Well I’m home for the weekend, I need to be out on the bike for the DGR tomorrow no matter what the weather so I thought I’d have my second ride on the 500.
I blew away about 30 minutes removing the pannier frames and the pillion seat (the wife looked at it and said “you must be fucking joking”) and went for a 30 mile ride on relatively quiet Lancashire roads. What did I discover? It doesn’t vibrate as much as a lot of you tube videos suggested it would but I’m used to a 500 Husqvarna so pretty much immune to single cylinder vibration, the gearbox is much better than I was led to believe it would be with clutchless changes going up remarkably smooth and it handles relatively well even though I had the back end kick out a bit on a corner after I got a slightly over enthusiastic and misjudged how much it tightened up. Any slide that doesn’t result in a trip across a grass verge is a good slide
The brakes are still shit, it’s too quiet for a 500 single, it’s going to take a while for me to accept the lack of what I’ve come to think of as basics such as a trip odometer, a clock and either a satnav or a tank bag base to hold a map but they’re minor details. Overall I like it, it’s hard not to like a bike that never feels as if it’ll get you in trouble with the law and has a nice comfortable riding position with a seat that doesn’t make you feel as if a horse has kicked you in the arse. I’ve not done enough miles to be anywhere near needing to put fuel in it but they’re supposed to be good on fuel. It looks nice in a retro kind of way and the single seat with no pillon perch suits it so unless I’m going to use it for a weekend trip I’ll be leaving the pannier frames and pillion seat off.
It’s a shame they’ve stopped making them because for anyone approaching senility and just wanting to ride around admiring the countryside they’re remarkably good