So I’ve been working away on my cb500. I got it back in November and at that point it had been sitting for 22 years. After a bunch of work I got it running, what a great feeling to fire up a bike after it hasn’t seen action for that long! Here is everything I have done to it so far:

• I stripped off the sissy bar, crash bar, fog lights, and chain guard.
• I flushed the fluids and replaced the battery with a new Gel battery.
• I rebuilt the carbs with carb kits. I also had the tip of a jet broken off in the body of the carb. I had to drill / pick it out carefully.
• The tank that came with the bike was completely rusted out. In order to get off the petcock, I had to drill out the bolts holding it on. Needless to say i trashed that tank (to bad, I loved!!!!! the paint job… just kidding!)
• I found a great OEM orange tank off Ebay for $85 including shipping. Its not mint, but pretty awesome. I’m calling my bike The General Lee from now on.
• I rebuilt the petcock with a rebuild kit, also put on new gas lines.
• As you can see from the one photo, all the brake fluid dried up so I had to do a MC rebuilt (once again using a rebuilt kit). I also added a stainless steal front line, man the front brake feels amazing now!
• I decided to try something different on Adam’s suggestion and went for flipped upside down euro bars. Unfortunately I can’t really get them to rotate into the position I want to due to clearance on the triple tree. I’m rocking them for right now, but have a set of clubmans waiting to go on.
• I got a set of cb360 handlebar mounts and used them to replace the “idiot” panel. It really cleans up the front end (thanks to mick for this idea)
• I used some extra mounts Adam had to mount the front turn signals straight to the headlight bracket.
• I also got a $30 seat cover off Ebay and redid the seat. The cover was surprisingly awesome for 30 bucks. I used sand paper to smooth out the foam. Putting on a seat cover seems like it should be a piece of cake, but it takes time. I learned this on my cb360 seat.
• I repainted the side panels, which was a bitch because I had to sand out the stupid pattern that was on there.

So after all of that the bike is looking good and running pretty awesome. The only issue I’m having is a slight amount of smoke out of the #1 pipe. I think it is either a carb sync issue, or the fact that the small drain hold on the pipe seems to be clogged, so maybe its just water vapor burning off. Test riding the bike in really cold weather doesn’t help isolate the smoke. I haven’t done a compression test yet, but I’m pretty positive that’s not the issue.

Things I still have left to do:

• A full tune up
• I got a set of Avon tires that I just need to find time to put on
• My clutch push rod is broken, which is making the clutch feel like shit. Cb500 clutch rods are super hard to find, but from everything I have read, it seems its the same as the cb450 so I gotta pick up one of those on Ebay. I also have to replace the clutch adjust (pictured) as it also cracked.

All in all I’m pretty stoked, the project is coming along and I think I should have everything finished in time for the nice weather. I love the look of the 500/550 stock, so as of right now I don’t plan on doing much to the bike as I already think its rad as shit.

The clutch adjuster that needs to be replaced. I had to tap this out, because it was stuck in the clutch cover.

…and incase you forgot what it looked like when I got it, here is a “before” photo. The black and white doesn’t show off the red and sparkle silver color scheme to well. If you say you like this look better I’ll punch you in the face.

- Andrew

I took off work and spent 4 days in the “Jankyington” garage. We burned enough wood to build a house in Kensington, which is to say, a fair amount of wood. Together with the Yerkes brothers, a lifetime supply of Sly Fox and a killer high from aircraft stripper, we had a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend no one would ever forget.

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My cb360 has been a blast, but since i’ve been doing more highway then I ever thought I would, I decided I should get a bigger bike. I settled on getting a cb500 four or cb550 four. I started looking month ago for a project bike but was having no luck but I finally found a pretty good deal.

Below is my new 1973 cb500 four… its been sitting (in garage) since 88′ so its going to need some serious TLC, but overall its in pretty good shape. Everything looks like its there and fixable, except for prehaps the tank. I’m pretty stoked to get working on this… and man look at the awesome paint job it came with!

- Andrew

Mick and I traveled northwest of Philly over the weekend to Reading equipped with our CBs. I’ve talked up the sweepers surrounding Reading numerous times and I’m not lying when I say it has some of best riding roads in the area. The landscape navigates back-country blacktop through a combination of quick elevation changes and blinding turns, following the river system surrounding the Schuylkill.

Certainly the two most technical roads lay within the city limits where few structures dare settle. Mount Penn and the adjacent Neversink Mountain are home to the hill climbs, one of which (Duryea Drive) is famous for it’s race use in the early part of the 20th century. We hit the Neversink climb first, which is full of steep hairpins. At times you almost come to a dead-stop to adjust for the combination of incline and hairpin. It’s even more exhilarating on the way down!

Scaling the other mountain, the hairpins climbing Duryea are much wider and can be taken at speed with a knee to ground and a slide in the back tire. Instead of shooting back down Duryea, we took route atop Mount Penn blasting across Skyline Drive.

We set up camp for the night on the banks of the Schuylkill. The next morning I rode with Mick halfway to Philly before turning back towards Reading, having unfinished business to settle up. I met up with fellow Honda rider and tattoo artist Eddie Focht and we rode out to his shop, Heart & Soul, in East Greenville. Eddie needed the skill of a graphic designer for a new poster design for when he’s at conventions and I needed the skilled hands of a tattoo artist. We made fair trade. I highly suggest looking this guy up for your next ink session.

Eddie’s donning some haggard Chin on the Tank apparel.

I’ll post a picture of the final product once it fully heals.
-Devyn

Ricky and I were in the now lift-equipped shop all day Saturday tweaking the bikes for the Brooklyn ride. The main goal was to get the 350Four dialed in with different jets, requiring the carbs to be torn out a few times. I put some elbow grease into polishing my forks on the 500Four while the front was disassembled to install new fork boots. The bikes were looking clean from the Adidas show and we were geared to go that night. It started to rain around midnight — a prelude for things to come.

We found Scott atop the Guzzi at Lukoil, gassed up and started the section of 95 North when the rain came down…hard. Not long into the rain, my bike began to bog or so I thought. Unable to go over 60mph, I had my hand covering the small portion of exposed air filter to avert the rain from getting sucked into the engine. It wasn’t helping. I quickly realized after getting shocked from the engine, that I was misfiring and only running on 3 cylinders. Finding shelter under a bridge, I pulled the fuel tank to expose spark jumping out of my #2 spark boot. Ricky cut a rubber boot from his wire harness, wrapped my spark boot and we headed into New Jersey.

The rain continued to pummel us as we traveled through Staten Island and over the dreaded Verrazano Bridge. Walls of wind made stability harder to maintain as we ascended the bridge. Then came the pair of metal expansion joints that were 15 feet if not a mile long. Ricky watched from behind as my rear-end skid out sideways across the joints at 50mph. We held on for our lives.

After fightin’ with the Brooklyn Expressway we arrived outside the Works Engineering motorcycle shop around 11am and were welcomed with free Japanese beer and a fat pig roast. The show was a blast besides the intermittent rain showers. Girls riding in 2-up, live bands, the NYC Japanese crew, a guy in sandals trying hopelessly to spin out his BSA in the downpour, diggin’ into pig-meat on the backs of the bikes, short-shorts and wet see-through tank tops. Tex from Rev’It was kind enough to throw our gear in his van and gave us the low down on his vintage Honda Racer. We also explored the Works Engineering shop which seemed like a never-ending cavern of motorcycles and parts.

Ricky found freedom in an American flag bandanna hanging from a pipe — it now adds speed, tied to his rear fender. Scott talked with familiar faces and always gave us the down low on the rare bikes. I was enthralled with the girls in the wet t-shirts so much, that I forgot to point and shoot ‘em. It was a lot to chew off in one day, but I left wanting more.

We packed up, waved bye and set out into another rainstorm giving us wet gear to ride home in (See our article on rain suits which I obviously didn’t read). As we crossed into PA, the rain died and for the first time on our trip we decided to rip it, balls-out on 95.

For those who rode up, thanks.
—Devyn