HONDA FT500 ASCOT

This bike came into my possession in 2010 after I found it on Craigslist in Ellensburg for a fantastic price. It barely made the short ride home, sending the air filter an other miscellaneous parts tumbling down the road for the entire trip. The guy that I bought it from alleged to be a brain surgeon, but took very poor care of this old Ascot.

The first thing I did was track down a replacement body panel and spray it down with some chameleon green paint. It turned out looking quite good from six feet away. The headlight was also far too high for my taste, so I welded up some new brackets from stainless steel that lowered it to a reasonable height. I also pilfered the clocks from my SP500 parts bike to replace the completely non-functioning and disgusting Ascot unit.

The next order of business was tackling the handlebars. I tried some straight bars that were so uncomfortable, they lasted for less than a week. I eventually opted to weld up my own clubman style bars from mild steel salvaged from a scrapped shopping cart. Those turned out to be nice and solid! All it needed next was a bar-end mirror and some decent LED turn signals and it was ready to roll.

Riding  the old thumper was a blast in the summer time. It got great gas mileage and was fun to take out into the dirt every once in a while. I thought it would be decent in the snow, but one attempt to ride it to class in the snow revealed the on-off switch nature of the throttle to be rather hazardous in the low-traction environment. It had only two engine speeds: stall or wheelspin. At least the low seat height made it easy to keep both legs down and keep the bike upright while sliding down every street.

It sold later in 2010 to a kid in Yakima who promptly tore it apart in an attempted head gasket swap and listed in on Craigslist one year later as a basket case.