Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Honda's fun time single, the FT500, sits poised in front of the track that the machine is named after, Ascot. lnapression: 19B2Honda FT500 Ascot Fun ti",e 500 thu",per By Dale Brown - Technology marches on these days to the tunes of turbos, multi-cylinders, cylinders that swirl, computers that flash, front ends that don't dive, rear suspension that can be felt if not seen, et cetera, etc. Have we lost the premise of a basic motorcycle with an engine, frame, handlebars and two wheels? No, we haven't, and in Honda's new 500cc four-stroke single street machine, the IT500 Ascot , is a breath of fresh air in the motorcycle market. It's clean, simple, very attractive and fun to ride. Lots of fun. The fun comes in riding the lightweight, narrow, torquey machine over challenging, twisty roads. To our mind, it's one of the best handling motorcycles we've ever encountered. But point the Ascot at a straight stretch of road, especially a long one, and impressions change. The thumper's forte is torque, not power, and vibration will get to the rider, even with an effective counter-balancer. First impressions The first impression of the FT500 is that it's one neat-looking motorcycle. The bri~ht red pain] is an eye I • • •• • • ••• , • • ~ ~ • • • • • • :s • • stopper, with grey and white accents on the tank. The nicely-sculptured tank meets plastic sidepanels and rear section/fender in a way that suggests the lean look of a flat tracker. The black chrome exhaust system features the dual head pipes collecting into one pipe with a fat megaphone ending things out back. The Ascot rider who takes his machine to the store or to a restaurant will emerge and discover a crowd examining the bike. It happened to us 90% of the time. Jumping on the bike, the first thing that gets noticed is how narrow the machine is. Compared to some street bikes of our acquaintance, this machine feels like a trials bike. The low and narrow clubman bars feel just rightforthe bike. The seat height was acceptably low for the shortstatured among us, but taller riders would later say that they felt cramped on the bike. . . . I RI ng ~~..... e IT 500 is the only bike we've .~ .~~ ~~~ ~ ~.~~ ~ . ~ ! I ' ! ~ ' J ridden recently that we approached with helmet and jacket already on. The familiar four-stroke single of XR/XL heritage starts easily will full choke on, and then the choke can be reduced by half in a manner of seconds, and then completely off in a few more moments. Rather than the kicks tarter and automatic compression release of its off-road kindrid, the IT features a compact electric starter mounted behind the cylinder head. The motor displaces 498cc, and fuel is fed through a constant-velocity 35mm carburetor with accelerator pump to the four-valve head. Each of the exhaust ports has its own header pipe. Power passes to the rear wheel via ~ five-speed gearbox and chain drive. The box section swingarm features chain adjustments via inserts in the axle holes. Pull in the effortless clutch, put in gear and let the clutch out. Engagement is smooth and the bike is very difficult to stall in first. Coming off a stop, the first thing you notice is the torgue. Just like a tractor. Power is right of idle, and it will chug along so slowly you can almost feel the individual power pulses. On the road, the Ascot usually doesn't care what gear it's jl1'n I. ) •._. '~ '''I . I·. \: .J j • I I I J I While power off the bottom end is authoritive, output on the other end of the rpm scale is nothing to wire home about. We reached the 7,000 rpm redline with regularity, just keeping up with traffic. To the Ascot's credit, it will pull redline in fifth gear and top 85 mph, unlike another 500cc single that we had in a few years back. Vibration is surprisingly low-key considering the size of the piston. Credit here is due to a counterbalancer driven off the crank. How- ' ever, the counter-balancer can only do so much, and hands, fingers and hind ends tingled after a 30-minute ride. The vibration also means you should keep an eye on the nuts and bolts. We losta header pipe retaining bolt after putting about 1000 miles on our test unit. Before the bike was ridden again, nylon locknuts appeared on all four such bolts. While the vibration got to the fasteners, the mirrors were surprisingly clear. While up inthat area, we must report that the light clutch was a delight to use, and the six-speed gearbox you use in conjunction with it, was the smoothest-shifting tranny we've ever experienced from a Honda street machine. While you can live with the bike as a back and forth to work commuter, iJS. ~9\l~ ~iF }? Jtp~ .'Y«ekend . lYisties. . .. . . i. . . . . ~

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