CB500 Buyers’ Guide

From Bike magazine, June 2004 © Emap 2004

Cheap to buy, cheap to run, tough and handles everything from commuting to backroad blasting

+ Top speed 110mph + Insurance group NU9 + Engine 499cc, 8v, DOHC, parallel twin + Dry weight 170kg + Typical mpg 49

What it is

The perfect Direct Access or post-125cc bike. Light yet roomy, docile yet capable of 110mph. Engineering wise, it’s nothing special really. A dohc water-cooled eight-valve engine in a low-tech chassis. But that engine revs like hell, the bike goes like stink and the chassis is remarkably good. There is even a special race series for the CB500. Though it looks dowdy beside the (even older) Kawasaki GPZ500S, it’s the Honda that’s the more modern bike. Oh… and it’s made in Italy.

It’s obviously built down to a price, but they haven’t skimped on the frame nor the engine. The naked CB500 looks odd – the chin cowl round the top end of the engine suggests it was to have a cockpit fairing, but cost considerations stopped it. In 1998 it grew a small fairing, so maybe that’s the truth.

Who buys them? ‘People who’ve recently passed their tests. Quite a lot of different people’, says Darren McCann of Wandsworth Honda. ‘People who’ve just done their Direct Access training’, says Paul Styles of Dobles Motorcycles. ‘They’ve learnt on one, and they like it.’

London’s despatchers buy them in their hundreds. Then bolt on home-made leg shields, hand protectors made from old one-litre milk packs and cracked screens from dealers’ bins.

Riding

Clocks Nothing more than the bare essentials: your speed: yours revs and a few lights. They offer nothing in the way of wind protection.

It makes an odd sound, like almost all 180º parallel twins, like a V-twin or maybe a four-cylinder bike that’s only firing on three. At first it’s exactly what you expect it to be: light, nippy, slightly bland like so many Hondas. Curiously, it doesn’t feel as free-revving as the Kawasaki GPZ. Still, there’s plenty of torque from 4000-7000 rpm.

It’s when you start to rev it out that you find the CB500’s fun zone. Above 9000rpm it really flies. ‘Light, eminently flickable, and fun,’ reckoned Bike’s Phil West back in 1994. You don’t expect something as staid as this to go the way it does. It’s like being blown away by a Renault Megane. It wails nicely at high revs, too.

The first four gears are quite close together and around town you’re forever swapping between third and fourth. The clutch doesn’t help – it’s grabby and slightly heavy. You can tell this thing was made in Italy.

If the CB500 has a problem, it’s that it’s a bit overgeared in top (sixth). This makes for relaxed cruising, but you really notice it with a passenger. You’ll spend a lot more time riding in fifth or even fourth.

Handling? Excellent. The geometry and weight distribution are spot on and while the suspension is basic, it does the job. The unadjustable forks and cheapish rear shocks soon lose their damping quality, mind. A low-mileage one handles noticeably better than one that’d one 30,000 miles and is still on the original suspension.

The single front disc had a Nissin tandem-piston calliper on early models. This was soon changed to a Brembo. Both calliper types are excellent. At the same time the rear drum was changed for a disc. The CB500 was never needed twin discs and nobody complains about it being under-braked.

In 1997 we took the CB500 on a mini-tour of France. The feeling on twisty back roads was that the Honda might even keep up with a sports 600. That’s praise indeed.

Running costs

Exhaust Finish on the CB500's exhaust pipes is poor and they're prone to rust. Aftermarket systems tend to be more durable.

Not quite peanuts, but certainly hazelnuts. It’s in a low insurance bracket (same for faired and unfaired), returns miserly fuel consumption and falls into the new under-500cc road tax bracket. Valve shim checks are 16,000 miles apart and the rest of the servicing is about as basic as it gets. It’ll certainly be cheaper to run that a basic 600 four such as a Suzuki Bandit or Yamaha Diversion and it’ll probably be cheaper to run than the new CBF500 which replaces it.

Reliability

Extraordinarily good. The engine just doesn’t give up. Despatch riders and other high-milers run these things up to 60,000, 70,000 and even 80,000 miles before they need attention. But check the wiring loom connections – they can corrode, causing sudden failures.

Starter motor relays are know to corrode. Also, the front sprocket seems to wear quickly.

‘We sell consumables – but that’s it,’ says John Froude of Hartgate in Mitcham. ‘It’s a solid, reliable bike. You’d be hard pushed to slag it off.’

If you buy one without an owner’s manual, you can find a scan of one at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/l/llamahell/CB500_Owner’s_Manual.html but remember Honda owns the copyright.

Improve it

Curiously, there’s not much in the way of tuning and other stuff for the CB500. It’s a bike people don’t personalise, not the way they do Bandits.

Aftermarket exhausts are popular because the original one falls apart – Remus systems get a nod here. In fact, just about any exhaust lasts longer than the original. Motad do stainless sell downpipes for about £100 the pair.

The front forks aren’t adjustable, but new oil and a pair of Hagon uprated springs (45) work wonders and there are plenty of replacements for the slightly soft OE rear shocks. Try Konis, especially if you take a pillion frequently.

Check this

The really crap bit is the two-into-one exhaust on early models – it just seems to have been given a blow-over with a can of Halfords Exhaust Black and it corrodes before your very eyes. Examine the radiator closely too – the front mudguard doesn’t keep all the debris off it and a new one costs more than £300.

Have a look at the log book for the owner’s and previous owners’ names. A lot of riding schools use CB500s and you really, really don’t want something that’s suffered a million agonising clutch-slip starts and been dropped 2000 times.

‘The mileage will probably tell you a great deal about how it’s been used,’ advises Wandsworth Honda.

Finally, make certain it’s not a restricted 33bhp model. Rubber bungs between the carbs and inlet manifolds are the restricting agents and the bike may need upjetting after removal.

Engine The parallel twin needs reving to get the most from it, but fortunately nothing seems to go wrong with these motors

The competition

Kawasaki’s GPZ500S looks nicer and performs about the same but it feels older, which it is. The ER-5 is a detuned 500S and can’t match the Honda for speed or handling. Just as easy to live with, though. And certainly cheaper. Suzuki’s GS500 belongs on the Antiques Roadshow: the engine dates back to the GS400 of 1977. These days it’s slow and soggy, and the finish is the worst of the lot. Available very cheap, though. Consider an early Suzuki Bandit 600 – more of a ‘real bike’ feel, though it still won’t out-handle the Honda.

Five things you should know about the CB500

1. It’s named after one of the worst bikes Honda ever made – the CB500 twin of the mid-1970s was utterly appalling.
2. You’ll find the airbox underneath the carbs. Honestly.
3. The fuel tap turns the wrong way to the rest of the world. You’ll find this out the first time you try and turn to reserve and realise you’ve run out of petrol.
4. The Cup model came with uprated shocks, but even these will be shagged out by now. Otherwise the two versions are identical except for the paint scheme.
5. The yellow ones are the most difficult to sell.

 

 

Clockwise from top left Always check the VIN plate against the V5 document when buying any used bike; Slightly soft twin shocks lose damping, so replacements are a common mod; Scraped pegs could be crash damage or evidence of a bike that's been raced; Good pillion seat with rear-mounted grab rail; Not much protection so many owners opt for an aftermarket screen. The S-model is half-faired