 April 9, 2012 - 12:43pm | Over Thanksgiving a good friend of mine acquired an old Honda CX500 for a song. Well, a bit more than a song...he swapped a welding mask for it as it was in the possession of someone else who acquired it in trade for work and having no desire for it, was all set to haul it to the recycling center (where he'd get a penny a pound for it, or about $5). We've been working on it ever since...his shadetree skills mixed with my MC know-how resulted in this amalgam otherwise known as "Not OK", a name inherited from living with his dad (he was unemployed at the time) who despite being a rider himself was not overly wild about all the racket the bike was making during the conversion (we started/ran it sans mufflers a few times too many). First thing we did was cut and reshape the frame to add some rake (castor angle) and then fabricated/welded a rigid rear end to match the new lower stance up front. The centerstand was nixxed, being completely worthless as it was now way too long to be effective without assistance from a second person. The airbox was gutted in favor of foam filters mated directly to the carburetors, the rear subframe was cut away to expose the tire, and a new fender was added and shaped. The mufflers were cut to match the pattern on the rear fender. Coil springs from a bicycle seat were added under a reshaped stock pan for some absorption over bumps...since the rear shocks are gone. New MX style bars were swapped in and a pair of dual lights added up front along with some LED lighting circumnavigating the rest of the bike rounded out the looks department. A few carb cleanings/rebuild later, new brakes and tires, and the bike is now registered/insured and we took it for the inaugural ride yesterday. Being something of a Superman fan, my friend was inspired by my bike (the red one) for the overall stance, and he painted his blue...so the title was rather fitting.      |
 April 9, 2012 - 2:05pm | Title had me, didn't know what to expect. Nice though, and this is the going rate for a welding mask? I think I have one in the basement ask your friend if he wants to trade? LOL. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 9, 2012 - 7:34pm | Well, I'll certainly ask the friend of the friend ;) |
 April 9, 2012 - 9:07pm | Nice bikes. Is the Thunderbird background in Colorado? |
April 9, 2012 - 10:51pm | No, that's at the main gate of Nellis AFB, home of the Thunderbirds (Las Vegas) |
April 10, 2012 - 9:01am | This is about how Blue startedlife, although it had a busted up piece of fairing over the front:
big improvement 
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