Honda CL500 The Bike With Heart & Soul

Great review thanks 🎉

Yes, very thorough review as always. I love the looks, but crappy sound and my old GS500E has more power and torque.

For the price of a tank you can change its colour. Excellent bike, excellent review. Thanks ER😃👍

Carol Decker…you old smoothie heart breaker

A fun bouncy review, and you're right nobody wants a thatch roof 😊

I will buy Chinese made bike, but this no clutch , pretend riding I do not like. But here I am looking at a Trail 125. Started to look at the other line of 125 of Hondas, but none have that back rack

It's a Honda so it's gonna be good I would imagine. Not something I'd go for but good in depth review Steve.
I wouldn't have a thatched roof either mate. 😂

Agree with everything you said. 9000km on mine, mainly country lanes. Great all rounder and perfect for heading down tracks to explore. The NX is objectively a better bike (and so it should be in view of the price difference) but I agree the CL has more character somehow. 2025 model has repositioned pegs, a new seat and improved LCD.

A very enjoyable video. Thanks ER.

Excellent bike for the money Steve had a look at this bike in st Lo (while looking at a hunter 350) 🥴 lot of bike for the money, exhaust can is huge and means no pannier on that side which is a bit of a pain. ….. Pete 🇫🇷

A nicely rounded review of the Honda, ER.
My next bike will be a Honda but it won't be this one as I wouldn't be able to gel with the quirky looks, plus the seat to foot peg height would not be enough.

Excellent honest review ER. Had mine a year now, and it's handled the wet, gravel and muck strewn, muddy, flooded winter roads with ease. Loads of fun too! Going on a long weekend tour soon.
By the way, the tank pads are not stock items neither was the seat. That bag is worth it's weight in gold.
Thanks again for review, take care and ride safe.

Evening Exeter 😊 your first video on the CL500 helped me decide to get one 👍 the set isn't the standard one it's the comfort seat 😊 give my love to Ruby, oops, that's the other channel 😊😅😂

Royal Enfield please.

I just cant get past the awful looks and that exhaust!

I bought a blue CL500! So I guess we think alike!

I saw one of these in the flesh, sort of, at Dammerells the other day. It looked really good. Like something I could ride. Still on the list if I ever get a big bike.

Was the seat more padded or was your seat more padded?

Sorry, couldnt resist 🤭

Good review, I have owned the exact same bike since September, also with all the options. The brown seat is the optional taller comfort seat. I chose this over the NX500 as I prefer the responsiveness and slightly lower gearing, as well as the quirky looks.

Deffo a bike for everyone, except me that is as its a tad too high. 😔

It looks a bit weird. How doe it compare to the Himalayan for green laning?

Your enthusiasm for the CL is infectious. I think I should buy it. Next week!

In temped to buy a cl500 as my daily commute bike , just not sure about lack of wind protection as 25 miles on motorway daily , current bike is vstrom 1050 which is great but getting a bit big and heavy and I'm getting old

I come to your channel to find out about bikes I'm interested in or just curious about.

That's a great-looking bike, Steve. Most of the bikes I've owned have been Hondas, and I have never been disappointed. Thank you for the video!

George

I am trying to sell my 390 Duke so I can buy a CL500. Very good-looking bike. I don't like the accessory high front mudguard. The cowl is okay. I'd get the side bag. Was the one on your bike a Honda Product? I like the riding triangle you get with scramblers and dirt bikes. It'll be a good second bike to my big 'scrambler', an SCR950. Around 5,200 GBP in Thailand. I'm waiting for the 2025 model, though as they have improved the dash so you can easily read it in bright sunlight which is nearly all the time over here. Enjoyed this review. Nick

Massively underrated the Honda 500 range. I’ve been all over Europe on my CB500x. Always started first time, never missed a beat. Been riding Hondas for 40+ years, never been left stranded 🙂✌🏻

Mine is beautiful in green, totally ditched the white cowl and hand guards for (to ME, it is totally subjective!) a way better looking bike. The dealer suggested painting the cowl black, but I fitted a Puig small windscreen and the crashbars from the Rebel, plus some nice orange lights on the crashbars. Totally looks great to me. I like the sound from that exhaust, it is deep but soft at the same time, again just a personal thing, everyone has their own taste. The sound and the lovely easy handling on twisty roads sold it to me, compared with taller and heavier bikes. The only disadvantage is if you plan to do extended touring I think you would be better off with bike with a bigger petrol tank (although the small size is possibly a big factor in the easy handling) and one where you can fit panniers both sides. Still, I don't tour but ride every day with occasional motel overnights, so not an issue. You could fit another exhaust pretty easily if you want to tour, but if you need learner approved then any bike modifications like that (which affect power output) might be illegal in NZ and maybe an excuse for an Insurance payout cop-out, I don't know for sure.

Great vid you managed to stay up right off road, I seem to have a close attachment to the ground at the moment🤣👍👍👍

I think it's pig ugly

You can 't beat a Honda, in my opinion anyway. Great video and I like the intro, your camera crew did a great job. Not my bike for looks but I'm sure many will fall in love with it. Cheers

I have this bike (3000 km) as my first bike. It's a great bike, nice sound and power. I don't like the mirrors which have awful visibility and are ugly, and I don't like vibrations in the sit. Everything else is amazing

The very BEST motorcycles made here in India Royal Enfield.
Only fools buy others..

That bike looks so much better with the white plastics on it ! It looks far less blocky and drab with the white bits on it.
Makes me realise that with a white tank, with a similar stripe on it to the screen, and a white rear mudguard with the rest blacked out, it would look really smart.
Come on Honda, make me a white version !!!!!!!

James, Ainsworth Rider ( have you done his kitchen lighting yet ? 😛), chopped in his two REs for one of these and I could see one of these replacing Norman for a bit of gentle off-roading. I don't ride fast off-road and I think this Honda would survive okay if I treated it gently over the rough bits, which I tend to do with Norman anyway. It would also be a fair bit lighter. But yeah, I need the tank and rear mudguard in white too, that would look mint. It would probably need a sump guard too, although with that exhaust system it might be tricky to fit one.
They could do with making an XE version ( using Triumph nomenclature here ), a slightly more hardcore version with knobblies and all of the protective bits on it as standard.
Now that would definitely get me thinking 🤔

Nice video Dave. I think you covered everything and you had me watching until the end, as usual !
Cheers monkey,
Jules et Monique en France.

Do like these. But too tall for me.😢
I like the hand guards headlight cowl etc……be nicer if Honda offered them colour coded.😊
Do miss the Rebel.😊

Think the nx is my fave of the 500s. Mr Fish has bellowed his around scotland and uk. Not keen on this model

I came close to buying one of these last year but when I went back for it the bike was gone. Another dealership grabbed it for the orange color. 
I like the accessories on the bike you rode.
I think Honda would sell more of these if they would do some fun things like paint the frame something besides black, put the shorter exhaust on it, make the front fender a bit higher to allow mud to clear, some real knobby tires on the bike. At the manufacture's cost that would raise the price of the bike but not as much as buyer doing it after purchase. Make the bike a bit more fun and still affordable to attract more of the new riders and possibly more experienced riders as well because I agree that the bike is capable of handling a great variety of terrain.

nice bike , who thought that exhaust would be a good idea ? really ?

I really enjoyed that enthusiastic review Steve. It seems to be a solid, practical, useable bike. Not the prettiest, but real world sensible. I think we need more bikes that are genuinely fun all rounders.

Taken my cl500 all over Ireland, and parts of Europe, even along the hard offfoad TET trail ...did it all , brilliant bike 😊

Compare with a Kawasaki eliminator 500 pls

Quand you tube traduira automatiquement tout ces excellents reportages étrangers ce sera parfait pour ceux qui ne parle pas anglais et pour les personnes atteintes de surdité !

Great visuals, especially the ending montage 👍🏼 I just can't get over the horrendous exhaust, both position and size. I understand the practical nature of a scrambler, but it's hardly likely to be ridden through anything deeper than the axles in all seriousness.

like you i am a honda man. sold my cbf600s for a cb500x 23 plate. lovely bike. also have a silverwing 600 scooter for the winter months riding to work. cl is a great bike. great video thank you.🙏🙏🙏🙏