andrew6v
Active Member
Hi,
I recently bought a 1983 Honda Ascot Vt500, and kind of got the cafe racer bug after checking out some the excellent rides you guys have. I also have a vt500 shadow as my first bike, but the guy who sold it to me lied through his teeth, and It's been nothing but difficult.
It never ran properly and stalled often so we ended up replacing basically the entire ignition system, rebuilding the carbs, noticed one of the cylinders had low compression, put in new rings and gaskets, it ran the best it ever did for one ride, then the transmission blew. So now I have this ascot, that is mechanically identical, so I can swap parts more or less interchangeably.
The thing cost $600 bucks, runs really well, (100 times better then the shadow), and sounds great, but it looks ugly as hell. Its been dropped/beat up cause some guy bought it, didn't actually know how to drive it and put it into a ditch instantly, and the tank/body panels are in bad shape. The engine is great though, odometer reads 30k km and I'm inclined to believe it.
I don't have any pictures yet until I get access to a digital camera, but I attached a pic of an ascot, just imagine, dirtier, ugly yellow orangepeel/blister/I swear it must be house paint, and faded. It will probably be slow, and on a very tight budget, because I'm in full-time university, even right now (mid summer).
I've just been swapping parts from the shadow which is in great shape(visually) and I think the gas tanks are interchangeable and I plan on replacing the rectangle headlight with the one off the shadow.
I'm obviously not as experienced as you guys who are very gifted, but my dad is basically a mechanic so nothing is out of the question, and he can help. If you guys can think of things that can be done on the very cheap, to enhance the look that would be great. I do need to keep it two seater though, cause half the reason to have a motorcycle in university is to drive young ladies about haha.
But yeah, any ideas where I can get a set of cheap clubman handlebars? (I'm on the east coast of Canada).
I recently bought a 1983 Honda Ascot Vt500, and kind of got the cafe racer bug after checking out some the excellent rides you guys have. I also have a vt500 shadow as my first bike, but the guy who sold it to me lied through his teeth, and It's been nothing but difficult.
It never ran properly and stalled often so we ended up replacing basically the entire ignition system, rebuilding the carbs, noticed one of the cylinders had low compression, put in new rings and gaskets, it ran the best it ever did for one ride, then the transmission blew. So now I have this ascot, that is mechanically identical, so I can swap parts more or less interchangeably.
The thing cost $600 bucks, runs really well, (100 times better then the shadow), and sounds great, but it looks ugly as hell. Its been dropped/beat up cause some guy bought it, didn't actually know how to drive it and put it into a ditch instantly, and the tank/body panels are in bad shape. The engine is great though, odometer reads 30k km and I'm inclined to believe it.
I don't have any pictures yet until I get access to a digital camera, but I attached a pic of an ascot, just imagine, dirtier, ugly yellow orangepeel/blister/I swear it must be house paint, and faded. It will probably be slow, and on a very tight budget, because I'm in full-time university, even right now (mid summer).
I've just been swapping parts from the shadow which is in great shape(visually) and I think the gas tanks are interchangeable and I plan on replacing the rectangle headlight with the one off the shadow.
I'm obviously not as experienced as you guys who are very gifted, but my dad is basically a mechanic so nothing is out of the question, and he can help. If you guys can think of things that can be done on the very cheap, to enhance the look that would be great. I do need to keep it two seater though, cause half the reason to have a motorcycle in university is to drive young ladies about haha.
But yeah, any ideas where I can get a set of cheap clubman handlebars? (I'm on the east coast of Canada).