First day - on the way home from Beech Mountain, NC
The FT500 Ascot was sold in the USA only two years. There are 1982 and 1983 models still around but after 28-29 years they're getting scare these days. There was also a VT500 Ascot offered in the USA for 1983 and 1984. Although the two bikes share the same name and a handful of other parts, they are vastly different. The FT model is a thumper - a single cylinder air-cooled model with a 5-speed transmission and chain drive. The VT model is a liquid-cooled v-twin with a 6 speed and shaft drive. Both bikes came from Honda with blacked-out engines, a longish front fork and high-mounted headlight and instruments making them look a little "chopperish" as was the popular style at the time. That long front end with a lot of steering trail also makes them handle a little slow but even so they are entertaining old bikes. Obvisously I like them. FWIW, neither is particularly fast but the VT model will run circles around the thumper. You can ride an Ascot with others on modern sport bikes but you have to use the whip a lot to keep up ;-)
I've owned a couple of VT500 (500cc v-twin) Honda Ascots but this is my first Ascot thumper. I've seen these around for years and thought I might like to own one if I ever encountered a "deal". This was it - $700 and only 65 miles from home. It was running but otherwise pretty rough when I bought it although it seemed basically sound. So, I repaired all the essential stuff and have ridden it about 8 months in stock form. Its not a bad old bike as is but for my winter project I've decided to make it into something a little less "off the shelf". It IS an Ascot after all so naturally it will have to be a "Cafe Racer" style bike.
First day - on the way home from Beech Mountain,
NC
Aside from aesthetics, there were a number of mechanical issues - the worst ones being that the chain was so rusty it could barely flex around the sprockets and both brakes were binding (i.e. not releasing). Plus, the starter would not stay engaged and the tires were hard as a frozen hockey puck. BUT, it started and ran reasonably well without making any strange noises and all the parts were present. It was promising...
At Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort
A couple of weeks later, the old Ascot is sporting new shoes (Bridgestone Spitfires) and a new chain and has been gone over from end-to-end - all the fluids changed, brakes freed up, and with a bunch of small mechanical improvements to make it mine. I repainted the rear shroud, front fender and pipe but everything else is the same here. After rejetting the carb (it was SOOO lean), it actually runs pretty good. I should point out here the the Yahoo Ascot FT500 Enthusiasts Group was a HUGE help with lots of useful online information about the FT500. The "Tail of the Dragon" a.k.a. Deals Gap is only a couple of hours away from my home so I made a run down there on the old thumper. Had fun on the twisties and even passed a few cruisers (but then I could have done that on a bicycle!) I even got a few thumbs ups from seasoned riders who recognized the Ascot as a "vintage" ride.
On top of TVA's
South Holston Lake Dam and Autumn riding
Making a little progress here. I've painted and lowered the headlight and instrument cluster to what I think is a more pleasing angle and continued to fine tune things. I rode it more-or-less this way about 5,000 miles until February, 2011 when it began it's metamorphasis.
2/22/11
The times they are a changin...
Yeah, it's somewhat disassembled now. Going down to the bare frame and starting from there. Lots of rust and vintage dirt down here at this level. The cylinder had rusted at some point in the past 29 years and now those rust spots are just deep pits in the cylinder wall. I'm surprised it ran as well as it did although it did consume quite a bit of oil. It's gonna take a while to clean up this old mess and there's a LOT of preparation and painting to do.
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2/26/11 This is the Cobra custom CL750 that was featured in several motorcycle magazines this winter. The builder, Denny Berg, started with a stock CL750 Shadow and was shooting for the Iook of the 60's 305cc Honda Scrambler. I think he succeded nicely. I saw the bike in the metal at the Greenville, SC IMS show and IMO, it's a very nice looking ride. I included the picture here because this is the paint scheme I've had initially planned to use on the Ascot. |
3/1/11
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LEFT: I can hear the collective "oh noooo!" from all the shorter riders now... Short I'm not so seat hieght is not an issue - in fact, I LIKE a 33-34 inch seat and am not uncomfortable on the really tall saddles of modern dirt bikes. The issue here for me is handling. Even with the fork tubes raised in the clamps and a skinny 90/90 front tire (both of which made significant improvements), I still find the steering of the Ascot painfully slow. By raising the rear a bit, the steering head angle will be steeper and one would expect the turn-in to be a bit quicker. The bike will have a set of "clubman" handlebars when done and I have modified the foot peg mounts to be about 2 inches more rear set than stock. So the steering geometry, look and riding position and are going to be a bit more sporty than the stock Ascot. I like the responsiveness of sport bikes and I abhor the sluggish way cruisers handle so this is the direction I'm taking MY Ascot. With it's skinny fork tubes, single disk brakes and thumper engine, the Ascot will obviously never be a sport bike but it can certainly be more responsive than the '82 cruiser feel it has stock.
RIGHT: Started cleaning up the frame for it's future RED paint job. This is after three passes of paint stripper. Even after stripping there is a coating of some kind on the bare metal - probably an anticorrosion dip of some type. Obviously it didn't work 100% as there is quite a bit of rust in places.
Now ain't that purdy!
The cylinder and head after bead blasting. The bottom end (crankcase/gearbox) does not lend itself to bead blasting since there is no way to keep abrasives out of the interior of the engine. I'm going to leave this natural aluminum and paint the bottom of the motor the flat aluminum color that Honda used on it's motors back in the 60's and 70's. I think that will emphasize the motor more than all the 80's era black - it is a MOTORcycle after all. The cylinder is ready for boring and the head is ready for new valve seals now. Gaskets and seals arrived yesterday. Guess I'll run the cylinder and new piston to the machine shop this afternoon :-)
3/3/11
Did a
little polishing today. Modded the tach drive
I like the old school look of polished rocker covers so I spent some time today with 400 grit sandpaper and metal polish. Since the bike will have an electronic tachometer so there's no need for that ugly stock mechanical tach drive. However, in order to avoid an oil leak there, the o-ring "plug" needs to be in place. So I modified the old tach drive (hack saw and file) to be just a plug - in the photo the hole still needs to be welded shut.
3/06/11
Yesterday I picked up my re-bored cylinder (1mm over for the Wiseco 10.5 to 1 piston) from the machine shop and rebuilt the head. I didn't regrind the valves; they're in pretty good shape so I justed lapped them by hand and installed some new valve stem oil seals. $11 apiece for those stupid little seals - at least they're still available. A lot of spare parts are just gone for this model.
Polished clutch side case
Okay, so I got a little carried away today preping the bottom end for paint. Got this far but decided it's just too much work to remove all the paint from the center cases - they will be painted a metallic gray. However, both side cases will be polished like this one. BTW, this was the easy side, the starter side has a lot more nooks and crevices...
3/07/11
Been spayin
today...
Although we've had lots of rain in the last few days, it was dry today - a good day to paint. Here's the painted engine and all the shiny pieces with clear coating. Gonna be different looking from all that black, huh? Tomorrow, after the paint hardens a bit, I plan to build the engine. It will then sit awhile awaiting completion of the chassis work - still a long way to go before it's done.
3/09/11
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Finished up the motor today. It is one heavy sucker for only 500cc - at least twice that of the the DR350 motor I built recently. I thought it was interesting (a little disturbing actually) that the Wiseco 10.5 to 1 piston actually extends 0.015” above the top of the cylinder deck. It turns out the head gasket is about 0.050” so there is room for everything (with a whole 0.035” to spare) but there's definitely not a lot of unused squish volume left when using this piston. And yes, it definitely looks different from the all black original. That cylinder looks really massive sitting up on the workbench like that. I think it'll show nicely mounted in the red frame with the black pipes. But for now it's just a homeless motor awaiting a place to live...
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3/11/11 |
3/14/11 |
The frame is VERY red. I used the same color as the OE Ascot red (Duplicolor #351).
3/14/11
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Today I assembled the rear suspension and the the front end with the new tapered roller bearings. I temporarily mounted the wheels so I can roll it around in my garage and so it is a stable work platform. Then I called for help and got my son to help me lift the pig... er engine into the frame. That's something you just can't do by yourself without scratching up the pretty new paint. I really like the red frame with the shiny engine! There's a long way to go before it's done but it is encouraging to see it actually look a bit like a motorcycle. Brakes and electrical are next while the body work gets painted.
3/16/11
We're beginning to look more like a motorcycle now.
Almost ready to start for the first time...
It's alive!
3/30/11
Originally I had planned to paint the front fender, tank, side panels and tailpiece in a medium shade of metallic gray. I even have some nice black decals to replace the OE ones. But after seeing the "lady" all dressed in red I've decided to leave it that way for now. Those familiar with the FT500 may notice the foot pegs amd shifter are set back by about 2 inches and the brake pedal has been shortened by about that same amount. The lower handlebars are obviously more "agressive" and the ugly OE fuse block will be replaced with inline fuse holders in the headlight shell.
9/20/11
Well, here's the finished product, at least for the time being. The OE instruments were replaced with a Tail Tech Vapor digital unit. I had the seat covered and in the process the "dip" removed. I also repaced the "too tall" OE front fender with a more closely fitting one from a VT500. The taillight / tag bracket is a custom fabrication but the inner fender is OE ... just trimmed a bit.
It's a hoot and never fails to garner comments from other riders at gathering points. Wanna take a ride? Here's a couple of YouTube videos on one of my favorite local roads KY/VA 160 between Lynch, KY and Appalachia, VA. Black Mountain Ride is about 4 minutes long leaving Lynch and heading up Black Mountain (highest point in KY). Black Mountain Ride 2 is a bit longer (about 9 minutes) and was made coming down. I left the Ascot motor sound in the audio mix on the second one which makes for an interesting effect if you like the sound of a thumper.
POST SCRIPT:
In August of 2012 the Ascot suffered a catostrophic transmission failure. Fortunately I wasn't going very fast when it locked up solid. The driven shaft in the transmission sheared completely in half as I was coasting to stop.
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There is no good explaination for this kind of failure except that there may have been an inherent flaw in the shaft and there may have been some hard part loose inside the engine that wedged between the gears. At any rate, the bottom end of this engine including the cases was toast. Fortunately, I had a spare which came from a salvage bike I bought a while back. I replaced the busted motor with the salvage motor and returned the bike to more or less original condition to sell it.
It left my house looking like this:
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I enjoyed the FT500 project; but, now it's time to move on to something else...
