Practically Classics Forum

IF and when my Jeep emerges from the garage it's currently residing, while we try and find/fit an engine that actually 'kin works, i'm selling it on and taking a different direction. Just took voluntary redundancy and am planning on taking some time off and riding the Trans America Trail.

Weapon of choice will probably be the Honda CB500x. Not a classic, but EFI and 70mpg, with none of the 'mod cons' most new bikes seem to have. For instance traction control, and an automatic gearbox. Who knew that was a 'thing' on bikes now?!

Not seeing a solution there, sorry, I too must be clinically dull of thinking. A state borne out by the fact that I rode an automatic Honda 400 of mid '70s vintage for a few days in 1983 while my CX500 - the only tractor with fewer wheels than a John Deere - was having the usual timing chain failure addressed properly, by throwing away the engine and fitting a crated one with the upgraded chains & guides. The 400A, being higher geared to take the optimum from the TCA, a sort of KERS for the olden days , was so nice to ride that I really wanted one for myself, in spite of its being pretty cramped like most Hondas of the time. That one wasn't for sale so I kept the old CX right up to the last time its engine failed, then took it in the back of the works van and buried the evil sod in a well-known West Riding moorland area so that aliens would be able to dig it up in the year 1999 and see for themselves the way that we travelled back then; slowly and with both feet off the pegs "just in case" it tried to escape from under me yet again, an inevitable outcome of an engine that ceased to function before I had time to knock it out of gear. Ouch, even thinking about that feels painful..

Looking at the stuff about that epic spot of soft roading, I couldn't help but notice that some participants do the thing in cars. Even trap springs are kinder to the average set of wedding veg than a dirt bike so why not take the relatively relaxing option and rent a big comfy 4x4 that can provide shelter, warmth and actual enjoyment? Bike it, and you'd spend half of the time - that could be used for looking at the scenery - on applying Ralgex to your aching body.

I still have nightmares about Honda CX500's..... Easily the worst bike that I've ever had the misfortune to own. Back when we first got married, we moved out to Essex, West Thurrock to be precise, and I needed a bike to commute to and from Whitehall where I was based at the time. Quite a lot had to go to buy the house, mortgages were not easy or cheap in the early 1970's and all vehicles (we had quite a few between us) were sold off bar my Reliant Regal van, a Honda 90 and a scruffy 1969 Bonnevlle, which, despite my best efforts, leaked like the Torrey Canyon. I easily had the most waterproof boots in the south of England! I did try commuting on the C90 but it was too slow and somewhat stressed on the long haul along the A13.

So as soon as we were settled in, I sold the "Bonnie" and bought a used Honda CB500/4 which was a brilliant bike, and after a year traded that in for a brand new one, exactly the same only Brown (first one was gold). After 3 years and 50,000 trouble free miles, the exhaust pipes needed replacing as they had rotted badly, a common problem, so I traded this for a brand new CX500.......

In under a week it seized its engine, terminal crankshaft failure. This took a couple of months to get sorted but the dealer loaned me a 250 Yamaha, nice bike but the fuel consumption was horrific. When I got it back with a new engine in it all went well, for a fortnight when this new engine lunched its cam chain. This was fixed but, again after a fortnight it did exactly the same again. I somewhat lost heart after this, returned it to the dealer and swapped it for a CB400/4, as the 500/4 had been discontinued and its successor, the 550/4 had put on a lot of weight compared to the earlier model, as these "facelifts" often do. The CB400/4 was a bit too revvy for my personal taste though, and the 6 speed gearbox really wasn't necessary, though great fun to whang up and down - if you could remember exactly which gear you were in that is! I kept this one for a long time as I got "promoted" and found myself mostly flying a desk, but I did have a parking space so took to commuting by car. I'd also moved 50 miles north of London by now and the journey was much easier by car than by bike....

In truth from what I remember the "plastic maggot" wasn't anywhere as good to ride as the CB500/4's were, being top heavy at low speeds and unpleasant in traffic due to drive line shunt.

I still have a CB500/4, (and also a C90 too) a black one this time, out in the garage and I still reckon that these were the best middleweight Hondas ever made. Oddly, when I restored it to factory condition a few years ago, many of the parts came from the USA where these were very popular...... With things as they are nowadays I couldn't afford to do this again though! I'm presently in the process of restoring the C90, which will also be completely factory original (at least to look at) on completion. I have to get most of the spares for this from Holland though as the tax and postage rates plus the exchange rate have priced the USA way out of my pocket....



Picture taken in 2014 just after the restoration. Still looks just as nice today!

John

Phew, how glad am I to discover that mine wasn't the only rubbish CX500 they'd built! A bike's no use for me these days, far too fond of my creature comforts such as a heater and a roof. I blame my cousin, whose fondness for a CX500 - that he'd owned a few years before I got mine - lulled me into a wholly misplaced confidence.
I may yet have a four wheeled Honda some day, especially after seeing the '70s CVCC-engined Civic that Ant restored in a recent episode of Wheeler Dealers. That car reminded me that although the first generation Civic is too tight a fit on me, there is still a rich vein of automotive madness to be tapped and it's Japanese.

JPB wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:06 pm Rich, I've bought another modern Toyota as I went on the yahoo.jp cars section late at night, following a dose of flu medicine! This tiny car ticks every box. It looks like one too mind, but so does the full fat version that's been my daily for a year and a half now.

It's Kei class, so the engine is a 660cc triple and it's not quite blessed with the grunt of my 1300cc, 131bhp daily motor, but insurance - which will have to be a specialist thing as the provider of the bB's policy doesn't cover JDM stuff younger than the ten year IVA cutoff - is around the £130 mark from most of the companies that quote when I ask those damned meerkat puppets, so I'd keep the bB for trackdays and carrying things the size of pallets, which would give me even cheaper fuel use for day to day duties and yes, this means that a Metrocab could still be considered as a car for the shows. I should now have two moderns that cost virtually no more to run than the existing one, according to my calculations which are of course completely objective and in no way biased toward JDM motors.
I could write more, but have this link, which shows you an identically equipped car from the same auction house:
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/au ... 1?iref=rss

OK, so it's slightly narrower than the bB, but the front seat appears to be much the same width so it must simply have skinny doors. I asked the auction's English speaking agent whether the radio is faulty but he assured me that they can display other images than the one in the listing photos, phew!

man thats fugly.... i like it

My thoughts exactly! I mean, the bB's not exactly beautiful in the way that, say, a 1970s Celica is but these modern wonders of packaging are tools and doesn't everyone want tools that are well made and durable rather than ones which are styled to resemble Anna Friel's face; lovely though that is?

I've already paid for the car and the postage fee to get it to the docks down in Shields, it's a tiny bit too fat for large letter post, so I had to have the shipping container option, the total cost is less than the price I gave for the bB, though that was eleven years old when it was registered here, so is exempt from IVA.
The Pixis Mega (a candidate for the most ambitious name ever?), on the other hand, is a 2016 car so will need to be fitted with a MPH odometer/speedometer, to have a VIN number stamped somewhere as the bB's shorter Japan-only frame number isn't allowed for IVA, and its rear fog lamp install must include the current UK-specific wiring that allows the lamps to come up only when the dipped heads or the sidelamps and front fogs are in use. Then there's the usual IVA search for anything that could cause injury, but its switches are all modern and soft, which should be fine. We'll see, but the IVA isn't a bad thing as most Toyotas, even the Pixis range, can be made test ready by the use of equal measures of common sense and time taken to study the test requirements in depth before submitting the car.

Meanwhile, I'm still following up any automatic Metrocab for sale info that comes my way, and although the TTT would be my preference by a long way, I am even considering the earlier, Transit engined ones again as they're far less sophisticated, crude even, but at least their appalling build quality is all on the surface and not hidden beneath extra toys and soft touch trim. Sliding windows don't have wiring, plastic seats can be wiped clean rather than having twenty years worth of vomit embedded in their surface, etc. The poorer economy of the banana engine is less significant than it would have been if I still planned to use my next older car for work and besides; "city spec" diffs are easily swapped out for higher geared ones from cabs used in the more rural areas and crude though the banana engine is, it can definitely pull taller overall gearing.

does this mean your quest is over??? or can i continue posting crap,,,, i mean fine vehicles for your perusal

Rich, please continue to post random stuff! My quest is far from over as I still want a Metrocab to play with.. Or that elusive Fridolin of course, but other shiny things can still come along to catch my eye and trigger my car buying habit. By suggesting totally inappropriate piles of Cataloy and fudge, you're saving me many hours each week as, in most cases, your taste in fine pre-owned automotive treasures mirrors my own and as such, I have no need to spend any more time on eBay than I already do.

JPB wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 10:50 pm Not seeing a solution there, sorry, I too must be clinically dull of thinking. A state borne out by the fact that I rode an automatic Honda 400 of mid '70s vintage for a few days in 1983 while my CX500 - the only tractor with fewer wheels than a John Deere - was having the usual timing chain failure addressed properly, by throwing away the engine and fitting a crated one with the upgraded chains & guides. The 400A, being higher geared to take the optimum from the TCA, a sort of KERS for the olden days , was so nice to ride that I really wanted one for myself, in spite of its being pretty cramped like most Hondas of the time. That one wasn't for sale so I kept the old CX right up to the last time its engine failed, then took it in the back of the works van and buried the evil sod in a well-known West Riding moorland area so that aliens would be able to dig it up in the year 1999 and see for themselves the way that we travelled back then; slowly and with both feet off the pegs "just in case" it tried to escape from under me yet again, an inevitable outcome of an engine that ceased to function before I had time to knock it out of gear. Ouch, even thinking about that feels painful..

Looking at the stuff about that epic spot of soft roading, I couldn't help but notice that some participants do the thing in cars. Even trap springs are kinder to the average set of wedding veg than a dirt bike so why not take the relatively relaxing option and rent a big comfy 4x4 that can provide shelter, warmth and actual enjoyment? Bike it, and you'd spend half of the time - that could be used for looking at the scenery - on applying Ralgex to your aching body.

Someones gotten old!!

Plan B would be to ship my 1991 Wrangler over there and drive that instead. If the %%^*ing thing ever gets out of the workshop. Engine wore out and the (free) replacement engine i was given turned out to have been hydraulic'ed in the past. Bent rod and damaged bore. The 3rd engine we looked at was also shagged. Fingers crossed the engine I'm picking up next week does the trick.
Once I get it back, the plan is to sell it and use the funds for the trip. I've driven across the States, and flown across. In a light plane, and a helicopter. Decided that this would be a different way to do it.



As far as the CX500, yup had one of those too! Complete with the Vetter fairing. Was reliable enough, IIRC, but not immune to car attacks. Which is also what happened to my other two bikes. A GS550T and a GS1000G. All got eaten by idiot drivers, which is why I got away from bikes.
Miss the GS1000G. Was a great bike. There's one for sale on d'bay right now, same colour and model as my old one. I keep going back and staring at it.....


Now, if camelot ever gave me some money, i'd fix up my '82 Cherokee, ship that and run it all over the States. But they seem to leave me out of the winners list every bl00dy week!

The lottery machines are all programmed to hold back my winning numbers. I am convinced about this and let's face it; it's pretty tame as conspiracy theories go!
Seriously, I have a set of lottery numbers (based around the VIN of a car I owned in 1994, when that first ever lottery draw was made). I haven't played the lottery since 1997, but every week my worst fear is that my selected numbers may eventually come up.
Dementia cannot come soon enough as that's the only way I can see of getting the damned numbers out of my mind.


2, 6, 14, 20, 32, 42.. Please, someone use these numbers and win a vast fortune. I haven't dared check the lottery numbers history since 2002 and now I'd be fine with the idea that someone luckier than I could use these same digits to win the big prize which, ISTR, was a sum that seemed massive on that first ever draw back in '94, but wouldn't even buy an entry level luxury yacht these days. Not that a win on the balls would see me wasting the spondus on a boat, unless it was that one that they built on Top Gear using the parts of an unloved Ssang-Yyong Rodius..