Other Stuff > Misc / Open
The Covid Thread
SteveD CB500K0:
This is the tale of a 1972 Honda CB500/4 - NGK62L
I bought this bike on 28th September 1977 with the help of my great mate Paul Churcher. I had admired a black 500/4 that was owned by a member of the Bedford Eagle Motorcycle Club for many months and Paul had been on the lookout for me. I don't know where he found this (he may) but the two of us went round to see it one evening and I had a short test ride. It was running on three cylinders but every now and then #4 would chime in and away we went - it was brilliant. Paul reckoned that an ignition fault would be pretty easy to fix, so I offered the guy £350 and rode it home.
I have no photographs of this period (sorry) so I'll just sprinkle the ones I do have...
50,000th Birthday 1st February 1980
To start with it was fairly standard, had 20,855 miles on the clock and needed a bit of TLC (not to mention a good service...)
Over the next 5 months, I fixed the ignition and brakes, fitted finned covers, crash bars and the Rickman fairing, added the rack, an MOT, tax and insurance and on 21st February 1978 we hit the road!
50,000 miles (bike) - 22 years (me)
I soon discovered that a neglected bike would require ongoing care as first the cam end cover oil seals started to leak (only 48p each but left oil all over my legs as it ran onto the cylinder head and was blown backwards by the slipstream).
Then the starter solenoid melted (it was full of water). £7.50 for a new one and a new set of fuses.
Then the front fork oil seals (£1.00 each) and a top end overhaul (£10.50 for a gasket set)
This was all in the first 2 months - but I was using it every day and had clocked up 3,000 miles by then.
In May 1978, I bought a CB550K3 seat (£15) and tank (£25) from a guy in Portsmouth who had bought a brand new K3 and was converting it into a cafe racer. The tank was slightly larger than the original and the seat hinge/latch were in a slightly different place but hey, I was doing engineering at Uni and we had access to a complete workshop staffed with skilled technicians!
Summer 1978 was supposed to be our Spanish holiday. One of the guys in our shared house was from Madrid and had "invited" us all down. Unfortunately, a trip to Camber Sands in June of that year resulted in a cam chain tensioner failure that caused the cam chain to gouge aluminium from the inside of the cases, which blocked the oil filter, which destroyed the main and big end bearings. The engine didn't sieze, but just got harder and harder to rev as by that time the pressure release valve in the oil filter had opened and the oil pump was busily pumping a cocktail of engine oil and aluminium shavings around the engine.
So no Spanish holiday then. Just a big receipt from Parks of Lewisham for parts:
Parts list for engine rebuild pt1
Parts list for engine rebuild pt2
This picture shows me and Nik working on the engine. Having recently rebuilt the top end, I didn't want to open it all up again, so carried out all the work by removing the bottom crankcase. Note the method used to store and recognise the various crankcase bolts. Also note custom (student) engine workbench. Mileage now 25,400
For the next 6 months and 5,000 miles I did nothing but change oil, filters, worn footrest rubbers... and ride it.
At the time I was President of the University Bike Club and negotiated a discount at our local Honda dealer Redhill Motors (more about them later). The guys in the parts department always (jokingly) complained that as we always came in with our helmets on, they couldn't check our IDs. So we had these IDs made up:
Bike Club ID Card 1978
As there was no Spanish holiday, Beverley and I decided to go camping in Cornwall. We loaded up the bike (two tents - her father insisted) and headed off into the rain. As we crossed the "border" into Cornwall, the sun came out and stayed out for the duration of our stay. Here we are loaded up for the journey home.
More pictures from 1978:
Beverley on the CB500/4 in 1978
Beverley on the CB500/4 in 1978
January 1979 was cold and icy. Nik was riding my bike while I was away in Derby (with Beverley) and discovered exactly how bad those stainless discs were in the rain and sleet. A car pulled out in from of him on a mini-roundabout and he T-boned it. Bent forks, broken headlight and fairing screen, scrapes on the exhausts (where he had layed it down). The estimate from Redhill Motors in Brighton (our Honda dealer) was £235. It took a couple of months to grind through the insurance companys but in May 1979 I finally got the go-ahead to get the repairs done.
Receipt for accident repairs
Note the two silencers at £37.67 each...
Now, as a regular at Redhill Motors, I knew that they had a brand new sexy Piper 4-1 exhaust hanging in their warehouse. It was priced at £64 and I suggested that they fit that in place of the two standard Honda exhausts. Mileage was now 34,876
Piper Exhaust
The line-up during the summer of 1979
This was the summer of our final year at Uni in Brighton: L->R
Richard's CB550K3 (I bought this off him later)
Carrol's CB500/4 (blue metalflake)
My CB500/4
Simon's CB400F (Rickman Type 1 fairing)
Nik's CB750F1
By autumn 1979 I was working for Racal in Bracknell but still "commuting" to either Bedford or Derby most weekends. The service record shows oil changes every 1500 miles, tyres, chain and sprockets etc
The final record in my service book shows tax renewal on 31st January 1980 (£7.35) with a mileage of 50,000
As a salaried employee, I decided that it was about time I bought a newer bike. I also fancied something a bit quieter...
The bike was traded for a CB550K3 at HGB in Ruislip for £200
Andrew-S:
Great story and period photos, love stuff like this - sadly I lost a lot of photos of my old bikes, mates and girlfriends many years ago. :(
Interestingly, or not, I worked for Racal (BCC then) in Wembley in 77 and 78.
MrDavo:
They've both been on here before, and are the only photos I have of these bikes, owned when I was 19 or so.
First what is thought to be one of the handful of UK CB750 sandcasts, bought from Sports Motorcycles in Manchester. With a Yoshimura cam and pipe (and a K2 front end, apparently), it could wake the dead. It tried to kill me a few times, but I eventually got rid because my license was in tatters, the cops had plenty of warning I was coming. In those days it was nothing special, just another second hand Honda.
I swapped it for this, a 750cc Norton Atlas racer, in a genuine Manx frame. Another I should have kept, I'd only need to source the right engine to make a very desirable classic racer. There was no such thing in those days, Whittaker's in Blackpool had a row of obsolete Manxes, taken in part ex as the Yamaha twin racers became universal. The owner did describe them as his pension, and he wasn't wrong, I bet he had a comfy retirement.
It was run and bump only, a skill that came in handy when I went classic racing, I had a cycle clip in my pocket to stop my bell bottom jeans from getting caught in the primary chain. When I first got it, it wasn't registered and I used a made up number, by the time the photo was taken it was taxed and tested. I did see it years later, on the prom at the TT, it may even have had lights by then, I was like Cinderella, trying to get home before dark. Note the bulb horn, but if you couldn't hear it coming you deserved to be run over. There was also an Avon top half fairing, but I never used it on the road.
On the Covid front, everyone here has panic booked all the supermarket delivery slots, you can't get food delivered until after Easter, and they won't take new registrations for click and collect as they are swamped. We took a rucksack on our statutory daily walk and bought some stuff at an excellent local shop, and found out they will deliver to us no problem. My elderly Mum's friend who shopped for her, texted me this morning to say that she has left for the countryside with her toyboy. I rang her local small supermarket and spoke to the manager, they will take a phone order and payment from me, and deliver to her, bless them, saving me a major ball ache as I'm 70 miles away. Now I have to persuade her to get the groceries off the doorstep before someone knicks them, she won't answer the door to strangers.
I just heard that 1,000 of Greater Manchester plod are self isolating, so I doubt I'll get knicked if we go for a second walk.
SteveW:
I worked for Racal-Dana in Maidenhead, then we moved to Slough and became Racal Instruments. Started my electronics apprenticeship with them in 1984 and left 1997.
SteveD CB500K0:
Racal Communications Equipment Ltd
I was a design engineer on their military electronic countermeasures systems (jammers)
One of the four lab models of our new microprocessor controlled jammer systems was bolted into the land rover of the Royal Marine Commandos and shipped out to the Falklands.
We never saw it again
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version