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cotetoi
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2018 5:19 pm
I ride: 2007 Honda Silverwing 600

New member

Postby cotetoi » Sat Jan 13, 2018 5:37 pm

Hey from Atlantic Canada. Senior rider , 65, started at 57, so, relatively new rider. I have a 2007 Silverwing 600 scooter. Previous bikes include 1995 Honda VLX, 1998 Honda ACE 750, 2005 Silverwing 600, 1986 Honda Helix, 1998 Honda VT1100 T. All sold, except for the 2005 Silverwing: totaled in a crash 2 years ago.
I like to have 2 bikes in the stable. So, I am looking to get a Vulcan 500 , no later than 1996 because I like the cast wheels from the earlier years. I am doing my research for now, although there is a potential candidate not far from my home. I may take a look at it in the next few weeks. It's a 92 with 31,000 km. I like the pictures on the web. What appeals most is the seat height, I'm 5'3" with 27" inseam.
What I'd like to find out from the forum members are the potential pitfalls and weak points of the bike. A used bike is always a gamble, but I'd like to cover as many bases as possible. I'm going to be reading the posts here too.
Cheers,
Jay.

User avatar
Triangles
Site Admin
Posts: 819
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:35 pm
I ride: '94 Black Cherry Vulcan 500, '06 Candyfire Red Vulcan 500 LTD
Location: Toledo Ohio
Contact:

Re: New member

Postby Triangles » Mon Jan 15, 2018 12:29 pm

FYI EN500A is first gen and EN500C is 2nd. In '96 both versions were sold. I too love the cast wheels. They fit just fine on my EN500C too. You just have to get the speedo gear thingy from the EN500A too. I'll ramble a little bit about the bike. One of the reasons I bough the Vulcan 500 was ease of maintenance. The weak points is the exhaust. I don't know about the exhaust on the EN500A but on the EN500C the inner pipe tends to break fairly close to engine somewhere in the 21-25K mile range. This doesn't affect much other than the annoying sound of the inner pipe rattling. If I searched the forums I could tell you when it happened to me. I simply took the exhaust off and welded up the vent holes between the inner and outer pipes to force the exhaust to go thru the mufflers. This quieted things down by an order of magnitude. I am now approaching 30K miles still on the original pipes. I can still hear the rattle but it doesn't bother me. The other thing although not necessarily specific to the Vulcan 500 is dealing with carburetors. If you aren't afraid of that then it's a great bike. If not cared for the carbs tend to gum up and have a huge flat spot not far off idle. Typical symptoms are the bike idles fine but stumbles horribly when you go to take off and hold on if you go WOT because it will take off like a rocket once WOT gets the fuel flowing. I inadvertently popped a wheelie doing this when I ran out of gas at a light and switched the tank over to reserve. I didn't realize I had gone WOT while trying to start it. It was still stumbling as the carbs were refilling with fuel and I started to let off the clutch and go at the same time the carbs must have refilled and really started flowing fuel since I took off and the front wheel came up. Scared the shit out of me but I just pretended like it was on purpose. LOL. I also don't like the chain on the EN500C but that is mostly because I'm lazy and don't like to do any more maintenance than I have to. I've had both and for a shorter rider the EN500A might be the wrong choice. It feels like it has more weight up high. The EN500A also less low end torque but it is higher revving and puts out a few more ponies. I got about 110 miles out of a tank on my EN500A and about 160 from my EN500C. The valve adjustment interval is every 6000 miles. bikerbill on here if he hasn't already got there yet is approaching 200k miles on an EN500C. IIRC he stripped it down and refreshed it with a much lower mileage engine at about 110K miles so the engine is pretty bullet proof. Do some searching on here you can save a bundle by using equivalent automotive oil filters. No need for MC specific filters. ok I'm done rambling for now.
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