Hi all just found your forum by chance, lucky me, well this is my thrird visit to a CB500/4, I purchased my first way back in 1973! brand new, £595 on the road!! and i loved it, i literally went everywhere on it, i was very much into rallies abroad, and would pop across every other weekend, that old girl never ever let me down, just short of a 100k i traded her in for a 750F1, which lasted about six months, i hated the thing!! handled like an oil tanker, certainly did not stop in the wet, hopeless whatever i tried to cure it!
So it was back to another 500/4 a black one this time, my previous old girl being Garnet brown, now that bike was a strange beast, every now and again for no reason i would get the feeling of it fish tailing, a very strange ride, checked everything, changed tyres and shocks, still did it!! so it had to go!!
Step forward 45 years or so and well i,m not ast fit as i once was, a busted spine, and now blood cancer, so i,m pretty much useless, i live alone, the wife went when i got injured so i needed something to do!!
Enter CB500 number three!! sadly i will never be fit or strong enough to ride it, but it can still give me great pleasure, she lives in my spare bedroom, and been restored sometime ago and was now needing some fettling, perfect job for me!
But its a strange beast this one, i saw on the forum some posts about upgrading the braking, well my has a twin disc set up, and looks awesome, the previous owner thought that it needed improving two up, a very good engineer in Wales, its also a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing, as it has a full Yoshimura top end, 550 barrells relined to take the Yoshi 610 conversion, a gas flowed and polished head and a half race cam!! plus an oil cooler i bet it will fly!!
I have all the parts to bring it back to standard should i wish, but hey i,m never going to ride the old girl so she can stay as she is!
I currently have the tank and panels in for paint due to a leaking fuel cap, such a shame as the paint job was very good, and all for a £3 seal its been ruined, oh this one was in Gold, but now going to be Garnet brown for all the memories that first bike brought me!
It,s still work in progress, and much money going down to Mr Silver! he must love old fools like me!
I have no idea how the twin disc conversion was done, but certainly the forks look like they have come from a 500/4, i will try and post some pictures when i work out how to? getting on a bit now and not too sharp on these things! thanks for letting me join, Les Stephenson
So it was back to another 500/4 a black one this time, my previous old girl being Garnet brown, now that bike was a strange beast, every now and again for no reason i would get the feeling of it fish tailing, a very strange ride, checked everything, changed tyres and shocks, still did it!! so it had to go!!
Step forward 45 years or so and well i,m not ast fit as i once was, a busted spine, and now blood cancer, so i,m pretty much useless, i live alone, the wife went when i got injured so i needed something to do!!
Enter CB500 number three!! sadly i will never be fit or strong enough to ride it, but it can still give me great pleasure, she lives in my spare bedroom, and been restored sometime ago and was now needing some fettling, perfect job for me!
But its a strange beast this one, i saw on the forum some posts about upgrading the braking, well my has a twin disc set up, and looks awesome, the previous owner thought that it needed improving two up, a very good engineer in Wales, its also a bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing, as it has a full Yoshimura top end, 550 barrells relined to take the Yoshi 610 conversion, a gas flowed and polished head and a half race cam!! plus an oil cooler i bet it will fly!!
I have all the parts to bring it back to standard should i wish, but hey i,m never going to ride the old girl so she can stay as she is!
I currently have the tank and panels in for paint due to a leaking fuel cap, such a shame as the paint job was very good, and all for a £3 seal its been ruined, oh this one was in Gold, but now going to be Garnet brown for all the memories that first bike brought me!
It,s still work in progress, and much money going down to Mr Silver! he must love old fools like me!
I have no idea how the twin disc conversion was done, but certainly the forks look like they have come from a 500/4, i will try and post some pictures when i work out how to? getting on a bit now and not too sharp on these things! thanks for letting me join, Les Stephenson
