Honda CB500X

I don't know how popular the Scorpion Serket exhaust is... here in Malaysia it was a "free upgrade" from the dealers when buying the bike. Just curious what is the average life span before it needs to be replaced or repacked?

Scorpion exhausts don't have packing in them. At least mine doesn't. Had it on the Tiger for 8 years and all that's happened is I peeled the original sticker off as it was fading. Mine is the factory round not the Serket model.

Thanks KildareMan! I was thinking that might be the case because I couldn't see anything looking inside! :)

So I decided to try the R&G tail tidy with the led Africa twin replicas from eBay knowing that OEM turn signals would not fit with the RR luggage racks, to my surprise they clear barely. Not sure how I feel about it. The turn signals are tucked behind the racks and touching, would only be visible directly behind. If the bike has a hard fall and the luggage rack gives, I'm pretty sure that's the end of the turn signal.

On a positive note, check out that diy mud flap - left over parts from a cbr300r came in handy [emoji108]

Sweet! Glad it worked out so well, and that you are happy with it. It's always a good idea to check your hardware a few miles after you install--keep all the parts safe.

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Need some tips/advice on how these tractive shocks can be disassembled to replace the spring.
Since it has hydrologic pressure I wasn't sure if I can do this at home and just loosen the top nut. I cannot find any helpful info/guides in the tractive manuals or on rally raids site.
I bought the bike with this setup and changing to a lower spring rate for my weight.

You need a "spring compressor" which compresses your spring in the direction of the arrow:



The "spring compressor" pushes on the white spring and reveals a "retaining clip" (no picture) which prevents this black collar from moving:



You remove the "retaining clip" using a pointy tool and the black collar slides out allowing you to remove the white spring. The shock looks like this when everything is removed. The arrow is pointing to the groove where the "retaining clip" sits:



Anyway, since you don't have a "spring compressor", it's best to just take it to a shop to have them swap out the white spring.

Thanks @Manray , i wasn't sure which way the spring needs to be compressed or which side the retaining clip was on. I'll get a set of my own spring compressors for the bike. I have a set for my car, but they're too big. Appreciate the help!!

Does anyone happen to know what this is?



The shop working on my bike just me those pics. I think they're pretty good mechanics but the funny part is they only speak Hokien - a Chinese dialect that I don't speak so it's hard to communicate!

(They're also very short... which in my case is relevant. I brought it in because it was making a nasty metal on metal noise that almost sounded like "pinging" from low octane fuel only more pronounced. BUT it only made the noise while riding it and sadly, they can't! Moral is - if your mechanic can speak your language and is tall enough to ride your bike be grateful!)

No help here , but I would like to know. ????????????????????

Fuel pump and fuel filter. Seems that you've got some bad quality fuel there.

Thanks Oyabun!! Grateful to have a friend from Budapest, Hungary bridge the communication gap between myself and the Hokkien dialect! :)

Having lived in Singapore for some time it'd be logical to learn Hokkien (or otherwise called Holo) instead of Mandarin. The good news is, that I don't speak any of them.

After a couple month wait for the arrival of my Ricor Intiminators Inertia Active Valves , I finally received them and installed them this past weekend. Jon at Ricor was a pleasure to deal with, he sent a second shipment after the first shipment was stuck in LA for over 5 weeks seemingly lost. The first shipment did finally show up after 3 months in transit!

I had the Ricor valves in my F650GS for over 100,000km and they transformed that bike so I look forward to trying them in the CB500X. Once I have ridden a few trips I’ll report back. For now this is just the installation report.

I also bought the Yamaha Bolt 2014 /2017 fork Gaiters to install since the forks would be off, they fit perfectly. Part number 1TP-F31E0-V0-00

The Honda workshop manual states that the 2018 forks contain 434 ml of 10 wt oil. I measured the oil I drained out at 400 ml the same in both forks, some may have been on the springs hence the lessor amount?

The Ricor valves drop into the tubes with just a small amount of friction and slowly fall down to rest on the fork piston. Jon sent me various size wear rings ( like a piston ring) so I would have a friction fit inside the tubes. I measured the ones I used at 36mm. The valves are meant to fit a Transalp and the wear rings were a little small so I used the next size up. There was no listing for the CB500X. The part number is 41D-50-1411.

The Honda manual gives an air measurement of 7 inchs with the forks fully compressed so this is what I used for the amount of oil to add, it was 410ml of 5 wt. Amsoil shock therapy.

I then cut the spacers by 5/8th “because that was the width of the Intiminators.

The fork caps are tricky to put on because of the spring preload, it would have been handy to have a deep socket for this.

Stay tuned for the test rides.

Will a windshield from the newer 500X fit a 2014 500X

I put a 2016 windshield on my 2015. It fit with a little fiddling. The 2016 windshield was a big improvement, by reducing turbulence.

I have a wind shield from a 2018 sitting in the garage if you want to come by and try it out. I bought a Givi.

I'm not riding the CB since I picked up the MG, might have a buyer for my tall screen, but I don't know if it fits the newer versions

I bought the RR suspension level I kit as soon as it was available back in early '15. I'm quite light and travel light (less than 40lbs. usually) so I ordered the lightest spring rate for the rear shock. I've always felt that the fork didn't quite match the rear, so I sought the lightest fork oil I could get and used a bit less than the usual amount to increase the air gap volume. This spring I decided that since I'm almost seventy, and didn't feel like drilling and fooling with shim stack experiments, that I would just go ahead and get Traxxion Dynamics to install cartridge inserts in my forks. I told them everything about my weight and usage. It was early spring so the turn around time was quick. I now have lower spring rates with more preload (to compensate and adjust sag). I fooled with the damping settings and found that they could be backed off quite a bit.

The bike feels now like the front matches the rear, finally! That, along with raising the saddle in the front to level out the seating area and filling in the resultant gap between the saddle and the bike with some rubber trim, and this bike rides like butter and I can't stop riding it! Coming up on 69 thousand miles and thinking about preemptive replacement of wheel bearings and things. Gas mileage is unbeatable as well. If I told you, you wouldn't believe me!

I have a 2016 CB500XA I bought it at 20,000 kms and it's now at 32,000. Recently it developed a shudder in the front when braking. I had a local freelance motorcycle repair shop check it out. They agree about the shudder and checked the disc run out, head bearings and wheel bearings (without dismantling). They could not identify the cause. The tyres were new when I bought it and since the problem started I’ve had a new chain and sprockets fitted.

I've now replaced the front pads but that hasn't made any difference. Suspecting a possible ABS problem I pulled the fuse and went for a ride. The shudder remained. The brakes still do a good job of stopping the bike but the shudder is present when braking from any speed but becomes more noticeable at slow speed when coming to a stop.

I’ve seen video clips concerning cleaning the mounting buttons on semi-floating discs but the CB500 disc seems to be solidly mounted without provision for any float.

I've used the search function without success but I need to find the cause and fix it.

All suggestions will be gratefully received.