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| {{Motorcycle
| | #Redirect [[Honda VT500FT]] |
| |name = Honda VT500FT Ascot
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| |photo=Honda-VT500FT--1.jpg
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| |aka = VT 500 FT Ascot
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| |manufacturer = Honda
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| |parent_company =
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| |production = 1983 - 85
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| |model_year =
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| |predecessor =
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| |successor =
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| |class =Cruiser
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| |engine = Four stroke, 52°V-twin, SOHC, 3 valves per cylinder.
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| |bore_stroke =
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| |compression = 10.5:1
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| |top_speed = 196.3 km/h / 122 mph
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| |power =
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| |torque =
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| |fuel_system =
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| |ignition = Electronic
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| |spark_plug ={{sparkplug|NGK DPR8EA-9}} `83-84<ref name="wps_street_2019">{{cite book|title=2019 Western Power Sports Catalog|publisher=[https://www.wps-inc.com/catalogs Western Power Sports]|date=2019}}</ref>
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| |battery ={{battery|YUASA YB12A-A}} `83-84<ref name="wps_street_2019">{{cite book|title=2019 Western Power Sports Catalog|publisher=[https://www.wps-inc.com/catalogs Western Power Sports]|date=2019}}</ref>
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| |transmission = 6 Speed with [[overdrive]] top gear
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| |frame =
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| |suspension =Front: Air assisted telescopic forks. <br>
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| Rear: Pivoted fork dual adjustable shocks
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| |brakes =Front: Single disc 2 [[piston]] [[calipers]] <br>Rear: Drum
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| |front_tire = {{tire|100/90-18}}
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| |rear_tire = {{tire|120/80-18}}
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| |rake_trail =
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| |wheelbase =
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| |length =
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| |width =
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| |height =
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| |seat_height =
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| |dry_weight = 180 kg / 416.6 lbs
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| |wet_weight = 204.0 kg / 449.7 lbs
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| |fuel_capacity = 17 Liters / 4.4 US gal
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| |oil_capacity =
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| |recommended_oil=Honda GN4 10W-40
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| |fuel_consumption =
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| |turning_radius =
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| |related =
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| |competition =
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| |final_drive=Shaft `83-84<ref name="wps_street_2019">{{cite book|title=2019 Western Power Sports Catalog|publisher=[https://www.wps-inc.com/catalogs Western Power Sports]|date=2019}}</ref>
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| }}
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| It could reach a top speed of 196.3 km/h / 122 mph.
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| ==Engine==
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| The engine was a Liquid cooled cooled Four stroke, 52°V-twin, SOHC, 3 valves per cylinder.. The engine featured a 10.5:1 [[compression ratio]].
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| ==Chassis==
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| It came with a 100/90-18 front [[tire]] and a 120/80-18 rear tire. Stopping was achieved via Single disc 2 piston calipers in the front and a Drum in the rear. The front suspension was a Air assisted telescopic forks. while the rear was equipped with a Pivoted fork dual adjustable shocks. The VT500FT Ascot was fitted with a 17 Liters / 4.4 US gal fuel tank. The bike weighed just 180 kg / 416.6 lbs.
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| == Photos ==
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| [[File:Honda-VT500FT--1.jpg|600px|Honda VT500FT Ascot]]
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| [[File:Honda-VT500FT.jpg|600px|Honda VT500FT Ascot]] | |
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| == Overview ==
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| Honda VT 500FT Ascot
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| Review
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| There are a lot of ways to look at a motorcycle's performance,
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| and in the rush to record elapsed time, top speed, mileage, braking distance,
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| comfort, whatever, it's easy to overlook Fun.
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| Fun. All it takes is a ride on the Honda VT500 Ascot to remember
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| how important Fun is.
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| But first, an identity problem. Make that two identity problems.
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| One, the Ascot VT500 is named for Ascot Park, a California track
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| where countless legends have been born. Team Honda races at Ascot and has won
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| there. But they don't do either there with the Ascot VT500. For TT, Honda runs a
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| special-framed version of the XL600 Single. For the half mile, the factory uses
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| the CX500-based NS750 or the Shadow 750-based RS750. Despite what the innocent
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| may think they've seen on TV, the VT500 is not a racer, nor is it related to the
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| racers.
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| Two, there's the Ascot VT500, as seen here, and the Ascot FT500,
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| the same styling but with the XL500-de-rived air-cooled, chain drive Single,
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| that is, two different bikes with a name in common. Next to the Ascot VT500 is
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| the Shadow VT500C, which shares engine and drivetrain with the VT500 Ascot but
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| looks like the VT750C Shadow, which in turn has a water-cooled V-Twin similar in
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| principle but different in nearly every detail from the VT500 V-Twin.
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| Confusing. There will not be a quiz, but for the sake of
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| brevity, in this text references to the Ascot will mean the VT500 version, ditto
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| for the V-Twin, unless otherwise noted.
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| Luckily for us all, the styling department has done a more tidy
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| job with this bike. With its small gas tank, flat seat, integrated side panels
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| and sleek tail section, the Ascot looks like a track bike, in the blazing red
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| shown here or is it related to the racers. the optional nearly black blue.
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| The engine is as successful and as interesting. The VT500 is off
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| the same drawing board as the VT750, although there are no shared parts.
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| A 90° Vee has natural balance. A 45° Vee is compact and has an,
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| um, traditional look. Honda and Yamaha are busily reinventing the V-Twin and
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| both are looking for ways to get good balance and traditional compactness.
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| Yamaha is using 70° Vees and going to counterbalances when the engine is
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| designed to rev beyond traditional speeds. The Ascot has a 52° angle between the
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| cylinders, not for vibration control.
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| Honda's cure for imbalance is development of another idea, the
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| offset crankpin. Har-ley, Ducati, Moto Guzzi and Yamaha Vees have both
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| connecting rods on the same throw. The fore-and-aft Honda Vees have a throw
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| (pin) for each cylinder, spaced according to a formula that makes the connecting
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| rods and pistons think they're spaced more widely than the cylinders are.
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| They're also spaced side by side and that introduces another source of
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| vibration, the rocking couple, but as we'll see Honda's solution is workable if
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| not perfect. The crankshaft itself is a one-piece forging, with plain bearings
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| and two-piece connecting rods.
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| There's more innovative engineering in the cylinder heads. To
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| start with, the Ascot has three valves, two intake and one exhaust, packed into
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| a heart-shaped combustion chamber. The shape would push a single spark plug off
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| center, so to speak, so there are two plugs per cylinder. Lighting the fire two
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| places at once shortens flame travel and that means the engine will tolerate a
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| high compression ratio with so-so fuel and moderate spark advance. We sort of
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| hoped for a Twin version of the radial four-valve heads on the new Honda
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| Singles, but the factory reps say the two engine families are done by separate
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| design teams. But, as with the offset crankpins, the three-valve, two-plug head
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| gives good results. The heads are low, rather than no, maintenance: the single
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| overhead cam works the valves via rocker arms and clearance is adjusted with
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| screw tappets. The timing chains tension automatically.
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| Top gear in the six-speed box is 0.931:1, i.e. speeds up the
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| output shaft, allowing Honda to fit another one of those "OD" lights on the
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| instrument panel. Final drive is shaft, with the usual bevel gears.
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| The Ascot's two 32mm Keihin CV carbs are linked to a single
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| push-pull throttle drum and are fed by a horn-shaped chamber which fits between
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| the frame backbone tubes and connects the carbs to an under-seat airbox and
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| filter. The exhaust pipes both exit on the right side of the engine and meet in
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| an expansion box under the swing arm pivot, in front of the rear wheel. Exhaust
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| gasses exit through a single, large muffler. The exhaust is finished in black
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| chrome.
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| The frame is round steel tubing with dual front downtubes and
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| twin backbone tubes. The steel swing arm runs in tapered roller bearings and is
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| rectangular box-section on the right and round on the left, since the left side
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| encloses the driveshaft. There are two rear shock absorbers with adjustable
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| preload.
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| The leading axle forks have 37mm stanchion tubes and individual
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| air caps. There's a forged aluminum brace bolted between the two sliders, and
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| the lower triple clamp is steel.
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| The upper triple clamp is forged aluminum, and the steering stem
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| rides in ball bearings.
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| The tall, narrow radiator mounts between the frame downtubes and
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| a compact electric fan sits behind it. A section of the right downtube unbolts
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| to ease engine removal and installation, but doesn't carry coolant as similar
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| tubes do in some Hondas. Instead, metal tubes and rubber hoses link the
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| cylinders with the water pump and radiator.
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| The headlight is rectangular, and a plastic cover just below the
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| headlight hides the single horn. The handlebars are short, with little pullback.
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| The instruments are housed in a square-edged panel. There's a mechanical 120-mph
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| speedometer with odometer and re-settable trip meter, a mechanical 10,000-rpm
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| tachometer (redline is 9500 rpm), a coolant temperature gauge, warning lights
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| for oil pressure and taillight failure, and indicator lights for turn signals,
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| neutral, high beam and OD. The ignition switch and fork lock is mounted with the
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| instruments, while the choke control lever is built into the left handlebar
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| control pod.
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| Wheels are ^
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| Corn-Cast.
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| Honda's pressed-together combination of a cast aluminum hub and
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| spokes and a hollow, extruded aluminum rim. The front wheel is 2.15 x 18 in.,
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| the rear wheel 2.50 x 18 in., carrying a Bridgestone 3.50-18 L303 and a
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| Bridgestone 4.25-18 G504 respectively. The single front disc brake has a
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| twin-piston caliper. The rear brake is a mechanical drum.
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| The Ascot is in the hunt, especially if factors like retail
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| price and ease of service are added to the equation.
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| There's more to the Ascot than numbers and some of what goes
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| beyond numbers appears contradictory. Vibration. True, vibration is relative.
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| Ride the Ascot after time on a Really Big Twin and the little Vee is smooth as a
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| baby's cheek. Ride the Ascot after time on a Nighthawk 550 and the Twin feels
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| like the washing machine sounds when one leg falls off and the washer starts
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| running around the garage.
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| Back in class, the Ascot is normal for its type and size. Ever
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| since the invention of the internal combustion engine there have been certain
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| laws and limits, as in one cylinder is more difficult to balance than two, two
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| are more difficult than four, etc. Cylinders have been put in different places;
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| side by side, in a variety of Vees, opposed to each other. There have been
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| counterweights, rubber mounts, opposing crank pins, shared pins and now offset
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| pins.
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| All of which has come to prove that what matters most are the
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| size of the pistons and the state of engine tune. The VT500 doesn't shake things
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| off, it doesn't blur the mirrors.
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| We rather like the sensation. Lets you know it's an engine. Good
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| vibes, as they used to say. At the same time, despite no scientific measurement,
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| we suspect that the Yamaha's low-stress Virago 500 and counterbalanced Vision
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| 550 vibrate a bit less.
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| Because Honda offers all those other models 250 and 600 Singles,
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| 450 and 650 Twins, Twins with automatic transmissions and Twins with
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| turbochargers, right down to the Shadow VT500C, the same internals in a
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| different body, Honda gets to make the Ascot VT500 a definitely single purpose
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| machine.
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| That purpose is sport. The seat is firm and sloped to keep the
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| rider snug against the tank. The bars are narrow and low. The pegs are high.
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| There is only only riding position, borderline cramped, adding an immediacy and
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| slightly frantic quality to the rider's position, the same sort of no-frills
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| quick-response seat and controls relationship found on a racebike.
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| the saddle, with a 2.5-gal. gas tank and that narrow-narrow
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| engine. There isn't a lot of mass before the rider's eyes. Maybe it's a case of
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| out of sight, out of mind, but convincing an Ascot rider of the hard facts is
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| difficult unless that rider mans the tape measure and scale himself.
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| The Ascot isn't the most comfortable motorcycle in the highway,
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| mainly because of the seating position. The suspension plays a role here, too,
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| being tailored for sporting use and also being non-adjustable except for shock
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| preload and fork air pressure within the range of 0 to 6.0 psi. The forks work
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| well enough, but the shocks are not as compliant as we'd like over small bumps
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| in the road surface, and that's a compromise forced upon a sporting bike without
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| adjustable suspension.
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| Oh, yes. Suspension. We nearly forgot to mention the shaft
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| drive. We nearly forgot because it's not noticed. The Ascot doesn't leap up
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| under power or crouch when the throttle is rolled back. The engineers have used
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| the correct swing arm length and swing arm pivot position and tuned the
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| suspension damping to achieve what the others have said couldn't be done. Okay,
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| the Ascot doesn't have great fistfuls of power and that helps not create
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| driveshaft symptoms, but even so, the only time the Ascot's drive-shaft comes to
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| mind is when the chain doesn't need lube.
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| Cornering clearance is excellent and the rider has to work to
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| drag the early-warning footpeg "feelers," which extend downward from the ends of
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| the high, folding footpegs. The bike is stable in a straight line and in all
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| sorts of corners. About the most distressing thing it ever does is hop the rear
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| wheel slightly if the throttle is chopped going into a sharp corner.
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| Out on country roads the Ascot is at home, the rider busy
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| running up and down the gears and setting up for this corner or that. It will
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| pull at low rpm and plonk through city traffic, but the Ascot is happiest
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| reaching for the red-line, making good power over 6000 rpm and best power be-
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| tween 7000 rpm and redline at 9500 rpm.
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| The Ascot reached 104 in the half mile and is geared for 107 at
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| redline in 5th gear, which is the gear used for the top speed runs. Sixth, which
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| Honda calls overdrive, would be good for 123 at redline if the engine had the
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| power to pull it, which it doesn't. The advantage of that tall top gear is that
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| the engine spins slower at cruising speeds, as in 4600 rpm at 60 in top.
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| Just as the Ascot feels lighter than it is, so does it feel more
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| powerful than it is. This isn't a complaint, because the bike is certainly fast.
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| Instead, it's surprising when cruising at speed to arrive at a grade or meet a
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| headwind, reach down for more throttle and discover there isn't as much left as
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| you thought: oh yeah, it's only a 500.
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| There are some genuine complaints. The key switch is recessed
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| below the instrument panel and it's awkWard to reach with gloved hands. The tank
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| is smaller than it looks because of the wide tunnel needed for the hose from
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| carbs to air box. Some of the crew didn't like the bend of the bars although
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| because they're conventional style they can be swapped. The slick rear side
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| panels shield the frame tubes so there's no place to attach luggage. (The grab
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| handles recessed into the panels have tiny studs for bungee hooks, but that's
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| not enough.)
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| Passenger accommodations are impossible. The muffler is high so
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| the passenger pegs are higher still. The rear portion of the seat is thin and
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| short. It's legal but barely possible for a human being to perch there.
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| And now, the intangibles. The Ascot VT500 isn't the bike raced
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| at Ascot. Honda's offset crankpins don't undermine the laws of physics. The
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| suspension is stiff and the riding position cramped.
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| But the handling is crisp, the controls delightful and the
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| engine responsive beyond its numbers. The Ascot is quick and sure and rewarding.
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| The hype and compromises somehow fade away.
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| The Ascot is fun. B!
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| Source Cycle World 1983
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| {| class="wikitable"
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| |-
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| !Year
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| |1983 - 85
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| |-
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| !Engine Type
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| |Four stroke, 52°V-twin, SOHC, 3 valves per cylinder.
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| |-
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| !Displacement
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| |491 cc / 29.9 cu-in
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| |-
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| !Bore X Stroke
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| |71 x 62 mm
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| |-
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| !Cooling System
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| |Liquid cooled
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| |-
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| !Compression
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| |10.5:1
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| |-
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| !Induction
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| |2x 32mm Keihincarburetors
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| |-
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| !Ignition
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| |Electronic
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| |-
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| !Starting
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| |Electric
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| |-
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| !Max Power
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| |50 hp / 37.2 kW @ 9000 rpm
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| |-
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| !Max Torque
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| |42 Nm / 31 ft lb @ 7000 rpm
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| |-
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| !Transmission
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| |6 Speed with overdrive top gear
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| |-
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| !Final Drive
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| |Shaft
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| |-
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| !Front Suspension
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| |Air assisted telescopic forks.
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| |-
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| !Rear Suspension
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| |Pivoted fork dual adjustable shocks
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| |-
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| !Front Brakes
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| |Single disc 2 piston calipers
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| |-
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| !Rear Brakes
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| |Drum
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| |-
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| !Front Tire
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| |100/90-18
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| |-
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| !Rear Tire
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| |120/80-18
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| |-
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| !Dry Weight
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| |180 kg / 416.6 lbs
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| |-
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| !Wet Weight
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| |204.0 kg / 449.7 lbs
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| |-
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| !Fuel Capacity
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| |17 Liters / 4.4 US gal
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| |-
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| !Consumption Average
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| |41.3 mpg
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| |-
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| !Standing ¼ Mile
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| |13.6 sec / 94 mph
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| |-
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| !Top Speed
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| |196.3 km/h / 122 mph
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| |}
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| ==References==
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| {{reflist}}
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| [[Category:Honda motorcycles]]
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