CB500F fairy came last night!

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My bike has been in a shop for 8 months. So my brothers gf dropped her Honda off last night for me to ride for a couple days. First ride since November 29th on a bike I've never ridden annnnd I did fine - not perfect, but fine. Did some beginner level motojitsu courses with my other brother and one of his bosses and then went for a bit of a ride out passed some farms. Quite a nice day in the sunshine & more riding with that bro on his Harley and my dad on his Spyder tmw!

And then maybe someday this summer my bike will come home and I can get my collector plates and stud cheap insurance. All in due time I suppose. Then my other bro can come out on his Ducati and my ~bro-in-law on his BMW. A few more family and friends are getting on two wheels in the next year to be able to join us, too. And my older bros work has a bit of an informal riding club of about 10 guys.

Blah blah, was good to get out! I want mine back tho. Whatever, if it's not back soon I think I'm gonna have to get my gear ready and go kiteboarding on the ocean again. Too much no adrenaline rush fun time for me lately; it's time to have summertime fun again!

Tough crowd.

*shrug* No Honda fans, I guess. Not my bike & mine isn't a Honda or even the same style of bike. But whatever, I'm gonna go ride it again today with my older bro and my dad.

Talked to my old neighbour yesterday. He used to woods race dirt bikes for Yamaha. He just bought another brand new bike. I rode his wife's small Honda ~14 years ago. He said he needs to get me out on a dirt bike again! He sold his street bike, though.. decided he's too aggressive after a ride down from Whistler where he hit 292kmh on a winding mountain highway... I think he'll be saving those speeds for in his airplane only now lol - if that little 2 seater float plane can even go that fast.

Thought I was pushing it asking if I could keep it another day to be able to go on a highway ride with my dad tmw.. and they said bring it back some time between Aug 4th-7th with a full tank of gas! Sweet!

Annnd reconnecting with some of the kite fam on Facebook - since I reinsured my car I'm gonna go kiteboarding a few times before the official season ends Sept 15th. Wooo!

Hmm, maybe I should also go back to work lol hmm.. only because I really should save employment insurance benefits for a winter second wave. I suppose if I do go back to work I can still ride in the evenings and kite on weekends.

I really should find out if there's a eta on my bike coming home, too.. 8 months in a shop waiting for parts one more month and it better come home with a baby mini-bike.

I hope you get that bike that’s in the shop soon.

Why the delay?

Waiting or searching for parts can take a very, very long time and sometimes you are left with the only option; to get them made. The gearbox layshaft was too damaged to re-use on one of mine and because this particular gearbox was the optional medium close ratio made only for a couple of years the chances of finding one was zero.

£600 to have one made! When being assembled it was found that the casing was also beyond repair but the chap doing the work had the very last NOS case on the shelf.

About four years later I see a distinctive shaft sticking out a box at a motorcycle show....the right one and snapped up for £15 because the seller had no idea what it was. Only a couple of years ago I found an almost complete gearbox/undertray/clutch and outrigger drive in astonishingly good internal condition for way less than the layshaft cost to make.

Perhaps this won't help but I spent nine years searching for the right rear mudguard for one of the other bikes; a one year only part!

Fun....

Was out for the day but got in, had dinner, and took the CB500F out for a loop around some highways for the last 45 mins before sunset. (I don't have a full licence yet so can't have a passenger or ride after dark.)

Waiting for parts.

They must be mining the ore on the moon, picking it up in the middle of the ocean, and transporting it via canoe to wherever they're making them before sending them to the shop on a wagon with square wheels pulled by a team of snails.

Ya know, it is Possible that they do have to make a part or two.

Cliffs: Last June a car ran a stop sign and I swerved to avoid a collision but went down on the right side of the bike I'd had for 6 whole days and scraped it up. Still rode over 3,200km the rest of the summer on it. Car driver refused to communicate with insurance co, eventually deemed 100% his fault. They told me to take my bike in for in person inspection. Insurance co never sent anyone to look at it for more than 100 days. Shop emailed me, I emailed insurance and politely got mad, then they authorized repair with all brand new parts - which will probably cost them what the bike is worth lol so yeah Maybe there are some parts that have to be made in Germany?? Dunno.

I'm also getting a bigger period correct windshield and new tires and a switch installed that was missing a part - and then once I have it back, in goes the application for collector plates which will drop my insurance from $1100ish (with my approx max 45%ish discount - my car costs $2100 after discount.) to ~$250/yr.

It also cost them $$$ for physio, massage, chiropractor, acupuncture, prolotherapy 14x, and I might go to a kinesiologist for should strengthening exercises still.

Annnnd 3 weeks after that fun mishap someone rear ended me in my car - just hard enough to cause a bit of whiplash. So, then they're going to cut me a cheque for injuries etc. I've been too lazy during this covid time warp to email them receipts for related expenses etc and settle things up yet. Meh, whatever. Lol they probably think it's weird I haven't told them to write me a couple cheques yet but I've been distracted by other thoughts.

Been gettting back into motion and being more active the last couple weeks vs sitting around being lazy eating and drinking too well and getting soft and weak - only physically good thing about covid laziness is that the rest has been fantastic for healing my shoulder. Time to get back into shape, maybe back to my day job, do some side jobs for cash, square up with insurance, go kiteboarding, ride motorcycles etc. Then maybe sit on my ass during peak cold and flu season if covid gets bad with a second wave.

Waaaasted lots of time glued to the internet and news etc the last half year, time to move past all that and get things done & have some fun. And mmmmmaybe that'll include riding my own motorcycle again.. and once I have supe cheap insurance I'll have it insured year round and might even take it out I'm the fall/winters long with whichever friends and family do the same with theirs.

I need a project car other daily so I can make my Volvo faster.

Faster by doing what?

My best friend since high school is a world famous ecu tuner - dunno about Volvos though, almost all of his work is VW diesels. But he has tuning partners in Europe that code his company's gas engine tunes.

Volvos are said to be easily tuned as their engines are set up (Speaking especially of the older 4 cylinder redblock engines) de-tuned to make them last years. I often heard of volvos using their origional engine blocks which were churning out around 100 to 150 bhp ending up with 400 to 450bhp.
The old Volvos were capeable of very high milages. It would take them 75,000 miles to run them in. It is why I used to buy them with 100 to 120k on the clock as they would run better.
The modern 5 cylinder engines are strong but they seem to lack the free revving abilities which were the real quality of those old 4 cylinder engines... Along with the engine braking force. Drop a gear or two and let out rhe clutch too quickly and one can lock those rear wheels! Who needs brakes with an engine like that! Actually saved me from having an accident once. I had visited Harlech Castle (In Wales. Look on youtube for the road I am describing as I had found it on youtube in rhe past), and took the short twisty road down the hill to link up with the main road at the bottom. This road is narrow with a few switchback curves and it is one of britains steepest being a 1 in 3 gradient. Well, when I reached the first corner in second gear I realized I had a problem. My brake pedal went flat to the floor and nothing. I managed to get the car into first gear before it picked up speed. I somehow managed to drive down the hill using the handbrake now and then which did not seem to do as much as it used to. Turns out one of the rear brake cylinders had gone and so the brake fluid was on the rear brake shoes which the handbrake also used. I came close to hitting a car coming up the hill on one corner.
I drove the car back to Porthmadog which was about 15 miles with no brakes using the strong engine braking it had. I was fortunate. The next day I had to get home with a sizeable caravan behind, which was about 130 miles? This was 5pm or later on a saturday. I found a garage and they said to be quick and buy a new cylinder from next door. Next door stayed open to sell it to me (B&S Spares), and three mechanics worked on my car. Around 15 minutes later (I think it was much less then that. It seemed more like 5 minutes to me) there was my car fixed in record time, and it cost me just £35 all in.
To this day I can hardly believe the excellent service that those guys gave me. It has to be one for the record books! Those guys in Porthmadog are amazing! I wonder if they are still there?

Motorcycles. My Dad and brother loved their motorcycles. My Dad had a BSA and a James. My brother has had quite a few motorbikes. My Dads father had a Panther motorbike and sidecar which had pnematic forks which were a bit of a pain, as he had to pump them up every morning before he rode the thing! It is funny how so called modern technology actually is not modern at all. Same as with bicycles. Stuff gets re-invented and the same issues they had years ago get repeated....

Still have a 31 year old 740 with 220k on it and despite the mileage the emissions are better than similar modern cars despite it not having a cat fitted, just pattern exhaust parts!



Those would be Dowty forks and Panther are a little notorious because of their choice of engines. I think it was the M120 that had a 650cc single cylinder engine. The joke was they would fire at every lamp post as you rode along!

Didn't waste the last hour of sunlight yesterday: 3 cities, 3 bridges, nice ride.

Sounds fun, even if I prefer Hondas with four wheels.

I've given some thought to a BEW '06 Jetta TDI, but I have a fun 5 cylinder V50 turbo that's a lot like those MKV Jettas too, with AWD like an R32 or TT. As long as I'm on a tight budget nothing's happening but I've been convinced to either manually boost control the car up a few PSI or do an engine out rebuild - airbox, intake, silicon hoses, later turbo, custom tune & exhaust. Even stock it's a fairly rowdy little car but I've decided it could be moreso.

Anyway I too am a fan of the four wheeled Hondas, though I'd love to get my hands on a Transalp. My friend has some ruckuses, another friend's mom has a sidecar Goldwing. My roommate's civic is good fun & it's getting a 16V swap. I'm giving some thought to getting a final gen civic coupe with the 6 speed & sensor suite. The Civic type R is astounding.

Last edited by cberg on 02 Aug 2020, 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The very last Civic coupes were built on July 27th, they'll be shipped out by the end of this week.