SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550
Help needed to identify my CB500-4
AshimotoK0:
--- Quote from: B11sey on February 06, 2023, 04:50:08 PM ---Had a reply from Honda UK which said the information has to come from Japan and may take up to 6 weeks. I guess this is their std system so waiting with fingers crossed
--- End quote ---
That happened to me with my CB250K2 but they eventually came up with the info from Japan. I suspect their service has become a lot better in recent years and until they come up with goods you don't have to pay a penny and still much cheaper than VJMC.
Trigger:
--- Quote from: B11sey on February 06, 2023, 04:50:08 PM ---Had a reply from Honda UK which said the information has to come from Japan and may take up to 6 weeks. I guess this is their std system so waiting with fingers crossed
--- End quote ---
10 years ago i had to get a dating letter from Honda UK for my first UK 500K0 but, on my second one i have been advised to go through Japan. Looks like Honda UK can not be bothered to put past history on computer's ;)
This is how MCN lost all of its archives and binned thousands of articles when they moved .
Oddjob:
Honda Japan claim a fire destroyed some of their records and as a result there were gaps in the histories of some bikes. Mine was in one of the gaps, so they claim, and they duly returned my cheque and politely said go away. I wasn't accepting that and eventually I got Honda Europe to check for me, they also hit a dead end BUT they managed to find engine/frame numbers both prior and post mine and were able to say roughly when it was manufactured, not a firm date but a month which was close enough. I must they didn't work this out until I pointed it out by referencing some of Bryans records, gave them an frame number just lower than mine and the date made and same for one just after mine. They got the point and gave me a certificate of manufacture, which as it turns out I didn't need as the Government decided to change the qualifying date and thus mine being an L reg qualified without a dating certificate. Typical.
Honda Europe are far more approachable than HondaUk whop quite frankly are useless. If it involves work they run a mile.
AshimotoK0:
--- Quote from: Oddjob on February 06, 2023, 11:42:19 AM ---I’d have asked him why the 500 wasn’t imported at all, only the press bikes were imported as far as I can make out. It’s a brand new model, the 2nd in line four and HondaUK act like it didn’t exist, something wrong there.
--- End quote ---
This is one question I asked him Ken:-
Hi again Ian,
I live in Willerby, Hull, East Yorkshire...so quite a distance from you I suspect ! There is absolutely no rush at all getting information for me. It's just really nice to be in touch, at last, with somebody who was with Honda when a lot of my bikes were launched. From what I understand the CB500/4 used gearbox components similar to the CB250/350K and there was a weakness there, which I think they tried to cover up in the States. The faults were quickly rectified but the USA started selling K0 models in showrooms with the known faults, alongside the K1 and found themselves with a USA law action against them, which lead to a refund being given to some purchasers of the K0. This was the reason I though that maybe the UK stayed clear of the K0 and only introduced the CB500 a year after it's initial launch and only in it's K1 form. There definitely was a UK version of the K0 in the UK (flat handlebars and UK switch-gear etc) but my understanding is that only 4 were officially sold, although quite a number were imported from Europe.
Oddjob:
Might be a fault with your logic there Ash, I’d imagine the gearbox fault on the K0 didn’t come to light immediately and Honda would have covered it up for a short while, so unless the US got the 500 many months before the rest of the world it wouldn’t really have been known about for the UK to have declined importing it, and even if your logic is right why not stop selling in all of Europe until they’d fixed the problem. I’m thinking that it could be the press reviews in the UK that prompted HondaUK to say no, the headlight switch problem was something so dangerous that if someone had been killed as a result then the brand would have suffered so badly they decided not to import until Honda had fixed the problem. Someone imports one from Europe and they can legitimately say not our fault, not a UK spec bike, a get out of jail free card in effect.
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