SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB500/550
Renovation Time
florence:
I love it! Well done Sir, I would ride it like that. You are very lucky to have a petrol tank that has not been re-painted but has that wonderful fading which takes years to develop and cannot be replicated. As for the rusty bits, a liberal smearing of grease would be in order.
I really like the twin disc conversion.
I have a couple of questions. I notice you have a 550 engine. Does this cause any headaches with the insurance?
Does the 550 clutch not suffer from the slipping problem which is so very annoying on the 500?
z1100r:
You would ride it like that....well I did that for about 10 years. Its not much worse now than it was then. I'm fed up with it being my rat bike now. In fact If I steam cleaned it and put some cheap wheels in it, it wouldn't look too bad. That Motad exhaust is pretty new, the engine is spot on, forks need a rebuild and and a bit of paint, Frame needs blasting and stoving, a new set of hbars and levers bolt on all my new goodies and it would look very good.
A few years ago I spotted a brand new set of 550 carbs on Ebay...actually NOS. I bid around 100 quid but they sold for 265. The big bidder never turned up so i was offered them as next highest bidder. I just opened the box with them in last night, now they are bike porn....lovely looking things when they are spangly new.
The brake conversion is just K3 forks.
I have 3 bike insurance policies each with 4 bikes on. The little Honda costs me nothing to insure. My z1100r costs nothing to insure, my Thunderace and RD500's cost nothing to insure. For some very odd reason my Yamaha RD350F2 powervalve is the highest risk bike I have and that policy costs more than the rest. When I rang them to query it the guy confirmed that the 350 was highest risk I had.
Telling them my 1970's 500 Honda was actually 600 was like..yeah ..so what....!!!
550 clutches are just as bad as far as slipping goes...the operating mechanism is vastly improved on the 550 though..you get a much smoother nicer control lever. My clutch is modded to prevent slip. First of all theres extra plates, secondly the steel plates are vapour blasted, and thirdly it has slightly heavier springs, they're the basic things I did, I did other stuff too but cant remember exactly what.
SteveD CB500K0:
I have the list below insured with Carole Nash. They charge me about
florence:
I only wondered because having a different engine means it's been modified and sometimes they charge a lot more for modified bikes.
Footman James are pretty good and cheaper than Carole Nash who I was with for about fifteen years. FJ offer discount to members of the Vintage Motorcycle Club.
SteveD CB500K0:
I like the breakdown cover with CN. Last year I got a cheaper quote from FJ and CN matched it. :)
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