It’s been seen around Oppo a few times, but I have a 1971 Honda CB500 K0 motorcycle in my fleet. It’s been with me for 12 years and I love this bike and this is going to be a bit if a journey, so I apologize for the length in advance.
This bike has a story of how it came into my life which is a large part of what makes it special to me. I’ve owned north of 10 motorcycles and ridden them since I was 12, but this one is unique. 2008 was a very bad year in the Miner household, in October my wife’s 17 year old former delinquent sister (who had been living with us for 2 years and had turned her life around) decided to move out at her fathers urging (the same father that kicked her out 2 years earlier prompting us at age 21 to take her in) and this was extremely heartbreaking as she immediately went right back to old habits of drugs, causing trouble and generally throwing her life away. If this wasn’t enough heartbreak a month later my wife’s youngest sister(who had just turned 15) died in a very tragic and stupid accident. This left my wife and I in shambles as we both dearly loved these two young women and her family is an absolute nightmare making this even harder. We decided that a break from everything was sorely needed so we booked a trip to Cancun for the week before Christmas which was wonderful and a very much needed respite from our relatives (this was back before international phones were an easy thing to do) and allowed us to recharge.
So in January of 2009 we decided it was time to make a few changes in our lives to help us move on and one of which was for me to buy a project motorcycle. I’d rebuild a scooter 2 years prior and had been riding it around town since then but wanted something more. We landed on and agreed about this 1971 Honda CB500 that had been in the back of the 2nd owner’s barn since the late 70's. It required an almost complete overhaul which took me about 2 years to get it running well. Once it was this bike was wonderful, it screamed through the (nearly open) exhaust, handled beautifully and was plenty powerful. It cemented my love of middleweight bikes. I also spent a good deal of time working with my father rebuilding this bike which are cherished memories as well. My father’s definitely no peach and we spent relatively little time together while I was growing up and this bike is a large part of why we had any relationship at all for a few years. We’ve since drifted apart again (he’s a pretty angry man and an alcoholic) but I do still fondly remember working on it with him.
Wow that was all a bit heavier than I anticipated - sorry Oppo. This might actually also be the first time I’ve ever typed that out. I’m a pretty closed off individual so there are only 2 or 3 friends of mine that even know all of this, it’s strange but also cathartic to type it out here for my trusted friends on Oppo.
Anyway back to the bike!
I wanted something I could ride whenever I wanted with it not breaking I bought a new motorcycle back in 2017 and promptly after that the old girl decided to have a major electrical failure.
So she got shoved over in the corner of the garage for a few months to think about what she did and then I eventually assessed what happened (something in the right control where the starter button, headlight and kill switch live shorted out) and ordered parts.
Last spring I finally got the ignition fixed and then the battery was stone dead. So time to pickup a battery. Man was the kid staffing the desk at O’reilley’s completely stumped at the battery for this bike. I walked in to the battery rack hoping to find it myself, but no motorcycle batteries there so to the desk. When he came back he started a spiel about the battery being charged and ready to use I laughed at him and opened the box to make sure it was the right battery. He saw a strange battery and a bottle full of acid and was completely dumbstruck about what was in front of him. I took a minute to explain it but this battery you had to put in the acid yourself just did not compute in his mind. I gave him my $50 (motorcycle batteries have gotten expensive!!!!) and took my battery.
So after the day long setup of a new lead acid battery (man modern batteries are really a miracle) I hooked her up, turned on the petcock and pressed the now working starter button and after a few tries she fired! She ran beautifully too, but after a minute or two fuel began dripping from the overflow tubes of 2 of the carbs. Plugged float valves! I whacked on the bowls with a screwdriver (this does actually work sometimes) to no avail.
So I ordered carb rebuild kits but carburetor rack removal is a pain and I didn’t want to spend a whole weekend taking apart, rebuilding carbs and reassembling so it sat. My work travel schedule was nuts last year too with me going on something like 15 trips over the course of the year leaving precious little time for projects.
At the beginning of our extended WFH exercise I wanted to work on this old bike, but other things took priority and then I ultimately lost motivation to do much for a few weeks but I’m back on it now.
So last night I replaced a broken left hand control which was a bit of a pain as these wires are routed through the handlebars but got it done in about an hour and it tested good!
So the list from here is:
- Deal with squishy front brakes - try bleeding but if that doesn’t work replace master and maybe rebuild caliper.
- Replace rear brake shoes - this bike is very early generation disk brakes so they’re bad and the rear brakes provide a good deal of the available stopping power. The shoes in there are probably 50 years old so I will be replacing them with some EBC ones I ordered a couple years back
- Fix leaky carbs - I might try to see if I can get away with replacing the float valves while still on the bike, but it’ll be a pain. It will probably end with cursing and me having to take the carbs out of the bike.
- Lube cables - should have done the clutch while I had the lever apart last night but did not think of it...
- Fix rear turn signal lens - I ordered new turn signal screws and gaskets last night
- Clean up voltage rectifier/regulator wiring - I have a pretty janky fix in place for a PO’s even jankier fix and I should probably do something about it. They do make replacement units, but they’re expensive and I think an hour with a soldering iron will put in in good shape.
- Install replacement sidecovers - The originals are 50 year old ABS and in bad shape. I ordered some new manufactured side covers but they need some clean up and paint before they go on the bike.
- If I recall the clutch was slipping a bit when I last rode it, so that likely needs dealt with too.
That’s most of the list (that I can think of right now) but there are likely a few things that will be added as this progresses.
Thanks for coming along for the ride Oppo, typing this out was surprisingly emotional for me and I really appreciate everyone here. This is genuinely an awesome community to have been a part of for the last 5 years.