Rennie Scaysbrook | September 27, 2023
Honda’s pretty late to the game when it comes to the street scrambler segment. You could almost argue they arrived right when the party wrapped up, as we’ve seen all sorts of street scrambler variants from manufacturers like Ducati, Yamaha, Triumph and more for many years.
The SCL500 flanks the bike that inspired it, the CL77. It’s not exactly a tribute but not too far off.
Photography by Drew Ruiz
But it’s better to be late than never arrive, and we’ve now got the $6799 SCL500 to play with.
The SCL gives the corporate doff of the cap to Honda’s 250cc CL72 and 350cc CL77 models of the early 1960s. Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson rode CL72s from Tijuana to La Paz in 1962, barely three years after American Honda was incorporated in 1959, showing Americans just what this young company called Honda could do. That ride formed the basis of what we now know as the Baja 1000, and six years later, in 1968, Larry Berquist and Gary Preston won the second official Baja 1000 race on a CL350.
Dirt bikes and, indeed, those that are tuned to race Baja have come, err, quite a long way since those heady days of the CLs, and no one is expecting you to take a SCL500 and go tearing down the Baja coastline. But the SCL does have a few design cues taken from Grandpa CL, the most obvious being that the high-mount exhaust on this model exits on the right versus the CL’s on the left.
An easy riding position will mean you can spend hours on this thing and not get tired.
The rest of the styling tribute from the SCL to the CL is questionable, so we’ll move on to what makes this bike what it is.
The SCL uses the Rebel 500 as its base with its 471cc parallel twin. Honda doesn’t give power figures for the SCL, but we’ve seen dyno runs that have the Rebel sitting around 41 horsepower at the wheel—not a lot, I grant you—however, there’s enough go on tap to make new riders more than happy and just enough to keep more experienced riders engaged.
Mounted in a steel frame with the subframe attached, you get a non-adjustable 41mm fork and twin shocks at the rear for suspension, plus a single-disc twin-piston caliper for the front that admittedly leaves a little to be desired in terms of braking performance. On the plus side, the plastic fork gaiters look retro cool, and the twin shocks, while being a little soft for my 190 pounds, give a fairly compliant ride.As long as you don’t literally go scrambling with it, this setup should suit most applications just fine.
It looks cool, but we’re not sure how much passengers are going to love that high-mount exhaust.
Honda’s primarily going after new riders with the SCL, so weight has been kept as low as possible. The big H is claiming 419 pounds with a full 3.2 gallons of gas for the SCL, and its nimble nature is something all riders who experience it will appreciate.
The 471cc parallel-twin four-stroke motor has seen action in the CB500F, the CB500X and now this SCL500, making it one of the most versatile in Honda’s lineup. The 500F and 500X have subtle changes to the SCL, like a different airbox and mapping, but they’re essentially the same thing when it comes to nuts and bolts.
This is where the SCL truly shines, just cruising around town with no particular place to go.
Like the 500F and 500X, the SCL gets the slip-and-assist clutch that Honda claims requires 30 percent less lever pull compared to earlier models that used the 500 motor. During a few hack-handed attempts at locking the rear (mainly to simulate lacking clutch control for a new rider and absolutely not to try and back it in, I swear), the clutch works exceptionally well in mitigating rear-wheel lock-up and stopping the wheel from chattering away under the rider.
Twisty mountain roads at a medium pace are a treat on the SCL.
It’s a very quiet motor, only really barking when fitted with the Vance & Hines accessory slip-on exhaust Honda had on display for us at the launch. You’re unlikely to attract too much attention with a standard SCL, which is probably a good thing—unless you’re into that.
Honda’s got a decent range of accessories for the SCL that includes a dirt bike-style front mudguard, headlight mask, rally footpegs, saddlebags, top case, and a taller seat. That last one I tried after lunch, the extra inch of seat height, now at 32.1 inches, made a world of difference for my 6’1” frame, allowing a little more blood flow to the knees and feet, plus the brown faux leather looks way cooler than the same-as-everyone black seat.
Gotta love that green accessorized SCL. But we’d probably paint that front fender and headlight mask.
It’s kind of hard not to have that old saying, “you meet the nicest people on a Honda,” ringing in your head when you ride the SCL. It’s probably the most unintimidating bike I’ve ridden all year and is more than happy as a street commuter or something to use to run down to the shops.
The easy-riding nature of the SCL will win plenty of fans in the new rider segment, but even for me, with 37 years of experience behind the bar, I really enjoyed my time on the SCL. It was only a short day-trip ride, but the traditional Honda build quality gives the rider plenty of confidence, and the simple, timeless styling of a scrambler will likely put this bike in good stead for years to come. CN
Honda SCL500
2023 Honda SCL500 Specifications
| MSRP: |
$6799 |
| Engine: |
Parallel-twin, 4 valves per cylinder |
| Displacement: |
471cc |
| Bore x stroke: |
67 x 66.8mm |
| Fuel injection: |
Electronic fuel injection system, 34 mm throttle bodies |
| Compression ratio: |
10.7:1 |
| Cooling system: |
Liquid |
| Exhaust: |
2-1 |
| Transmission: |
6-speed |
| Clutch: |
Wet, multi-plate slip and assist |
| Chassis: |
Tubular steel |
| Front suspension: |
41mm fork, non-adjustable |
| Rear suspension: |
Twin shocks, preload-adjustable |
| Front-wheel travel: |
5.9 in. |
| Rear-wheel travel: |
5.57 in. |
| Front brake: |
Single 310 mm disc, twin-piston caliper, ABS |
| Rear brake: |
240mm disc, single-piston caliper, ABS |
| Front tire: |
110/80-19 in. |
| Rear tire: |
150/60-17 in. |
| Rake: |
27° |
| Trail: |
4.3 in. |
| Wheelbase: |
58.4 in. |
| Seat height: |
31.1 in. |
| Fuel capacity: |
3.2 gal. |
| Weight (curb, claimed): |
419 lbs. |
