CB500 Mild Build

surffly

Over 1,000 Posts
Plan to have a nice simple rider.
Not going to be 100% stock, but no pipeburn BS build either.

Looking into a few subtle improvements that can be made to the bike to make it more usable on the roads of today.

Always a good thing to start with a clean bike.
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Was stored in the PO's house!

Pipes are freaking MINT!
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First order of business is to make it run.
Pulled the carbs. While clean, the O-Rings and seals need to be replaced because they are dry/hard.
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I have some OEM kits from Honda to sort them out.
Rubbers will also be replaced.

Oil is clean, compression is good.

Bought a new battery, and now have a nice fat spark.
Hope to reinstall the carbs tomorrow run/tune the bike.

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Looks pretty wicked, If you end up going a different direction for exhaust hit me up. I've been after a good set for a while

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mrmoto1998 said:
Looks pretty wicked, If you end up going a different direction for exhaust hit me up. I've been after a good set for a while

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Right now I have no plans to swap out the exhaust.
 
surffly said:
Right now I have no plans to swap out the exhaust.
I assumed so, the 4into4s are heavy but they really complete these bikes.
Also the best mod you can do on these is install tapered steering bearings, it makes the bike feel so much more planted.
Good luck with your build

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Yeah I have a set of "all balls" ready to install when I rebuild the front end.
Might go to a dual disc too because I have all of the parts.

The pipes are on the heavy side, but there really is not a whole lot of power to be gained by swapping.
The bottleneck on these SOHC Honda is the flow via the head.

I have an NOS 4-1 MAC that I need to list.....lol
 
First order of business is to take off those ugly and heavy stock pipes!
I figure I will cut the muffler ends off, clamp some emgo bullets on it and either wrap or paint them flat black.
The added performance will be welcome and also the louder pipes will make the bike safer....
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NOT

I took them off to give the pipes a good cleaning.
Also they were not fully installed, they were more "mocked up"
Note the tape...
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NOS parts everywhere!
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It is the tiny little details that people forget about. These things are cheap, and simple to do, but make a world of difference.
Changed out the rubbers for the side covers. The covers now go on and off MUCH better.
Issue is that these little jobs can nickel and dime you though.
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Found out that the pipes were actually NEW!
How cool is that?
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Anyone need some CB500/550 Carbs?
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Cleaned up the best set I had and installed them on the bike.
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Plan to take them back off to replace the manifold rubbers and polish the bowls at some point.
I put fresh gas in the tank and literally on the first bump of the starter the bike fired to life!

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I couldnt NOT paint a set of side covers flat black...lol
Do not have a really nice set, so will be on the hunt for some.
 
Still on the fence about the direction to take here.

Have these.
I assume they will need a rebuild.
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The last owner completed a dual disc conversion to a set of forks that came with the bike.
Thinking it might be a worth while upgrade.
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Emgo CB400F bars, fork gators and a pair of stainless caliper pistons showed up yesterday.
Looking more and more like a mild custom is going to happen.
 
That is one heckuva starting point you have there. Such a clean bike from the get-go. Am following to see how it plays out.

For those shocks, if the chrome is rusting on the spring retainers, you can blast them with mild coal slag to remove the rust and uniformly dull the chrome for a kinda satin silver. Looks real good with epoxy coated springs and body.
 
The chrome ones are factory, the black ones are a rebuildable and semi performance shock.
 
Not a whole lot has been going on with the CB500.
Spent one week in Chicago at a trade show, then lost a few days doing some wedding planing.

Have been using my "shop truck" a fair bit though.
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Moved that H2 project I had around.
Loaded the CL450 and moved that from storage.
Next is to haul the Norton to the new owner and haul back another cool bike!
So stuff is actually happening, just not much CB500 stuff.

Ordered some engine cover gaskets.
Plan to pull the covers for either vapor blasting or hand polishing.
Hope to swap the dual disc front end onto the bike this weekend as well as change the bars.

Still unsure if I will change the seat or not.
Kinda on the fence on the direction.
Also feeling I like the CL450 ALOT more, so the CB500 might not stay long......
 
Scored some Koni fully adjustable alloy bodied shocks cheap via eBay!

Still struggling to get into this bike, but maybe some cool parts will change that.
 
This is what I need, just a simple clean 500.
Looking forward to progress
 
SONIC. said:
This is what I need, just a simple clean 500.
Looking forward to progress
Make you a nice deal on it if you want!
Kinda thinking that if this weekend is nice out I will take the bike for a nice ride to a sunny spot for some eBay listing pictures....
 
The shocks I bought.
Have had great luck with these in the past.
Rebuildable, so that is nice. Anyone have any links to a DIY to rebuild them? I never have done that job, and think it might be fun to learn.

The alloy bodies really polish up nice, and the "dial-a-ride" is a nice option.

Figure these are better then the mullholland ones I had for for the bike.
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