The 2023 Honda CL500 is an easy-going introduction to retro scrambling | MCN Review
The 2023 Honda CL500 is an easy-going introduction to retro scrambling | MCN Review
#Honda#CL#500
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Content
0 -> hello and welcome to motorcycle news
2.28 -> welcome to Seville and welcome to
Honda's new 2023 CL 500. [Music]
17.34 -> now the CL is Honda's fifth addition to their 500
range and it joins the cbr500r the fully fared one
30.96 -> the cb500x adventure bike the cb500f naked and the
Honda cmx 500 Rebel and the rebel is the one that
41.16 -> this sort of shares the most Parts with so the
CL gets the same Mainframe as the rebel and it
47.04 -> gets the sort of similar State Of Tune as well so
the differences between the CL and the rebel are
54.18 -> sort of mainly towards the rear of the bike so
it's got a new subframe for starters it's also
59.4 -> got a new swing arm as well now both of those
are specific to the cl to give it a little bit
64.38 -> more strength at that rear end and obviously help
it to look less like a really low Cruiser as well
70.14 -> as that there's also an added tooth on the rear
sprocket as well to give it a little bit more
74.76 -> extra pep a little bit more acceleration at low
speeds now on top of that we've also got some
81.24 -> other tweaks to the motor so I'm going to go into
that now so as I said before the motors are 471
87.06 -> CC Euro 5 compliant parallel twin and what Honda
have done for the CL is sort of play with the air
93.18 -> intake and they've also given it a new high-rise
exhaust now that exhaust as is the rest of the
97.98 -> bikes looks it's designed to mimic the early Honda
CLS of the 1960s and the 1970s now that's a twin
105.96 -> exit unit obviously all fully Euro fives are all
packed full of catalytic converters and all of
111.48 -> that nonsense and it makes a really nice sort of
verbal when you're cruising around town what I
117.48 -> will say though is it's kind of lost anywhere
above 40 miles per hour and that's unfortunate
122.58 -> really because this is a Scrambler supposed
to have that Scrambler character but the CL
126.78 -> is very refined as you would expect from a Honda
so there's sort of minimal vibes from the engine
132.54 -> as well it's sort of sewing machine smooth and
sort of sewing machine quiet a lot of the time
137.4 -> unfortunately and what's that that's really
nice around town and there's no drama for New
142.14 -> Riders I'd personally like a little bit more
character a bit bit more sort of vibration I
146.58 -> want to know it's on I want to know it's sort
of rumbling beneath me being that scrambler
157.44 -> now the other key change for this one as I said
was the the air intake system so this has got a
162 -> specific air intake away from the rebel and what
Honda have done is basically helped the throttle
167.88 -> response um which is a tad jerky on that Rebel
and it's much better on the CL we spent loads
174.9 -> of time today in the scorching City Center of
Seville and the fueling was really really nice
180.36 -> there's no sort of on off switch acceleration and
jerkiness Honda are also saying that there's a
185.64 -> bit more acceleration and a bit more torque at
the bottom end but I'd be lying if I said that
190.02 -> I could feel that to be honest you know this
is a Circa 46 brake horsepower parallel to an
194.76 -> engine which is compliant for A2 license laws
without restriction it needs to be worked hard
200.58 -> basically you know more than enough power there
to get off the line first at the traffic lights
204.96 -> but if you want to take it out of town and do
overtakes and stuff like that you have to work
209.76 -> the gearbox you have to work the engine and you
have to rev it hard [Music] [Applause] [Music]
219.54 -> foreign so away from the motor and the performance
I want to talk about the handling of the CL
225.54 -> because it's one of its party pieces one of the
best bits about the bike the biggest compliment
230.16 -> that I can give the CL is it's a bike that you
get on and you're instantly familiar with there's
234.3 -> a real gentle reach to the handlebars all the
controls are really light and it handles and
239.52 -> it stops and you know behaves exactly as you
would expect a motorbike to behave it's sort
245.1 -> of 100 Honda aiming this at New Riders at novices
as well as experienced Riders and this really does
250.38 -> you know take those boxes if if you're a new Rider
and you want the sort of 70s style retro I think
256.02 -> the handling of this bike would really really play
into your hands now providing that handling setup
262.14 -> is a 19-inch front wheel being a scrambler for a
little bit of off-roady type presence and we've
267.9 -> got a 17 at the back we've also got 41 millimeter
non-adjustable forks with some nice rubber Gators
274.62 -> on them as standard and we've got some twin shocks
at the back to give it a little bit more of that
279.3 -> retro feel now those twin shocks are adjustable
for preload you've got five stages of adjustable
284.76 -> preload on there I weigh about 10 Stone sort of
fully wet through I didn't really need to make any
290.76 -> changes the bike is quite soft as standard you can
feel the front working you can feel the back end
297.78 -> working and when you're riding hard you can feel
it sort of moving around but it's not it's not
303 -> moving around badly there is a bit of a dive on
the front end when you brake and there is a little
307.56 -> bit of squat at the back but it's a good amount of
travel to have it's not tying itself up in knots
312.18 -> you're just aware of the bike working with the
good Diamond chassis in the middle providing the
317.4 -> braking up front is a single Twin piston caliper
and at the rear we've got a single piston caliper
324.06 -> now on the face of it not that powerful however
the bike weighs 192 kilograms all in only makes
330.42 -> 47 horsepower as I said there's more than enough
performance there and actually I would say it's
335.52 -> one of the better performing of the 500 range one
of my criticisms of the Rebel the sister bike to
341.22 -> this is that there really isn't much front brake
feel whereas there's loads on the CL and whilst
346.5 -> it's got abs at the front and the rear to help
with New Riders and get it through euro five
351.72 -> it never really kicks in it's only when you're
being really ham-fisted and and you know being
357 -> mean to the poor little thing that the ABS kicks
in but outside of that it just kind of leaves you
361.8 -> to get on with it of course being a Honda as
well if you do give it a big squeeze of lever
366.66 -> you do get a flashing of the hazards which
I think is a bit of a gimmick to be honest
372 -> um but you know you can see it working
when you're following other Hondas around
377.88 -> that softer suspension is also useful when
you fancy tackling some light scrambling
382.08 -> with 150 millimeters of movement up front and 145
millimeters of travel at the rear our test route
389.22 -> included a couple of kilometers of dusty fire
track and it was more than capable of spinning
393.6 -> a wheel and soaking up the cobbles obviously aided
by that 19 inch front wheel it's far from a true
399.78 -> Adventurer though with 155 millimeters of ground
clearance and no bash plate to protect its blacked
405.42 -> out exhaust headers that rear ABS also can't be
switched off which may deter some more serious
411.18 -> adventurers so away from the handling then I just
want to talk about some of the tech gubbins that
418.08 -> you get on the CL now obviously I talked about
the the indicators flashing up when you give
422.58 -> it a handful of break or give a big old stamp on
the rear those those indicators in fact all of the
428.58 -> lights all the way around um are full LED which
is a really nice touch on a bike that has a launch
434.46 -> price in 2023 of 599 pounds I don't think that's
bad at all outside of that you're not getting
441.6 -> any Rider age you're not getting any different
throttle Maps or anything like that it doesn't
445.08 -> need it it would have been pointless if they added
it would have just been additional weight for no
448.98 -> good reason what you do get though is a single
unit LCD display now this can be found on the
455.58 -> rebel already and it's sort of nicely in keeping
with the rest of the front end of the bike you
460.68 -> know that nice minimalist look unfortunately I do
think it does sort of let the bike down a little
465.96 -> bit in the the scorching midday Sun the really
intense Spanish Sun it was hard to read that
471.06 -> Dash I mean Honda did make a make a point in the
presentation of saying that you could read this
475.2 -> in all light conditions I'm afraid you can't and
actually I've lived for a couple of weeks with
480.06 -> the rebel in the UK in a drizzly English winter
and when it really rains hard as well it's hard
485.64 -> to read that Dash so when you're back home away
from this lovely location you are going to find a
490.32 -> few struggles with that I mean outside of that you
get lots of nice details but you don't get a rev
494.82 -> counter which could be annoying for some people
don't really think it's the end of the world you
498.54 -> can kind of work out when you need to change gear
but that might be a downside for some away from
505.08 -> that just want to talk briefly about the switch
gear and the levers so that both are really light
510 -> those levers which helps with the whole new Rider
thing and you know when you're negotiating traffic
514.8 -> there's no clutch ache or anything like that and
the actual switch gear as well has a real nice
521.82 -> a real nice click to it it's like a it's like
a sort of Fisher Price switch gear it feels
527.04 -> like it's going to stand the test of time
and is sort of real idiot proof and isn't
531.72 -> going to break which is really really nice
while I'm talking about the front end I will
534.9 -> just touch on the mirrors as well lots of nice
visibility but because they're quite close to
539.76 -> you on the bike you do lose a lot of the the
sort of vision that's going on here you can
545.04 -> see sort of directly over your shoulder but
if someone's sort of just riding here you do
549.6 -> have quite a big blind spot with these so you
you sort of forever doing uh Lifesaver checks
555.9 -> which you know you should be doing those anyway
but you just need to do a few more on this one
563.16 -> foreign
568.68 -> ER have gone to town with the amount of
customization that you can do with the CL and
573.12 -> this bike here is dressed in some of those options
now Honda gives you the option of three accessory
577.74 -> packs or you can kind of mix and match some of the
options so this is a bit of a mix and matcher so
582.84 -> this is an option this brown seat as are these
uh White hand guards as is this uh little piece
588.9 -> of Bodywork here and these Adventure style foot
pegs as well now I'll start with the seats because
597.9 -> it adds 30 millimeters to the seat height so it
comes as 790 mil as standard this brings it up to
604.32 -> 820 but it is narrower so it doesn't really affect
your ability to touch the floor what it does do is
609.66 -> kind of take you away from the riding experience
a little bit your bum to bike contact is reduced
614.7 -> because you've got this thicker seat and you
lose any of those minimalist vibrations and it
619.68 -> sort of just detracts from that sort of authentic
Scrambler feel a little bit more unfortunately
624.9 -> also um doesn't quite seek properly if you pardon
the pun so if you can hear there is a bit of
632.34 -> movement as well which you can feel moving from
side to side when you're uh when you're moving
636.84 -> around the bike when you're riding spiritedly
outside of that the Bodywork looks nice it keeps
642.06 -> the wind off of you really nicely that little
cowling but it is all only available in white
646.26 -> at the moment so you know you can get a blue bike
you can get an orange bike you can get an earthy
651.18 -> color and a black one but if you want these pieces
of Bodywork they're all going to be white so you
656.22 -> know whether that's your cup of tea or not I'll
leave that up to you my only other criticism of
661.14 -> the bike actually comes from these optional foot
pegs which obviously have no rubbers in because
665.58 -> they're sort of Adventure style off-road pegs they
look the part they grip your boots really nicely
670.02 -> but they take away some of the vibration damping
so when you're riding Motorway speeds you get a
675.84 -> real noticeable sort of vibe through the bottom of
your feet that's fine on short Journeys but we did
680.94 -> a sort of an hours blast back into the center
of town and had a real tingle in my feet after
686.1 -> that and just an Ever So slight annoyance which I
would uh prefer not to have had and actually you
691.92 -> know this bike isn't designed for full off-road
so I don't really think you need grippy metal
696.84 -> off-road foot pegs on a bike like this anyway
outside of that there are options for luggage
702.48 -> you can't get a pannier on this side because of
the uh big old exhaust but you can get one on this
707.94 -> side you can also get a bag if you want to sort
of do a bit of commuting to and from the office
715.38 -> so I think that is a fair enough Roundup of
the CL500 overall is a real easy to ride gentle
722.88 -> Scrambler that's a real nice addition to that
Honda 500 lineup there are a few little criticisms
727.92 -> like that Dash like the mirrors but overall you
know it's a Doddle to ride it's really simple
733.44 -> it's really comfortable um and um if I was going
to buy one I'd perhaps do without the the off-road
740.16 -> pegs and the brown seat uh so that's all from
me here I hope you enjoyed this um if you did
746.28 -> enjoy it please remember to like And subscribe
and we'll see you on the next one cheers guys
753.72 -> thank you
754.74 -> [Music]
755.132 -> [Music]
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_zxHowSN8Y