what do you use your ft500 for? type of riding, etc?

[troy_mclure]

what do you use your ft500 for? commuting, touring, dual sport, jotting about town, etc... ?

i bought my 82 with 12,300 miles for $1000. added $350 to it in parts.

now its my daily commuter bike. 500 miles a week. im hoping it lasts me 2 years.

i currently get 65-67 mpg.

40 of my 94 daily miles are interstate, 65-70 mph @ 4700-4900 rpm.

[J6G1Z]

I am fortunate enough to own a couple of bikes, but my FT500 Ascot is my "Go To" bike & my favorite. I feel more confident in my riding skills on my Ascot. I think it's because I grew up riding Dirt Bikes & my first Street Bike was a VT500FT Ascot. The ergonomics of the bike suite me the best & it's just an easy bike to ride well. I have a set of Avon Road Rider tires on it that seem plenty sticky in the turns & I've folded the foot-pegs in a turn on more than one occasion. I live on the edge of town & there is a great little mountain road/scenic highway that I like to ride, out back. Plenty of turns with a great decreasing radius S-turn in the middle of it all. Depending upon traffic & the time of day, I sometimes have the road almost to myself.

I've never been on a long, all day type of ride on my FT, but I rode my VT500FT Ascot from Arizona to Southern California back in '87 or '88 & it handled the ride just fine. The VT is a much better open road bike than the FT is. You just shift into sixth gear & let her lope along at 80-85 or so.

Both bikes are great bikes!

J.

[Street Tracker 37]

Have not got to ride mine yet still needs registration and tires at a minim. My plans are a street tracker with rides in the wine country and coastal fun. The bike is small enough where my wife can rid it also. I really look forward to this project.

[J6G1Z]

Have not got to ride mine yet still needs registration and tires at a minim. My plans are a street tracker with rides in the wine country and coastal fun. The bike is small enough where my wife can rid it also. I really look forward to this project.

They are great bikes for exactly that type of riding. I went all street with my tires & had some sticky Avons mounted up. These bikes handle the turns real well. There no crotch-rocket by any means, but in the 35 to 80 mph range & through the turns, they're awesome fun.

J.

[Dougie]

Hi,

I use mine for commuting, road use and recently converted it to enable me to take in light trails/ offroad.

[Wood-Man]

I ride it to work a few days a week (when it isn't rainy in Seattle) which is only about 7-10 minutes.  I try to find the time to take the 'long way' home every once in a while, which is more like an hour.  My dad (who bought the bike new back in '82) and I toured around the state at the end of June.  It was about 900 miles in 4 days avoiding the Interstates.  It was ten tons of fun and some of God's best work on the scenery.

Here's the route we took:
Google Map

[Jay willoughby]

I have two FT 500 ascots [used to have three sold it a month ago] number one I've had since it was new and its nearly perfect , its my street bike. Number two I've been modifying to a trail bike.[folding mirrors, bear  trap foot pegs ,bendy LED turn signals]. Both bikes have original Ascot luggage racks and both bikes are licensed, as collector bikes  in British Columbia which makes it a third of the cost of insurance. 

[roadrunner]

I mainly use the FT500 for touring.  Longest ride to date was 240 miles (in 1 day).  The bike is great in the canyons .. so easy to turn compared to my other bike, a Honda CB750.  I try to avoid freeways with the FT500 .. it would have a little trouble keeping up with the cages.

[thumperdh]

I use mine as a general workhorse. It's done a little of everything in the past five years. Two Daytona bike week trips, commuting back and forth to work and school, light duty touring, heavy duty touring, pleasure riding, shralping mountain roads, grocery getter, fire road explorer and everything in between. The only place she hasn't been is on a race track (yet).

[Lefty]

I've been a dual purpose rider since my first bike, a KE125, back in 1977. The FT is a great town bike, I do minimal freeway riding, but once I go one up on the counter shaft sprocket, I'll be happy to do more highway riding.
 I love this motorcycle & am looking forward to some power mods!