Hip bobber or sporty canyon carver" They share a versatile 471cc parallel twin, but the riding experiences the Rebel 500 and CB500F offer are very different. Which one speaks to you" Photos by Kevin Wing.
Sitting side-by-side, the Rebel 500 and CB500F don?t appear to be kin, the only potential giveaway being the ?surname? (i.e. Honda wing) on each one?s tank. It may surprise you to learn that they actually share an engine and are priced within $100 of each other (the CB500F starts at $6,099). But the family resemblance ends there; while both can lead you to the common conclusion of ?great first bike,? they take different paths getting there. Where the Rebel is punchy down low, with the off-the-line grunt required to do battle in city traffic and a modern, blacked-out bobber look heavily influenced by cruisers of the late ?70s and early ?80s, the sporty CB500F is ready to take on the nearest twisty road, with its
version of the 471cc parallel twin tuned for mid-to-high-end excitement and suspension better suited to strafing corners than the Rebel?s squishy underpinnings.
The CB500F makes almost the same torque as the Rebel (30.9 lb-ft compared to the Rebel’s 30.4), but it out-revs the Rebel with 46.1 peak horsepower at 8,300 rpm (compared to the Rebel’s 40.6-horsepower peak at 7,800 rpm).
Around town, the CB500F is smooth, predictable and easy to handle. Its 30.7-inch seat height is 3.5 inches higher than the Rebel?s but still reasonable, and narrow-is...