton wrote:I found the panniers a waste of time, you can't fit much in them easily, stuff falls out of them. At least for me they made the front end go ultra ultra light even when empty, felt like the front was skimming rather than treading and anything above 50kmh the front would just go skywards under acceleration. Usless for me and my riding style, I also found that they made filtering on motorways impossible.

As for the power if you're able to charge up things as you ride then you'll be fine. If you need mains ac 120/115v then you could always take a power cord with you as most sites have mains electricity hookup but I found the battery and ac inverter + 10mins of riding was more practical and cheaper in the long term (as I can/do use the battery in a different bike when I'm not riding)

Panniers: Mine are 2*30 liter top-load - makes for a nice 'where-did-I-hide-that'-hunt because everything is piled up in a vertical fashion. Here, no issues with anything going light - I've even managed to scrape a little pegs with boxes attached Biggest problem I found was a complete lack of aerodynamics.

Killing my filtering abilities was a worry, yes. It certainly puts a damper on the ability to do so.

Power: I would need that for charging the laptop and perhaps for light when it's dark and I have to rummage around for my glasses or somesuch. Hmmm... Maybe it'd be possible to charge the laptop en route. Perhaps using something along the lines of this £3-thing off of eBay. Connect it in parallel with the USB-charger-thingy and route a cable into the tankbag; voila, PC-charger! Or this one @ £27 - which is waterproof and can go under the side panel, leaving the luggage compartment all empty.

Fun to toss ideas into the air, making the CB a practical tourer in the process.

For light at night just to the torch app on your phone if you've got a "smart phone".
As for laptop power I wouldn't trust a dc/dc item from ebay, or any electrical item for that matter really (watch bigclive on youtube for my reasoning).
If anything get it from your local electrical retailer so it's a good quality product and meets your local electrical safety standards.

As for things under the side panel, there isn't as much real room as what you'd expect there for placing things

Got a bagster cover for the tank so happy out with that

I got an MOT today! Only one advisory (fluctuating rear brake - meh!).

Nearly didn't get to the MOT place at all as my knackered battery wouldn't start the bike, despite being charged up - I suspect it would probably work if it was summer but the combination of its knackeredness and the cold-ish weather (it's sub 5 degrees here today) mean that it was less than useful. A quick charge (after my failed starting attempts), a bump-start and I was on my way to the MOT place.

Later on in the day I took a ride on my wife's bike (a Triumph street triple) to go to Halfrauds and buy a new battery - they seem to stock Yuasa YTX9-BS as standard item (at least the Cambridge store where I went). It wasn't the cheapest price (£47) but it was cheaper than one of the motorcycle shops I rang up who wanted £57 for one! You can get one for nearer £35 online BTW - I didn't want to wait or have to be in for delivery, so I paid the extra.

The good thing is that the new battery is currently charging and appears (unsurprisingly) much healthier than the old one.

The less good thing is that my wife's Triumph street triple is lighter, goes faster and round corners better than my CB500

I dislike the street triple for that exact reason, too confidence inspiring so when it bites and all goes wrong you'll really know about it... or you wont be about,to know about it.

the little mileage I did on my cb5 I have to say it felt right and planted and I would have liked to do a lot more miles on her but unfortunately my problems started (that and having to shell out for a fresh work van) and that put paid to it

More than welcome to come and ride mine any time, you'll probably give the old girl a shock with someone been gentle. Really need to change my plugs though, I've not changed them in a year and a half, think they're supposed to be changed every 16k?

Jameshambleton wrote:Really need to change my plugs though, I've not changed them in a year and a half, think they're supposed to be changed every 16k?

Hehe - ordinary plugs are... I switched to iridium plugs in 2014 and haven't bothered thinking about them since. The trick is to buy them off of ebay rather than your local dealer. Price difference is approx 3x

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