New bike, old bike

[uncalcetindelana]

A young man leaves New York to travel to the north, and then make his way south until he ends up in Ushuaia, Argentinian Patagonia. I don't know the particulars of the trip, but you can check out his website and/or ask him there: Boyman in the Promised Lan | A shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man…who does not exist

The thing is, this brave man chooses his 1975 CB500T to do the feat. I'd call him crazy, but he seemed to me like someone with a level head, so I'll say brave.

One and a half years on the road, and he arrives here in Punta Arenas willing to sell his bike. My father, having owned a CB200T with fond memories of that bike, jumped on the deal. So, long story short, we have this in the garage now:


That's me standing behind it, after I took off the big metal rack that supported the traveler's bags and box. You can also see on this picture some of the decals of places he visited; sadly, we took them all off and tore them in the process. Weak paper and incredibly strong glue are a bad combination.

Some drops of oil are present in the picture too. This bike has a small but constant leak that seems to be coming from the sprocket area.

It's missing the glass of the right mirror. The front brake is almost inexistant (although reviews from the time mention how bad it always was...), it wants to run on one cylinder at times, the clocks are not working -but it seems it's jsut due to bad cables-, etc.

But the bike is in amazing shape for its age/kind of miles it has gone through.


It's a beauty, and it has great potential.



We are already taking things apart, and I have some pictures of the cleaning process, to better determine if there are any other leaks, or it's just a matter of road grime mixed with whatever else.

Before:


After (some metal comb, degreaser and towels):


Looking better already!

I wanted to make it into a moderately simple cafe racer. Just take things off, put lower bars and improve the front braking.

But then my father rode it around the block...



I think you can see even in this crappy picture, his big happy grin. He was instantly in love. It reminds him of his old CB200T, and he just loves everything about the bike as is, so I'll go along with his plan, and we are set to bring it back to "new"

After thinking about it, I agree with him. It's so refreshing to ride something that's not demanding anything of you. It's such a relaxed, nice bike. It makes you want to go out in jeans and cruise around town, instead of trying to improve its "performance" and turn it into something it's not.

So I'll try to keep you posted on improvements. I hope you like it.

Last picture, myself starting it and looking silly.

[Sequentialshift]

The oil seal behind the front sprocket was a common fail on hondas of that vintage . My cb400 had the same weep .It never lost very much and would hardly need a top up between services if filled to the upper mark ,sooo I just left it and called it an automatic chain lubrication system )))

[boner]

Originally Posted by Sequentialshift

The oil seal behind the front sprocket was a common fail on hondas of that vintage . My cb400 had the same weep .It never lost very much and would hardly need a top up between services if filled to the upper mark ,sooo I just left it and called it an automatic chain lubrication system )))

i thought my '81 cb400 was leaking from that seal too, but it turns out it was leaking through the shifter input seal. 8 bucks and 20 minutes to fix.

[uncalcetindelana]

Thank you both for the tip. If what we saw is not deceiving us, it is leaking from both seals haha

But as you say Sequentialshift, it shouldn't need additional oil too soon, and the chain is properly lubricated at all times

[Sequentialshift]

Originally Posted by boner

i thought my '81 cb400 was leaking from that seal too, but it turns out it was leaking through the shifter input seal. 8 bucks and 20 minutes to fix.

My XS650 leaked from the shifter seal , positioning of that also made it an auto chain lube system .. so was left to weep also . I suppose experience with total loss oil systems makes me less worried about an oil leak than most

[uncalcetindelana]

Well, it seems the leak was even smaller than we thought. After cleaning everything up a little more, it didn't leak one drop yesterday. It did come with a hefty amount of dirt+road grime+oil stuck to its bottom, so that can explain some of the past dripping.

We made great progress yesterday

Dismantled and put the master cylinder back together. Bled the line again...and the brake still sucks tremendously. My father ordered a rebuild kit so we'll try it again properly when that arrives, but my hopes are not too high.

We cleaned the bottom of the carbs, synced them and adjusted the trim. Also changed the plugs. Now it seems to like riding on both cylinders, and the power is actually pretty nice. Power might be too strong of a word, but the bike moves nicely, and it handles quite well

It's a really comfortable bike, and once that was improved I could start to understand how someone can make a long trip on this bike, actually. Well, not 1.5 years long...but still

We then rode it some more:

[2fat2fly]

Originally Posted by uncalcetindelana

Well, it seems the leak was even smaller than we thought. After cleaning everything up a little more, it didn't leak one drop yesterday. It did come with a hefty amount of dirt+road grime+oil stuck to its bottom, so that can explain some of the past dripping.

We made great progress yesterday

Dismantled and put the master cylinder back together. Bled the line again...and the brake still sucks tremendously. My father ordered a rebuild kit so we'll try it again properly when that arrives, but my hopes are not too high.

We cleaned the bottom of the carbs, synced them and adjusted the trim. Also changed the plugs. Now it seems to like riding on both cylinders, and the power is actually pretty nice. Power might be too strong of a word, but the bike moves nicely, and it handles quite well

It's a really comfortable bike, and once that was improved I could start to understand how someone can make a long trip on this bike, actually. Well, not 1.5 years long...but still

We then rode it some more:

Cool stories. Yours and the previous owner's.