Back into Motorcycling - Honda FT500

I've been itching to get a motorcycle that I could commute to work on every since I sold my Honda Element. I've been watching eBay and Craigslist for an older Thumper (single cylinder) or twin to make a cafe racer type of bike with (on a TIGHT budget).

I happened to see a, 1982 Honda FT500 for sale on the east coast of FL pretty inexpensive with low miles and a single owner so I put money down on it to take it off the market and drove there that weekend.
It has minor issues but was really clean and fun to drive so I bought it. Her name is Thumper, btw...these photos show how it looks now to what I started with.

I ended up having to tear apart the front end when the forks started leaking badly and by doing so I saved $100.00 on the fork rebuild.

I ended up putting brag bars on it and lowering the spedo & tach along with replacing the small square headlight with a larger round one....it was much lower than the square one also.



I ended up putting some clubman bars and bar end mirrors on it and really liked how it came out.


It's been a blast to drive...it gets almost 60 mpg and it's saving wear n tear on the 200K+ minivan.

Ciao,
Rick

FL CX Championship - Dade City

What turned out to be the last race of the season for me....the "State Championships". My back got pretty messed up (I don't know what I did but it's f'd up). I have been taking it easy to rest it but really wanted to do this race...they promised it wouldn't be a dirt crit like last year so I wanted to support it.
I brought Sadie with me....she's been acting weird lately so I didn't want to leave her at home.
I warmed up and thought the layout was pretty sweet. The race started and I was in good position...barely missed a guy biting it hard in the first gravel turn....I was 15 back in the combined 35+/45+ field....and was doing well for 2-3 laps. I was actually catching and passing some folks and thinking I could finish well. Except for the buddy of mine that I've beaten in the other races....he was on fire that day and just pulled away.
The last 2 laps were terrible.....my back was seizing up and I was doing everything I could to loosen it up. I thought the hell with it and I'm going to finish this damn thing. I hung on to keep 10th.
The garmin data is here....