Getting back to my Honda

[Tomb]

After a long 7 years I have been trying to get back to my Honda 500 cafe racer. I love this bike and missed it. After divorce, death of mum, new relationships, failed relationships, new relationships, dad with cancer, covid, redundancy, unemployment, my adult daughter wedding, other daughters breakup & new partner and breakup and all the finances (bank of dad 🤪) that go with it. Plus all the race team (drag racing) work, too numerous engine builds, tuning etc, we won the Santa Pod Club Championship.

Life has distracted me.

I was so glad to log in here and see nothings changed, aah stability! Thank you everyone.

What took me away from my Honda? It was poorly and I didn’t have time to work on it, I knew I could lay it up in my garage and it wouldn’t suffer and would be there for when I had time. What brought me back to my bike? I picked up this…

[Nurse Julie]

Blimey Tom, sounds like you need a rest 😁😁😁😁 Your old Honda will be a good distraction from life and its many problems 😊

[haynes66]

'we won the santa pod club championship'  err, youre not getting away with that!  more info and pics please...

[Tomb]

Racing?? We’re in Funnybike class, next class down from Top Fuel, which we hope to be in next season with historic top fuel bike Imperial Wizard. That’s another story though. And it’s not Honda so for another thread/board.

I believe my bike should have a 550 motor, not the 500 lump that was in it when purchased 38 years ago. The 500 engine lost 4th gear 10 years ago, I planned to fix that but never got round to it, then I lost a cylinder, I went through the usual suspects but never cured it putting it down to compression, it has done a huge mileage. I recently purely by chance picked up a K3 frame and motor and that set me back on course.

I decided to run up the new engine in its frame to test it, I removed the cam cover to check, all good showing this motor is low mileage. Back together I removed the carbs that came with it,  not good but fixable later. Like everyone else I prefer the earlier carbs so removed them from my bike, took a leap of faith and hoped they would be ok after sitting for 7 years (yes I know 🤪) which later turned out ok (so far) and tried fitting them to the K3 motor… er nope. I didn’t know they don’t fit and have different manifolds, after swapping them from my bike I got the motor running. 3 kick and ticked over nicely WOW!

So now engine is out of the frame ready for the swap. 

[Tomb]

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[Tomb]

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Sorry I’m bad at posting photos, never done this on a phone before

[Matt_Harrington]

Tom, you certainly have a had quite a few years of trial and tribulations. Look forward to the cafe build....
Matt

[Laverdaroo]

Tom, do you know Kev and Liz Charman? They frequent the stripand do all sorts of straight line mentalness?

[Tomb]

I’m not moaning, it’s life, I’m sure everyone else is similar. ☺️

I’ll do more photos as I get the new motor in. It’s not really a “build” like you folks do, more just a fresh motor. I have most the parts needed to rebuild the 500 motor later.

And a teaser of the race bike, I know I said I wouldn’t… [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Tomb]

Tom, do you know Kev and Liz Charman? They frequent the stripand do all sorts of straight line mentalness?

Very well, Kev has just got his Top Fuel rolling chassis ready for the build

[Tomb]

By the way I’m the idiot crouching behind shielding my eyes, I build the engines, I’m not idiot enough to get on the beast 🤣

[philward]

Good to see your name again on the forum. 'Interesting' few years! Good luck with the rebuild

[Tomb]

Here is the bike so far

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[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Gawd you have been through the Mill Tomb I remember the catchy user name - welcome back.

[Tomb]

No more than others I’m sure. It’s my excuse for my absence.

Yes my name sounds terribly morbid too, but it’s simply Tom B….  Yes my surname starts with B 😂