Let Us Give Thanks for Vintage Hondas

What a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Today Juli and I decided to go on a short hike up Blue Job Mountain, not far from us in NH.  It's a little mountain, and the trail isn't long, but its unique position means great views in all directions.  You can see into the White Mountains, East to Maine, bits of the seacoast, and West toward Vermont.
Anyway, despite today's late November date, the weather was nice, mid 40s and sunny.  So we took the Honda!  The picture above is Juli and the Honda at the trail head.  We wore many layers!  On the way there, a couple of the roads we wanted to take turned out to be dead-ends.  The Honda has seen some mild off road duty, and handles it well, but I didn't think we'd make these ones, especially with two on the bike.
What a great ride, though!  We found some great roads we've never been on.  It's interesting to ride when all the leaves are gone because you see things you wouldn't notice in the summer.  For example, the view of Bow Lake from Province Road was beautiful!  Somewhere in Strafford we were behind an old, gray Jeep CJ7.  The sounds and smells from that jeep filled me with great memories.  We always had cj's growing up, and sound of the 258ci straight six engine of the AMC era jeeps is one of the more enduring memories I have kept from childhood.
It was a great day, and probably our last ride of the season.  When we got home I added Stabil to the gas tank and parked the bike in the tent behind the garage.  Sad, but the reality is that we may not see many more days above 40 degrees, and that's cold enough for me.  From now until Spring the focus will be the repairs and maintenance items listed in the older post.

On another note, we made some great discoveries in the luggage realm.  First off, on our way back from Thanksgiving dinner Juli and I stopped at a bike dealer in Maine.  I have been wanting to see the new Moto Guzzi V7 in person since it came out, so we made a special stop.  That bike, by the way, is absolutely beautiful.  The perfect size, stance, style.  I was thoroughly impressed!  Anyway, at the dealer we saw a nice little top trunk from EMGO that looks to be the perfect size for our rear rack.


Best of all it's relatively cheap!  I looked at some nice cases from name brands and they're great, but many of them cost over $200!  It was great to see this trunk in person and witness just how sturdy it was.

Speaking of cheap, we had a new idea for side cases as well, and it came from the redneck world of Cabelas!  Don't get me wrong, I like Cabelas; in fact our tent came from them and it is excellent!

There is lots of talk on the adventure rider's forum about using ammo cans for side cases.  It's cheap and easy, but those things are very heavy, and our little bike can't carry a ton of extra weight.  And as much as I like the Pelican style boxes I mentioned before, they are pretty heavy too.  That's why I like these plastic boxes from Cabela's:

They're called Magnum Field Boxes, made by a company called Plano.  They appear to be rather tough, light, and are bigger than the Pelican's I was looking at.  They're also top-loading, which could be handy.  These are also cheap, around $25!!  Next time we're in Maine, we'll stop at the Cabela's store and see them in person.  That way we can judge whether they'd be tough enough for what we want to do.

Also, this weekend we looked at some travel books and I found one that I really like from National Geographic.  It's their guide to scenic highways and biways.  As a gauge for the quality of routes described, I looked at the New Hampshire section.  They mentioned Route 302 and the Kancamangus Highway, as they should.  But they also mention Route 153, which snakes up the east side of the state.  My dad discovered this road on his Royal Enfield and raved about it.  It is off the beaten path, but a great ride, so it seems that National Geographic is good at judging great routes!  It will be a great tool for finding those small, twisty, hilly, narrow roads we hope to stick to on our trip.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great.  With all this planning and fun we had this weekend, Juli and I both feel thankful.
Seeya
Jeremy B

Preparation H (for Honda): Getting the bike ready

Earlier I mentioned what repairs, replacements, rebuilds, I have done to the bike to get it ready.  After spending countless hours reading on the SOHC4.net forums, I have a good idea of what goes wrong on these bikes and what items should be looked at before a long trip.  So this is my to-do list for the winter.  Like last winter, these jobs will be spread out over time as I have time and money to complete the projects.
Here's what I'll do:


Front End:
Rebuild front fork with new seals and oil
wheel bearings
   -There is a squeak coming from the front end sometimes that I fear may be dried out bearings.  A seizure would be somewhat catastrophic.
clean and adjust brake caliper, add new brake pads
  -brakes are also squeaky, not sure why but this should fix it.
Stainless steel brake hoses
   -This is one of the best upgrades on these old bikes.  It quickens the response of the front brake and    resists fading as you squeeze the lever.  Those old rubber hoses are probably unsafe anyway, so whey not replace them with the best?
Tapered Roller Steering head bearings
  -Not sure the bike needs this repair right now.  It's more of an upgrade that improves handling.  I will do it if funds allow.

Electrics
Fix electric start
  This may involve replacing the solenoid, or the switch. I am not sure why the starter doesn't always spin.  One issue is that the normal starter button is missing and the previous owner hacked into the wires by the left side cover and added his own push button switch.  That'll also be fixed.
Clean and lubricate all electrical connections
 This can make a big difference on these old bikes.  The SOHC Honda charging system doesn't offer much extra juice, so corroded or dirty connections can really affect brightness of lights, switches, and even how good the thing runs.  I'll unplug each connector and polish it, then put it back together with dielectric grease.
Replace/fix Horn
 Not sure why the horn doesn't work because I haven't looked into it.  It's the switch, a connection, or possibly the horn itself.  Fortunately a horn can be had for like $10

Tune Up/Maintenance
New points/condensers
I have no idea how old these parts are, so since they're cheap I'll go the safe route and get new ones.  I also intend to keep an extra set on the bike.  I have contemplated getting the electronic ignition for this bike, but we'll see if funds allow.  Points are nice because they're so simple you can fix on the side of the road.  Electronic ignition is maintenance free and will probably never fail, but if it did I would have no way to fix it while on the road.
Clean and synchronize carburetors again
 I think the bike is running rich, so I want to take the carbs off, clean them, recheck float levels, and re-sync them.  Over the summer I invested in a fancy carb sync tool, so that job isn't so bad.  What is bad is taking the carbs off and putting them on again.  That has been the least pleasant job on this bike.  I should be damn good at it after doing it so many times trying to get the carbs right, but alas, it still sucks.
New Chain and Sprockets
I have no idea how old the ones on the bike are.  The chain is definitely done for, and they recommend doing the sprockets at the same time.  Unfortunately the CB500 cannot use an o-ring chain, they're too wide and rub against the engine case, possible wearing a hole through it (ouch!).  A standard chain is cheaper though!  Sprockets are pretty cheap for this old girl too.
Maintenance Schedule
Routine stuff all in the first section of the manual.  Check and adjust cam chain, valve clearance, timing, etc.  This is easy and won't cost any money (provided I don't break anything).


Chassis
Swing Arm Bushings
These were a weak point on the old Hondas, one of the few things that didn't last long.  There are aftermarket bronze bushings that work better.  Mine may not be bad, but I want to replace them anyway as the bike will be at or above load capacity with the girl and me plus luggage.  Plus, I think it would be good to take apart, clean, and re-lubricate the swing arm pivot shaft.  That grease is 38 years old.

New Rear Tire, tube, rim strip

Ahh, spoked wheels.  Standard size for this bike is 3.50-18.  The old inch-sizes are not hard to find, but you don't get much of a selection.  I think I'll go with a Dunlop 4.00-18, which seems to work on these rims.  Dad's Royal Enfield runs these and I really like them for dirt roads.  I am going to try this job on my own, we'll see how that goes.   I guess I should check the spokes for tension and the wheel for balance while I have it off.

Rear wheel bearings

Probably past their prime as well.  Not something I want to deal with on the trip, so I'll do them as a precaution.

Aesthetics

Repaint exhaust headers

Last winter I painted the exhaust headers because the chrome was really crappy and a couple of them were a little rusty.  Brilliantly I chose engine enamel in a spray can, not realizing that engine enamel is not heat-resistant enough for exhaust pipes!  So my nice black headers have been slowly reverting back to crappy gray.

Here's what that project looked like.  I came up with an ingenious method of painting the individual pipes!  Here's before and after, then shown reinstalled on the bike.  This was before I had done the seat and gas tank, among other things.

I may also repaint the tank and side covers with a fresh coat of green.  I never took the time to sand and polish my original green paint job, so if I have time I'll redo it.

So there's my to do list!  Some of these repairs have been covered in Motorcycle Classics magazine's series on their project CB500, so for some things I have a nice, full color set of instructions in the vernacular language.  I also have the amazing resource of sohc4.net, which has helped me immensely so far.
Please note, parents and others, that most of the repair items I have lined up here are mainly to improve the safety of the bike.  I could probably ride it to Alaska tomorrow, but I want the bike to be as safe and reliable as I can make it!

Please stay tuned for more exciting posts!
Jeremy B

Recent Ride and Sleeping Pads!

Riding the country on our little old Honda will surely be exhausting, so we're investing in a good summer's sleep!  We've already got the tent and sleeping bags, and just last week I got two Themarest Prolite sleeping pads!
 These things are awesome.  They roll up to 4"x11" and weigh one pound each.  They're only about 1" thick when inflated, but they'll provide a cushion from the ground as well as an insulating value.  These were a big expense, one of the largest single purchases for camping stuff, but there was a sale at EMS so I figured we'd take advantage.
There is still tons of other stuff we need to get (see our earlier posting) but it feels good to check off two of the biggies.

Sunday, November 8 was a glorious fall day here in New Hampshire.  I was home for the weekend and took what may be my last motorcycle ride of the year.  Originally I thought I'd ride to one of the local ridges but the weather kept getting better so I continued through the country to the seacoast.  The bike was running great but I discovered a couple of issues that will need to be addressed over the winter.  First of all, it's vibrating too much for a Honda four cylinder.  So much, in fact, that one of the tiny screws that hold the tachometer gauge face vibrated loose and fell off, leaving me with a wobbly tach face!  It's not easy to get inside the tach to fix this, but luckily my favorite magazine, Motorcycle Classics, did a feature on how to take apart the old honda gauges.   I think the vibration is simply due to the need for a tuneup.  I need to sync the carbs again and check valve clearances, all routine stuff that hasn't been done in a while.
The back tire is about spent.  I don't know how much further I dare go on it.  I plan to replace it myself, so if you're bored and in the need of some humor at another's expense, you can come over and watch me try to change the tire!
Also, the front end is squeaky.  I need to take apart the caliper and clean it, and I probably need to replace the wheel bearings as well.  Despite the relatively low miles shown on our bike, I think the age alone of some components (like bearing grease) can merit replacement.

Speaking of mileage, Sunday's ride almost put my bike's mileage over 18,000!  I was about 30 miles shy of crossing the big 18k.  Oddly, my Subaru is currently about 30 miles shy of crossing over the 180,000 mile mark!  Hmm.

Another thing!  Apparently clicking the "follow" thing on my page really does nothing other than tell me you're interested in the blog.  You won't get an email or anything telling you when I've updated the blog, so please bookmark the blog and check back every few days to see what's new!

Next couple of blogs will discuss route ideas, as mentioned before, and a list of what I still need to do to the bike to prepare for the trip.
Cheerios!
Jeremy B

The Bare Necesseties-Just add-venture

Let me just reiterate the fact that Julianne is an art student and I am a music student.  In case that doesn't bring up any connotations for you it basically means that we are poor as f$%k!  We're not touring the country on a new BMW or Harley checking into hotels every night.  That is expensive and boring.  We're going to rough it, so it's good that we're poor because we wouldn't have it any other way.

So the necessities for the trip will include full camping gear, which will have to (a) fit on the bike and (b) be lightweight so as not to overload the bike.  Lucky for us there's another group of adventurers who have already figured out small and lightweight gear: the backpackers.  Backpacking tent, sleeping bags, stoves, etc, are all very small and very lightweight, not to mention excellent quality.  Their gear does, after all, need to last months at a time in the wilderness.  Here is a tentative list of what we think we'll need.  After the list I'll go into detail about individual items.

Sleeping
Tent
Sleeping bags
sleeping pads
tarp (for under the tent)

Cooking
stove
fuel bottles for stove
cookset
water container (probably inflatable)
foldable water bucket
utensils
lighter
dish towel
soap (multi-use)
2 nalgene bottles
coffee percolator or press

General Camping
hatchet
knife
lantern
head-lamp
towels
sun block
bug repellent
first aid kit
tooth brushes and paste, hairbrush, deoderant, etc
maps

--The following lists are things that won't come from the backpacking world and I'll discuss them later--

Tools
spark plug wrench
#2 phillips and flat screwdrivers
wrenches (don't know exactly what sizes I want to bring yet)
allen wrench (I replaced a lot of screws with SS allen head bolts)
Pliers (leatherman possibly)
tire repair kit (not sure what type yet)
Electrical tape
zip ties
tappet feeler gauge
chain lubricant
quart of 10W40 oil

Parts
spark plugs
tail light bulb
signal light bulb
spare main fuses
points set

electronics
camera
blackberry (we originally were going to bring a laptop, but this can replace it for our purposes)
charger for camera and blackberry
solar charger for blackberry


First off, sleeping.  We have already acquired a tent and sleeping bags.  The tent is a Cabela's brand ultralight tent, which we bought over the summer and have already tried out a few times.  It's light for its size, around six pounds, and packs small .  We got the three person tent for the extra room; this thing will be our house for the summer after all.  It's great sleeping without the fly, and the fly is very water resistant for crappy weather.

Juli just got two sleeping bags!  They're synthetic backpacking sleeping bags and are also very small and lightweight.

We are thinking of getting sleeping pads as well.  These are small, thin air mattresses used in the backpacking world.  We are looking at the Thermarest Prolite, which is a self-inflating pad, a big selling point for me.  One of the most irritating things in the world is blowing up an inflatable with your mouth, and I don't think we'll be too excited to do it every night after a full day of riding!   This thing packs really small, around 5X11 inches and only weighs 1 pound.
There are a couple of comparable pads by Big Agnes and Exped.  The Exped pads are awesome, but about twice the weight of the Prolite.  More expensive, too.
We're also considering a traditional foam sleeping pad, and I really like this one from Thermarest.  I like that it doesn't inflate it can never puncture and become useless.  It is very light but doesn't pack quite as small as the Prolite.  It's much cheaper, though, and I wonder if that will outweigh the benefits of self-inflating pads.  Ultimately, I think we'll decide on one of these after comparing them in the store.  It will have to pass the comfy test.

Now onto cooking. I have pretty much picked out a stove. This
is the Coleman F1 Ultralight. The picture shows the stove on top
of the canister. Originally I didn't want one that uses this type of canister because I wasn't sure it would be easy to find them on
the road.
But I have just discovered that a certain big box conglomo that
shall remain nameless carries them, so I think we'll find them
okay. They also have a couple of light stoves there, but not this particular one.  It will have to be ordered on the web.  This little
guy weighs 2.7 ounces as opposed to the one in the store that is
over a pound!


I have two different cooksets in mind.  One is the  MSR Quick 2, which is very complete yet compact.  It includes two pots, two dishes, two stainless mugs, a strainer top, and it all fits into a 7x5" package!  I am also looking at the GSI Pinnacle Dualist.  It is similar in size and weight to the MSR set, but it doesn't have normal shaped mugs or plates, which I don't like.  It does come in a bag that doubles as a water bucket, which is awesome!  It also includes two utensils, which the MSR does not.  Still, I really prefer the shape of the dishes and mugs of the MSR set.  Also, the GSI only comes with one pot.  Two could be handy on the road.

 

Coffee!  Some may consider this a luxury item and not worth the weight, space, or trouble, but Juli and I really like coffee and I think the trip will be too exhausting to go without.  I can't decide if we should get a percolator or a press.  There is the Open Country 2-5 Cup Perk, pictured at the left, which is about 5X5 inches and weighs 9 ounces.  I like the simplicity of using a percolator. But a coffee press, like the GSI JavaPress seems like a good idea.  I really don't know how it works.  You put some hot water and coffee into it and "press" the coffee through the water, supposedly making coffee.  I think we'll probably go with the perk.  After all,  cowboys on the range didn't carry a javapress.


Now for cleanup.  Towels soap, and bucket.  Well, the soap we've already got.  It's biodegradable and can be used on dishes, in your hair, and on your clothes and body, and is called simply camp soap.  For the towels we were thinking of getting pack towels, which sound like microfiber towels.  They're very lightweight and absorbent, and we're thinking of getting the bigger versions for our bodies.  The bucket we want to get is super cool!  It folds!  We saw this one at EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) that we really like. Carrying water is also concern.  We might get an inflatable water container, which can be seen at EMS too.  We might also carry a plastic gallon jug.  It's something we haven't quite figured out yet.

Now how we'll light our campsite at night.  There are all kinds of LED flashlights and lanterns that are lightweight and small.  I think we'll go with one LED lantern and one LED headlamp.  The lantern can be ambient light.  The headlamp could be useful if we have to setup camp in the dark or if we have a bike issue in the dark.  We don't plan on riding at night but you never know.
I haven't picked out a headlamp yet, but the lantern I want to get is a Black Diamond Apollo.  I checked these out at EMS too and they're really tiny light, but very bright.  It runs on 4 AAs or a rechargeable pack sold by Black Diamond.  I'll need to do some more research to figure out which to get.  We won't always have access to electricity so we may have to go with batteries that get thrown away when dead (which I hate doing, I am usually a rechargeable fan).

So besides all this camping stuff we're also going to need clothes for our bodies.  Many motorcycle travelers get by with just one or two changes of clothes other than their riding gear.  I think we'll try for that.  We'll get a stuff sack for packing extra clothes.

So that's most of what we'll bring.  I tried to be detailed but am sure other things will pop up.  We'll need to pack wisely to get everything on the bike.  We need to avoid packing like the picture up top!

Next posting, I'll probably talk about route ideas so stay tuned.
Jeremy B

Equipment: Outfitting the motorcycle for luggage

One of the driving forces behind this trip is that Juli and I are not wealthy barons.  We simply do not have the funds to fly to Europe and spend the summer hiking the alps and looking at Renaissance art in Florence, Venice, or Mantua.  The closest we can get to having a traveling adventure is riding our (old) motorcycle across our own country, camping along the way and experiencing national parks, museums, and historical places.  

So, maybe you saw that picture of our (old) motorcycle in all its smallness and lack of storage space and wondered how we plan on packing all the necessary gear for such an undertaking.  After all, goldwings have huge trunks and side cases that would hold two of each animal that walks the earth (or swims; those hard cases are waterproof too).  Well, here’s the plan:

 First of all, the bike came with an original equipment chrome luggage rack, which I am very happy about.  It is very handy for strapping whatever you need for a day trip with bunjee cords.  Plus it looks really cool! 

But for the trip the rack is going to serve as a platform for a genuine motorcycle top box, something like this:

These boxes are from JC Whitney and are fairly cheap  (under $100).  I found other such boxes from Givi, but I can’t justify spending twice as much money for a name brand top box.  I haven't decided the exact size top box I want yet.  I am waiting until we have more of our camping gear so I can better judge how much room we'll need.  I plan to add a luggage rack to the top of this box, where we can strap longer things like the tent or sleeping pads. 

We’ll also have a tank bag.  I haven't done a ton of research on these yet so I haven't picked one out.  Notice the clear pouch on top where you can insert a map!  We'll stuff things like a cell phone, change for tolls, water bottles, anything we need to get to quickly will go in here.  The cool thing about these is that they are magnetic, they literally just stick to the top of the gas tank.  This could be an issue for riders of modern bikes with fake gas tanks!   

The side cases have been by far the biggest technical challenge.  We decided to go with hard side cases for their strength and weather resistance.  In the 70s you could get Wixom hard luggage, similar to what early BMWs had.   You could also get Hondaline luggage, but I think that might have been later.  Nowadays, though, nobody makes hard luggage to fit these bikes.  Let me rephrase:  It's not really the luggage itself that is the problem.  Ebay currently has 300 listings for hard bags that we could probably use.  It's the racks that the luggage attaches to on the bike.  There are lots of manufacturers of hard luggage and racks to mount them, but nobody makes one for a 1971 Honda.  So I'll make my own. 

Thank goodness for the adventure rider's forum!  

advrider.com

This is a great website full of motorcycle traveling enthusiasts.  There are some serious folk on here who have circled the globe, so there is lots of great info on everything from route advice to bike advice to bulls#t advice.  This is where I discovered the idea of using hard cases like Pelican or Storm cases for luggage.

 

These are Pelican cases sold as a complete luggae system. by Cariboucases.com.  They are industrial hard plastic, extremely durable (used by EMTs, military, etc) and reasonably affordable.  

Caribou does not, however, make a mounting system for a 1971 Honda.  So I plan to make my own rack that will hold these cases. 

There are cheaper alternatives to using cases like these, but we do have some specific criteria that a side luggage system will have to meet.  The cases will need to hold quite a bit, but they cannot be too big.  We need them to be lightweight and they must not intrude on passenger leg room, the way some home made systems do.  There are two of us on this bike at all times, and it's a small bike!  So, while I enjoyed reading threads on advrider about making your own side cases out of ammo cans, the truth is that the big ones weigh in at 15-25 pounds each!  Some people were clever enough to weld their own steel cases, but I am not and those would still be too heavy.  Some people used mermite cans, a type of food container that the military used.  They are large and not very heavy once hollowed out, but they are simply too big for our bike.  I could even use the cheap ebay plastic side bags, but I would still have to fabricate a mounting system so I wouldn't save much money.  The durability of pelican/storm/hardigg type cases is superior anyway, so that's what we'll go with.

I have read countless posts on advrider describing how to make your own mounts for cases like these.  What I will do is make a tubular steel frame that will attach to the shock-mount stud and signal light bracket on my bike.  The signal lights will probably be taken off anyway, because I'll want to move the tail and signal lights forward to where they'll be more visible with all the luggage.  More on that later, as I figure it all out.  

 Here is a picture of what my rack will look like.  The bike pictured is a Triumph Bonneville, so mine will be very similar because the rear subframe of this bike is a lot like mine.  I am not yet sure if I will connect the rack to my existing luggage rack or if I will run a piece of metal across the bike to secure the two sides together and minimize movement.

I will drill holes in the plastic cases and attach a u-channel of aluminum to the bottom, and a turnable block of metal or plastic to the top.  There are many different ways to do this.  One that I especially like is pictured here:

http://www.stromtrooper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37568&highlight=seahorse

So the cases themselves will be Pelican 1500 or something similar.  They are pretty big, roughly 6x12x17 inches on the inside.  To save some money I may go with Seahorse SE-720 cases, which are around the same size.  These cases can be had with locks for $60 each plus shipping.  So figure in maybe $50 for the stuff to build the mounting rack, and I've got a system that costs many more hundreds to buy.  Of course, that point is sort of moot anyway since nobody makes a system like that for my bike!  

  For an idea of how these cases would look on an old style, naked bike, here is an airhead beamer with pelicans attached, image stolen from somebody on the advrider forum.  These are pelican 1520s, a couple of sizes bigger than what I was looking at.  I may get gray instead of black.  Also, I too plan on using reflector tape on our cases.  Can't be too visible out there! 

So there you have it!  Those plastic cases aren't pretty, but they're big and strong yet light enough for us.  In addition to all of these cases and bags, we'll also get a fork bag for the front of the bike.  That bag will hold our tools and a quart of oil, maybe the chain lube too, we'll see how big they go!  

Next I'll write about just what we're going to put in all this luggage!  Stay tuned!!!!

Jeremy B

Living Our Dream: The Story so Far

The Jist:

Here it is, our travel blog for the big summer 2010 cross-continental journey! For those of you who don't know, Julianne, the art student, and I the music student, have been planning an epic journey of discovery. We're going to spend the summer riding our 1971 Honda CB500 from our home in New Hampshire to the west coast and back again! We'll stick to the smaller highways and byways. We'll do a lot of camping along the way. We'll see some of the cities and national parks that we've always wanted to. Hopefully we'll have the adventure of our lives!

We'll start with describing the idea, and then the bike itself. Tomorrow, I'll talk about what we're bringing and how we'll equip the bike.

The genesis:

Traveling is something Juli and I have always been interested in. Neither of us have seen much of the country or any other country, unless you count Canada.

One fine day in the summer of 2008, we were both at home in Pittsfield and my dad had the idea to ride motorcycles down the road to look at a Volkwagen bus. We love old VWs, and it was a great excuse to take a little bike trip.

Now I've seen a fair number of busses in my day. Our family has owned two and Juli and I have spent lots of time tramping around our region in dad's '83 Westy. But this bus had an impact on us. We both felt a deep desire to buy this thing and drive it far. We spent the next day fantasizing about driving across the country in a bus, bringing very little with us and camping out where ever .

Then we both realized, "why not drive across the country?" We could save up enough money to take a summer off. The trip itself didn't have to cost much if we did a lot of camping and national parks and other amazing free stuff. We mainly just wanted to get out and see the rest of the country. Juli's car or even my car would make the trip.

I can't remember exactly how the idea to use a motorcycle came about. We thought about the cost of gas. Any motorcycle would get at least a few more mpgs than either of our cars. (Remember, this was 2008, $4.29 per gallon gas was on our minds).

But the more we thought about it, the more a motorcycle made sense. How are you supposed to "get out and see the country" from inside a glass cage? How are you supposed to experience prairie wind from inside a car? Or the wide open skies of Wyoming and Montana? Or the rockies? Or the Pacific coast highway? Yes, a motorcycle was the obvious way to take it all in. We could bring minimal camping gear and camp along the way, to save money and to connect with the land.

The Bike

If we were to take a motorcycle, it would first and foremost have to be one that we could afford. No bikes made within the last 25 years need apply. Secondly, it had to be one with the proper riding position for two-up traveling. No goofy assed feet out front cruiser bikes. No racer-boy wanna be tupperware-cladded sport bikes. Thirdly, it had to be big enough for us and some luggage, but not too big to be fun to ride. No goldwings, 1100 specials, or other behemoths, and no honda Z50s. And finally, it would have to be something reliable. Or sort of at least.

So I scoured craigslist and ebay and local classifieds for weeks. Don't be fooled, I already do this anyway. I love old bikes and am always looking for good deals for fun. One day, in October of 2008, I came upon this old tramp:

A 1971 Honda CB500 Four, decent shape, $500. This was one of

many similar to this that I had been looking at. I told Juli about it because it looked like such a great deal, and she asked "could we use it for our trip?" Now, whether this bike would be good for the trip for not, I would have replied "yes," and I did, for it was love at first sight for me. We wound up getting the bike for $400 because it wouldn't start for the guy. The reason it wouldn't start turned out to be a dead battery, but that wasn't all this old girl needed. As you can see, there were some cosmetic issues. The torn seat, the crappy white paint, the gas-varnished engine covers, and general dinginess of the whole bike needed attention.

So the Honda got all that and more. The bike had around 14K when we brought it home, and was in nice shape overall. Besides the paint and 4 into 2 exhaust, it was very original. I spent the fall and winter working at it little by little. Here's a rundown of what I did:

Rebuilt master cylinder

did the basic tune up: valve adjust, camchain adjust, chain adjust, etc

all new spark plugs

new battery

new uni air filter

cleaned, polished, painted various engine and exhaust bits

replaced shocks with progressive and heavy duty springs

recovered seat

painted it green

cleaned and rebuilt all four carbs

replaced grips with ourys

replaced all cables

Jeez, that list seems so short for how much time I put in! Some of these jobs, especially the carb work, I had to repeat several times before I got them right, which is one reason the list looks so short to me. Also, it was spread out over a few months when I would come home from school on the weekends. And finally, each job had to wait until I had saved up enough money to buy whatever part I needed at the time.

Well, after half a summer of tuning and tweaking, I've got the old girl running nicely!

Here's the bike after all this work:

Before I forget, I have to mention the forum of the century: SOCH4.net. Without that site I would never have got the bike going so well. The forum is full of knowledgeable nuts who own and maintain sohc4s, (The first honda 4 cylinders, from the CB750 in 1969, to my bike, to the CB350F, CB400F, CB550, and the last SOHC CB650 in 1982). I downloaded (for free) the factory shop manual for my bike and received (for free) countless bits of advice that got me through fixing the bike. Seriously, I had no idea what the f%#k I was doing when I got this thing, and those guys, my book, and a little luck helped me get the bike running great!

Now, as for the bike, it is a freaking classic! I always appreciated the smooth, timeless lines of 70s and older bikes. My dad's got an 04 Royal Enfield that was pretty much my favorite bike. It is amazingly fun to ride. My brother's got a 75 CB750 that I road a couple of times before getting mine. I liked it a lot, but it seemed a little unwieldy to me. Maybe it's because the thing was dangerous.

But when i got the CB500 I discovered the perfect motorcycle! I like to describe the design of this bike as simply elegant. Four cylinders in a line. Four carburetors. One overhead camshaft operating 8 valves on rocker arms. A simple single disc up front with a cast aluminum master cylinder. Spoked wheels. Round headlight. Two gauges. Simple, yet sophisticated. These old bikes were and are renowned for their reliability, and over the 3k miles I've ridden it so far, I have to say I would ride it to the end of the world tomorrow.

This thing is the perfect size and weight and has plenty of smooth power. 50 horses to be exact, for anyone who cares. It has plenty of go to propel Juli and I over the mountainous back roads around here we love so much at a brisk pace.

Okay, well, let's get this out of the way now. There are maybe 2 people who haven't tried to talk us out of using this "old," "small," bike for this trip. "You'd better bring tools." "Are you sure that thing will make it?" "That bike is too small and uncomfortable for a cross country trip"

Those are the most popular comments so far. As far as tools and reliability, I have every bit of confidence that I can keep this thing going for our trip. It's solid and simple. I am fairly confident that any break down we would experience would be something simple and minor enough for me to fix either on the side of the road or in the next town if need be.

As far as small and uncomfortable, we are plenty comfortable on this old girl. We're not big people, and we're not bringing much stuff. We like riding normal sized motorcycles. I don't get today's giant overweight overpowered touring bikes. We're going to ride country roads. We don't need to go 85mph for extended periods of time.

Here's something I'll probably repeat in the future. Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is (among other things) one of the most beloved of all epic motorcycle adventure stories. He did the trip on which the book is based on a honda cb77 superhawk. Don't know what that is? here:

It's a 305cc twin with a about 28 horsepower. Him and his son with a mountain of camping gear, on this bike riding across the country.

So before you ask why we don't get a goldwing or something, just remember Zen!

That's enough on bikes. The next posting will focus on what we'll bring and how we'll outfit the motorcycle for the trip!

Good night,

Jeremy B