Summer is here, the seat is starting to bake in the sun, so I finally picked up a 3D honeycomb mesh cover for my bike. This is a real-world Honda CL500 seat cover review — I bought it with my own money ($11), installed it myself, and have been riding on it. No sponsored spin, just what I actually noticed, including one annoying flaw and the quick DIY fix I used to solve it.
Why I Bought a Honda CL500 Seat Cover for Summer
I’m not new to this style of cover. I’ve been running the exact same type of mesh cover on my Honda Super Cub for years now.
I already trusted the mesh-cover concept
On the Super Cub I actually keep it on all four seasons, not just summer — the 3D air-net layer just makes the stock seat nicer to live with year round. So buying a Honda CL500 seat cover felt like a safe bet rather than a gamble.
What the cover claims to do
The product is marketed for the Honda CL250, CL300, CL500 and SCL500. It’s a 3D mesh fabric, roughly 0.2 kg, with anti-slip and breathable claims and a “doesn’t heat up in strong sunlight” pitch. The CL500 itself is a 471cc parallel-twin scrambler with a fairly flat 790 mm seat. If you want the full factory numbers, check the official Honda CL500 specifications page:
For the model’s background and history, the Wikipedia entry is a good overview:
First Impressions: Heat, Grip, and Feel
Does it actually run cooler?
Honestly? Maybe slightly. It might be partly in my head, but it does feel a touch cooler than the bare seat, and that matches my long-term experience with the Super Cub cover. The air gap means your contact patch isn’t sitting flush against hot vinyl, so it’s not a miracle, but it’s a real, if modest, improvement.
The anti-slip surprised me
This was the part I didn’t expect. On the stock seat I always had this slightly sliding feeling — you scoot forward under braking and have to re-settle. With this Honda CL500 seat cover that sliding sensation dropped a lot.
But it’s not aggressively grippy
To be clear, it doesn’t lock you in place or feel sticky/stiff. It’s a gentle, “you stop drifting around” kind of grip, not a velcro-pants situation. If you were hoping for a hard anti-slide grip, set expectations accordingly.
Installation: The Honest Part
I almost didn’t buy this because of some 1-star “doesn’t fit” reviews. What tipped me over was another buyer who posted photos showing it fitting nice and snug, even though they said it was a struggle to get on. That matched my own result exactly.
It’s genuinely hard to fit — on purpose
Getting it onto the seat is not easy. But I think that’s intentional. If it slipped on too loosely, the cover would just rotate and shift while riding. So it’s made to stretch on tight, and once it’s on, it stays put. The pain of installation is basically the price of it not spinning around later.
My DIY velcro fix
My one real gripe: there’s only one velcro strap underneath, at one section, and the rear of the seat wasn’t fully wrapped. I’d have loved one more strap toward the back. I happen to own a sewing machine, so I attached an extra piece of velcro strap myself — and after that it was absolutely perfect. If you’re handy, it’s a 10-minute upgrade.
What I Couldn’t Test, and the One Thing I’d Change
Waterproofing: untested
The listing pushes a waterproof angle, but I don’t ride in the rain, so I genuinely can’t confirm it. I’m not going to claim something I didn’t experience — treat the waterproof claim as unverified from my side.
The rear coverage gap
As mentioned, the back of the seat didn’t get fully covered out of the box, and a second factory velcro strap would have fixed it without the DIY route. That’s my main wish-list item for the next version.
Is the Honda CL500 Seat Cover Worth It?
The Honda CL500 seat cover does the two things I cared about — it takes a little of the heat edge off and it cuts the seat slide — and it backs up what I already knew from years on my Super Cub.
Quick verdict
Buy it if…
Buy it if you want a cheap summer comfort upgrade and don’t mind a tight, fiddly install. Skip it (or budget 10 minutes for a DIY strap) if you want full rear coverage straight out of the bag. Either way, for the price this Honda CL500 seat cover earned its spot on my bike.
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