RIP Birdman. Will never forget what you done for me. I was 19, and the phone rang and it was Birdy. He asked if I would guest ride his bike at the Sunflower races. Told me to negotiate my own appearance money, keep all my prize and bonus money, and cover my expenses. And for good measure he let me use my then team livery. Long story short, we won all the races that weekend and after he flew me in his helicopter to the Port where we had to travel to another post season race. I destroyed one of his bikes in practice that weekend, and he always joked about it afterwards even though it would have amounted to 10’s of thousands. I told him how much it meant to me, as I was able to secure my first mortgage with that huge leg up. That’s one little story of the heart that Birdy had, and how driven he was to win. Our sport will be worse of without Paul Bird. My thoughts are with Frank, Jordan, Lexi and the PBM team.
The fork gaiters and high-routed exhaust on the 2023 Honda SCL500 are carryovers from Honda’s early scrambler models.
Scramblers had their heyday during the ’60s, which was before my time, but I’m a big fan of their spirit and style. They embody a carefree attitude and the freedom to go wherever, as well as a simplicity not offered by many modern, hyper-focused bikes. The best word to describe the new 2023 Honda SCL500 is “playful.” It blends cool retro style, a user-friendly engine and chassis, and a budget-friendly price.
The 2023 Honda SCL500 in Candy Orange is sure to turn heads.
Scramblers are perfect for Ventura, California, the coastal surf town that I call home, and that’s exactly where Honda hosted its press launch for the SCL500. A lightweight, no-frills motorcycle is great for bopping around city streets, cruising up the coast, exploring backroads, and even getting a little frisky in the dirt, though the only time we left the pavement during our test ride was to turn around in dirt pull-outs during photo stops.
Inspiration for the SCL500 comes from Honda’s own back catalog, namely the 250cc CL72 from 1962-65 and the 305cc CL77 from 1965-67. Like the SCL500, these early scramblers were based on streetbikes, and all three models share common styling elements: fork gaiters, knee pads on the gas tank, bench seats, high-routed exhausts, and twin rear shocks.
Another thing the SCL500 has in common with those early CLs is a parallel-Twin engine, though the older versions were air-cooled while the modern one has a radiator. The SCL’s 471cc Twin is a versatile mill that’s also found in the CBR500R sportbike, CB500F naked bike, CB500X adventure bike, and Rebel 500 cruiser. (The last time we put any of these bikes on the dyno was 2017. The CB500F made 46 hp and 31 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheel, and the Rebel 500 made 41 hp and 30 lb-ft.)
The Dunlop Mixtour tires’ block-tread pattern, combined with their thinner width, made for fun and confident cornering.
As much as I appreciate high-tech features on many of today’s motorcycles, there’s something to be said for a bike with nothing to figure out. Swing a leg over the SCL500, thumb the starter button, drop it into gear, and then just ride. Throttle response is user-friendly, power delivery is linear, and the slip-assist clutch makes gear changes effortless. The engine is smooth and doesn’t vibrate much, nor does it radiate excess heat. But it doesn’t exude much character either.
The SCL500 shares the parallel-Twin found in earlier Honda CLs but is blacked out and liquid-cooled instead of air-cooled.
A sturdy tubular-steel trellis frame holds everything together, and the bike, which has a narrow 3.2-gal. tank, is slender between the knees. The SCL500’s suspension, a nonadjustable 41mm fork and dual shocks with two-step preload adjustment, has 5.3/5.7 inches of front/rear travel, which is more generous than its adventure-ish CB500X stablemate (4.7/5.5 inches).
The SCL500’s handlebar width and light weight make it easy to throw into corners.
For a sub-$7,000 bike, the ride is surprisingly plush, though the suspension’s softness leads to some fork dive during braking and seesawing over big bumps. More rebound damping would be nice, at least for a 200-lb galoot like me.
Scramblers are great bikes for getting around towns like Ventura.
The SCL500 rolls on 19-inch front and 17-inch rear cast wheels shared with the CB500X, and the SCL is shod with Dunlop Mixtour block-tread tires that provide reasonably good grip and handling. ABS is standard, and there are single-disc Nissin brakes front and rear, with a 2-pot caliper pinching a 310mm disc in front and a 1-pot caliper slowing a 240mm disc out back. The brakes don’t offer much power or feel, but they’re perfectly fine for riders who are newer, lighter, or less aggressive than I am.
The high footpegs made things a little tight for my frame, but with the fun I was having, they couldn’t have been much lower.
The SCL500’s chassis geometry favors stability over agility, which further adds to the bike’s approachability. But its lightness (just 419 lb ready to ride), the width of its handlebar, and the narrowness of its tires (110/80-19 front, 150/70-17 rear) mean that the SCL can be tossed around like a ragdoll.
2-piston Nissin calipers pinch a single 310mm disc up front and offer sufficient stopping power depending on the type of rider.
With my 34-inch inseam, I was a little folded up on the SCL500 with its low 31.1-inch seat height and high footpegs. The cleated footpegs have vibration-damping rubber inserts that can be removed to add a skosh more legroom, but the better option for me was the accessory tall seat, which adds another inch of foam for more height and support. At $64.95, it’s reasonably priced, though it only comes in brown.
The SCL500 is the kind of bike that lends itself to customization. In addition to the tall seat, other factory accessories include a headlight visor, a high front fender, handguards, a number plate-style rear side cover, rally footpegs, a center tank pad, a 14-liter left-side soft saddlebag, a rear carrier, a 38-liter top case, heated grips, and a 12V socket. Vance & Hines also offers a high-output slip-on exhaust that is compliant in all 50 states.
The 2023 Honda SCL500 in Matte Laurel Green Metallic
The SCL500 screams for customization, as seen in this factory-accessorized version.
Other than limited legroom for my frame, my only real complaint about the SCL500 is its instrumentation. It has a single round instrument panel that’s light-on-black LCD. Available features includes a clock, a gear position indicator, a speedometer, a fuel gauge, and multifunction display that can be scrolled through for different info (odometer, tripmeter A/B, average mpg A/B, instant mpg, and reserve fuel tripmeter). The instrument panel lacks a tachometer, it’s difficult read in bright sunlight, and it’s all but useless when wearing polarized sunglasses. For a retro bike like this, an analog speedometer with an inset multifunction display would be sweet.
Like the bike, the SCL500 instrumentation is simple but also hard to read. I would’ve preferred something more retro.
After logging just over 100 miles in and around Ventura, mostly on backroads where I did my best to wring the SCL’s neck, the bike’s fuel economy reading was 60.6 mpg. That translates to 194 miles of range, which would be even higher for a typical owner who cruises around or commutes in a less caffeinated, type-A state of mind.
The SCL500 suspension offers better travel than its CB500X stablemate, but bigger riders may wish for more adjustment options.
All in all, the Honda SCL500 is a helluva lot of fun, and in Candy Orange, it turns a lot of heads (a more subdued Matte Laurel Green Metallic color option is also available).
The MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship field headed to MotorLand Aragon this week for two days of testing with different programmes up and down the paddock. This included a split approach at Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK as Jonathan Rea and Alex Lowes took different directions, with the #65 looking at 2023 and the #22 focusing on the development of the 2024 machine.
Rea has only taken one victory in the 2023 season and that came last time out at the Autodrom Most, where a superb tyre gamble launched him up the order at the end of the race. 2023 has proven difficult for both the six-time Champion and KRT but Rea has hauled himself into third in the Riders’ Championship standings. Speaking at the test, the Ulsterman made clear what his goal was for the final four rounds of the season.
He explained: “We’re focusing more on trying to prepare for the weekend. I really want to finish the season strong right now. I’m in that battle for top three in the World Championship so that remains the focus. In the last time, we worked a lot on items we could see in the future or not. This process takes time. I want to blow the cobwebs out of summertime, arrive at Magny-Cours in a good way, fast and confident and then prepare for the Aragon Round.”
Rea also went deeper into what exactly he was testing in Spain with this goal in mind. While Lowes was trying several items looking towards 2024, Rea was working on the end of the current campaign as he ticked off his testing programme. Speaking after his sole day of testing, Rea provided details of what he was working on.
Rea said: “We had a few items to test electronically. We arrived with a bike that’s something in the middle of what we had at the beginning of the test and finished the last race at Most. It was clear one bike was working better than the other, so we just investigated some fine tuning with each. We had some electronic items to try that maybe we’ll see in the next races and some we’ll see in the future. It’s a step-by-step programme. It’s hard to verify and get clear directions sometimes at a one-day test. I used an SCQ tyre at the end, so we worked on everything. I felt competitive with race tyres and quite competitive with the SCQ.”
After Adrian Huertas made his MOTUL FIM Superbike World Championship testing debut on Tuesday at MotorLand Aragon with the Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK, the team have been reacting to his performance. The 20-year-old was on a Superbike machine for the first time as he made the step up, for one day, at least, from WorldSSP machinery. Speaking after his debut, key figures from KRT including six-time Champion Jonathan Rea, the crew chiefs and the team manager have spoken about Huertas’ performance.
Huertas testing on day one of the test and set his best time, like most of the field, in the afternoon session with the Spaniard switching to the SCQ tyre early in that four-hour block. He briefly went into second place when he set a 1’51.044s but was overhauled by his rivals and finished the day in sixth. In total, Huertas completed 79 laps across his sole day of running as he stepped in for Rea and Alex Lowes, as the World Supersport star rode alongside Florian Marino on Tuesday. Following his first day with WorldSBK machinery, key figures from Kawasaki have lavished praise on the #99.
Talking about watching his performance from the outside, Rea said: “It’s very strange watching another rider ride your bike! I was really happy for him. He deserved this chance. In WorldSSP, it’s a really competitive Championship and with the ZX-6RR, he’s been able to be competitive. He deserved the opportunity to be rewarded for his efforts but also to check his potential for the future. I wasn’t here in the morning, only in the afternoon, but straight away he had a good speed. It seems like his feedback was quite clear. The adaptation from World Supersport to World Superbike is a big one. I think he did quite well. Pere seemed like he was quite pleased that he had a mature approach to the test.”
During the test, Huertas worked with Pere Riba – Rea’s crew chief – who gave his thoughts on his outing. He said: “He did well. Everybody can see he’s doing a good job in WorldSSP, but World Supersport and WorldSBK are different. The approach and the way to ride are different. From the first time he jumped on the bike, compared to around 1:30pm when he did his best lap time, it was like two different riders. For him, it was his first time on a big bike. He showed good potential. How good? I don’t know, honestly. But he showed good performance. I think he enjoyed it with the bike, and he had some pace.”
Despite mostly working with Riba, Marcel Duinker, who is Alex Lowes’ crew chief, was able to give a quick review on how he thought Huertas’ test went. Duinker explained: “This was his first time on a WorldSBK bike, and I can only say he did an incredibly good job. He showed his talent and let’s see where he will be in the future.”
Of course, no review about a team’s debutant would be complete without the team manager speaking. Guim Roda, Team Manager at KRT, was on hand and was another key figure who heaped praise on the WorldSSP star. Roda added: “Adrian was good, it was interesting to see a 20-year-old’s evolution with no experience on the 1000cc bike, and the way he rode and made mistakes and the wrong approach and then correct it right away. It was nice to help him improve. We spoke with him, and it was a fun day. He could stay on the bike, he went quite fast, so we’re happy for that as well. It was a good and constructive experience.”
