For many months now I've been trawling the web, looking for comprehensive information on DIY Bike Resprays. Although I did find lots of valuable information - mostly hidden inside Forums and message boards, I felt that there's still space for another resource. I really enjoy reading about people's own experiences with this sort of thing, and suspected I'm not alone. So welcome to RideHard - where I'll be documenting my progress on the DIY Paintjob on my Honda CB500, as well as aim to provide other Motorcycle related information...

The main areas of this site, which I aim to update regularly, are as follows (can also be found in the menu bar above):

Biker Gear and Must-haves

Custom Paint & Airbrushing (DIY!)

My CB500 Project

Motorcycle Restauration & Repair

Motorcycle Travel

Before you can even begin to consider painting or even priming your bodypanels, you need to make sure they are in a good state. Since I had bought a cheap tank from eBay for my Honda CB500, I’d pretty much set myself up for a fair bit of prep work. The tank looked pretty reasonable [...]

Unfortunately my CB500 respray project has been on hold for the past couple of weeks. I’ve had nothing but trouble with the bike on the daily (modest) run to work. 

Symptoms: Perfect running until for no apparent reason the bike gets jerky, loses power, revs fall, and just acts as if it’s run out of petrol. [...]

A few months back I tried to start the CB500 in the cold, and stupidly switched on the choke before switching in the engine on. This little mistake turned into a big nuisance as the engine started, coughed and stopped and left me standing outside my office, repeatedly trying to start the bike again. However [...]

Just wanting to look something up I did a quick search for an online version of a service manual, well here is the full thing:
Honda CB500(S) 93-01 Service Manual

There are few things you’d enjoy less on that bike ride you’ve been working towards for months than being stranded in some foreign country, on a motorway, with a broken down motorcycle! However it is surprising how many people take a very passive approach to preparing for such situations! For instance, most motorcyclists I know, [...]

If you’re looking into repainting your motorcycle (or other vehicle) yourself, depending on the skills and budget you have, there are various options for you to consider. They inevitably are divided by cost constraints, as you will see.
“The $50 repaint”
This method was conceived to be done on classic cars, if all you’ve got is [...]