SH350 Next Week

[Dave Weller]

Maybe they got it right with my 2018CBR500R, which is lovely bike to ride on poor roads.

[Capt. R Swipe]

Off-topic I know, but that's a tad annoying. With eyes on a possible Scandinavian tour in a couple of years, a used CB500X was top of my list for suitable bikes.

Still off-topic capitano - do some digging into the forks of the CB500X - you'll find that there is at least one 5"-6" plastic spacer at the top of one fork tube. I did not expect rubbish suspension even on a budget bike as the 500X.
IIRC, there is a spring in one fork-leg only and oil in the other; although I may be thinking of our CRF250L, as this is the set-up in the CRF's
softly-sprung forks.

There may be a cheap way of fixing the 'crashing', with longer springs - certainly not Rally Raid's expensive approach. I was so dissapointed
with the CB500X that I got rid. In the 2019 model, the front forks were adapted to fit the wheel-size change from 17" to 19", but I suspect that the forks were still the budget option on these later CB500X bikes. By the time people go down an expensive CB500X RR conversion they'd have been better off with a more suited bike from the start.

So back on topic, I don't want to go ever go back to budget suspension such as on Yam's MT07s, and the CB500X. No bike is ever perfect, but those CB500X forks were one of the crappiest experiences that I can remember on any of my bikes over 39 years and I can easily forgive my Plastic Maggot! That mention of the SH300's pot-hole ride has brought back these memories.

EDIT: capitano - have you ever looked at Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook website? One of his tabs list a review and thoughts on almost every 'Adventure' bike over the years that has been made and that he has ridden and considered 'worthy' of long distance overlanding.

[Capt. R Swipe]

I agree with the Captain about the CB500X's suspension - that was one of the reasons I got rid of my 2018 model.

Surprising given that the 'X' models are allegedly 'Adventure' models! There again the CB500s are designed to be cheap.

Yep Mr G, they are 'Adventure' models BUT they are still 'budget' in terms of 21st C money-saving-approaches by every manufacture of every item we buy these days. However, I remember taking a few of my older/earlier 'budget bikes' front suspension to their limits and hitting the stops gently, but none 'crashed' into the stops like that CB500X did regularly almost every day.

[Flyingpanman]

I'm surprised at the mention of poor suspension on the SH300i. I test rode a 2020 model in the North West and deliberately took it down a very badly pot-holed road near the dealer. I was quite happy with it - especially compared to how my Silverwing 600 used to be before I uprated the front and rear. Even so, it coped better than my Silverwing does with the upgrades, so I may well be out to buy an SH300 soon.