So i found myself an aircooled cr500, one year engine. Took it out for our first ride together to new jersey pine barrens, trails and sand pits type of riding. Deep sand in spots, Bike was awesome. Impressed me. Both tires are very worn so was a little wiggly into turns and it never hooked coming out but i think the rear not hooking was good for me on the 500 it wasnt able to dig in and try to spit me off as easily. It runs incredibly smooth totally linear bottom.to top and is of course crazy powerful. Third gear starts in deep sand were no issue at all! I installed a decompression valve the first week i owned it as im 24 and for whatever reason only people who were around when these were in showrooms know how to start these monsters. Even following the tdc technique i just cant get it lit so the decomp helped me a ton i can at least start it now! Things needing attention Tires Bars badly bent and terrible bend Bolts do not stay tight at all it shakes them loose badly Rear brake adjustment is screwy, if i tighten the nut on the rod enough that there is no play in the pedal it drags badly, adjust so no drag, theres an inch.or two or play in the pedal which is wayyy too much to deal with while standing into corners. Im going to dial.it in for me, make the adjustments and changes and see how good we can make this old bear! I also picked it.up for an absolute steal! No idea why th pictures are uploading 90 out. Stupid cell phone!
Careful with starting that one. the Kick back it can give when it fails to start can break your leg (seen it one time). besides that operate it with a silk glove and have fun who say you need power valves to get power out of an engine, simply get enough piston volume The engine it self is bullet proof. Robert-Jan
From what I know it will never hook up the way the smaller cc bikes do. Even the 125's from that era never stop spinning. Jersey "pine barrens"? As in the "Jersey Devil"?? I'd make sure you keep the spark plug clean, carry an extra sparkplug/wrench, and the gas tank topped. I watch all these mysteries. There's an area in October mountain in Lee,mass where we ride that I get a bad gut feeling about. It's in a pine grove. I would hammer through there non stop. I just get the willies every time we enter that area of the forest.
Nice. Those were fun bikes. I had a CR480 honda and many air cooled big bores back inthe day. I just resurrected this bike yesterday...
