Topic: Any Experience with 82 Honda Ascot FT single

[Tom in Newcastle......Ontario]

Been thinking for a while about a 82 Ascot............city riding ,back roads etc..........

Any one had one or know much about them..........have heard about, oil leaks at the head,and starter bushing issues...........

[Brown Bomber]

Never ridden one myself, but Herschel Benkert of Western Hills Honda rides one all over the place. He can build/ride what ever he wants, and has a vast selection to choose from, so they must be good. From what I understand, those bikes are very low maintenance. 

[kirkn]

I love 'em!  I've had two (well, I had one and my son had another).  Mine was an '83 and his was an '82 but they're identical except for graphics.

The good:
Light, flickable, very 'satisfying' torque and response of the 500cc single.  Super fun on backroads, around town, and commuting.  Nice enough on the highway, too, but can get pushed around by wind.  And of course, you might be cramped/underpowered a bit two-up on the highway...  Two highly-recommended mods:  go up a size or two on the pilot jet and main jet.  Makes more power, starts better and actually gets better mileage!  Then, go up one or two teeth on the front sprocket.  Slows the motor down nicely for 55+mph riding, and with the power that comes from the jetting swap, you still have power available.

Ours never got less than 55 mpg on my daily commute or my son's riding either.  All speed-limit 45 ~ 50 surface streets and stoplights.

The bad:
Yep, you've hit the two issues.  They had a tendency towards top-end oil leaks at the cam cover joint to the head and they could have gimpy starters because of a gimpy 17-separate-gears-and-shafts reduction design (or so it seemed...)   Mine suffered both, but my son's didn't have either.

However, the fixes are easy and well-documented, and once done, the problems don't re-occur.  At least, mine didn't.


All in all, I'd recommend one in a heartbeat!  In fact, I wouldn't mind having one again, if I happened across one...  :-)

Good luck, whichever way you go.

Kirk

[Brown Bomber]

I think they have basically the same motor as the GB500, so it seems they would make a good Cafe. I've toyed with the idea if I find one cheap enough.

[Tom in Newcastle......Ontario]

Kirk.......have you done anything about the oil leak or is it similar to the leaks on the cb 550,.live with it.I have read about people re-bushing or roller bearing the starter,and putting kick start from I think xl 500...

[Old Scrambler]

Great Bike.........Had two and thinking about another......I did the carb and sprocket mods with good results.  Easy to re-sell.  Look at Yahoo! Groups for a lot of detailed info and an annual meet.

I solved the valve inspection leak by cleaning and making a gasket. Never had a starter problem. Found out that the stock muffler gets way-better mileage and best for top-end power. The gas-tanks are prone to rust if the bike sat. Fairly easy to get parts.

[kirkn]

Re: the same motor as the GB: - well, not quite.  The early XL/XR 500s had a 4-valve head arranged in a "normal" pattern with conventional rocker arms operating the valves.  In '82 or '83, Honda introduced the RFVC head - Radial Four Valve Chamber.  It had 4 valves arranged 'radially' around the piston centerline.  It's complicated and requires little sub-rockers, etc.  AFAIK, it's still in use today in the 650 motor and you can see the cast 'RFVC' on the side of the cam cover.

Anyway, the Ascot motor, although the bike came out for '82 and '83, used the pre-RFVC style head.  Gotta pay for that old tooling somehow...    The GB used the RFVC head, even though by then the motor had grown from 500cc to 600cc to 650cc.  Go figure.  

As for leaks, they developed leaks every place they used an O-ring: intake and exhaust tappet covers, tachometer drive cover, and the rocker arms where they insert into the head from the left side.  And, they didn't really leak when new, only nowadays.  The fix is easy and cheap: $10 or $15 worth of new O-rings from Mother Honda (or yer favorite aftermarket supplier).

Occasionally, they'd begin to leak from the cam cover-to-head joint, because there's no gasket there - it's pure metal-to-metal.  And, the cam cover is held down by weeny 6mm bolts which can easily strip in the soft aluminum of the head if yer cousin Elmer starts crankin' 'em down good 'n tite.     Again, the fix is easy - helicoils fix any stripped threads permanently and cheaply.

My Ascot developed leaks all 'round, and new O-rings as mentioned and sanding the tappet covers and the cam cover on a piece of sandpaper on a piece of glass (the poor man's granite table) took care of the leaks for the next year / 10k miles I owned it.  I never had any stripped cover bolts tho.  There's an excellent Yahoo!Group forum out there that has lots and lots of files, info and how-tos.  That's where I got all MY info from.  

[Tom in Newcastle......Ontario]

Good stuff....... .thanks........just have to get to a price agreement.......

[kirkn]

Yeah, the one starter shaft can wallow out the soft aluminum it sits in in extreme cases and it can be fixed with a readily available needle bearing.  The procedure is 'out there'.  Mine didn't need that.  All the starters generally need is a clean/lube/reassemble.  There is one particular fussy bit that doesn't get lubed, and it dries out, stops doing its thing and it's semi-downhill from there.

Yep, the kickstarter from the XL/XR can be added on, but it's not trivial, IMO.  It seemed to me that you needed, like, 458 individual components to do it...  

[scottly]

I have an '82 Ascot, no problems with leaks (but the PO may have fixed them before I got it). The starter was a bit anemic, as I recall, but the only problem was with the solenoid getting stuck. (It hasn't been run in a number of years)  I can confirm it has the same basic motor as the '82 XR, although some-what de-tuned. Not a bad bike at all, but a bit heavy compared to the XR. I have a Honda sales brochure for the '83 model FT that lists the dry weight at 350.6 pounds. There is a lot of potential in the motor, just using stock XR parts, and they are pretty much bullet proof. My friend Hammered his '82 XR in the dirt; rode it HARD, and put it up wet, and to our amazement, it took a licking and kept on ticking. I'm still trying to talk him into giving me the motor so I can transfer the good parts to the Ascot, like the aftermarket cam and 38mm Mikuni carb.