CB500.. Commuter, Scratcher, Racer... Tourer?!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:07 pm
One of the most insignificant Honda models, The CB500 was quickly taken on by commuters as a cheap purposeful method of transportation, it was also keenly eyed by the Despatch rider fraternity, London quickly becoming the epicentre of the Dr's change over to the CB500, closely followed by other Cities where oft as not the CB500 could be seen vieing for space at the lights alongside it's stablemate the CX500, the ageing choice of the Despatch Rider.
Before long the purpose of the machine took yet another turn, not only were Commuters, Learners, Despatch riders and the like using, swearing by and swearing at them, it was the turn of the Racers to pick up the CB500 torch and run with it.
The CB500 Cup came about on the UK club scene, a budget series using budget bikes, proving itself an immensely popular and at the same time a serious stepping stone for the up and coming racer, such racing heroes as James Toseland, James Ellison and Sebastien Charpentier have all ridden the budget CB500 on track and with success. With the CB500 cup came performance parts and plenty of tricks of the trade for tuning the CB500, as such it's not uncommon to see a CB500 being used in the manner of a sportsbike on the road, Aftermarket Exhaust cans, Carb rejetting and uprated suspension parts turning the CB500 from hack to a slightly more powerful scratcher. At the same time still being punted by Honda as a small tourer too! Proof? Check the accessories available...! http://www.doble.co.uk/content/pdfs/Acc ... /cb500.pdf
The death of the CB500 came about in 2003 when Emission regs saw Honda moving on and replacing the CB with the CBF which they then dropped later, continuing with a Detuned CBR600 engined CBF600.
A scanned manual can be found here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/l/llamahell/ ... pages.html
Before long the purpose of the machine took yet another turn, not only were Commuters, Learners, Despatch riders and the like using, swearing by and swearing at them, it was the turn of the Racers to pick up the CB500 torch and run with it.
The CB500 Cup came about on the UK club scene, a budget series using budget bikes, proving itself an immensely popular and at the same time a serious stepping stone for the up and coming racer, such racing heroes as James Toseland, James Ellison and Sebastien Charpentier have all ridden the budget CB500 on track and with success. With the CB500 cup came performance parts and plenty of tricks of the trade for tuning the CB500, as such it's not uncommon to see a CB500 being used in the manner of a sportsbike on the road, Aftermarket Exhaust cans, Carb rejetting and uprated suspension parts turning the CB500 from hack to a slightly more powerful scratcher. At the same time still being punted by Honda as a small tourer too! Proof? Check the accessories available...! http://www.doble.co.uk/content/pdfs/Acc ... /cb500.pdf
The death of the CB500 came about in 2003 when Emission regs saw Honda moving on and replacing the CB with the CBF which they then dropped later, continuing with a Detuned CBR600 engined CBF600.
A scanned manual can be found here: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/l/llamahell/ ... pages.html
