xl500 build/entry: part 5

I finally decided on a real plan for the upper shock mount. The frame is a '79 and was originally a dual rear shock bike. I wanted the mono shock look so it took some doing. It's not done yet but it's better.

I slid the cb360 fork tubes up 1 1/2" and then shortened the stem almost another 1 1/2. Eventually I will cut the tubes and re-thread them but for now to keep cost low and get them done I left them sticking up through the upper clamp. This resulted in regular moto bars running right into the tubes. I made my own bars with a bend in the center and just twisted the clamps out a bit so the bars cleared the tubes.

I wanted the moto look for the exhaust but mufflers are pricey! I thought I'd score a mx canister for peanuts on ebay but no dice. Well seeing I don't like mufflers anyway I just made something that looked like a muffler. I am using a stock header and then it goes back to open 1 3/4" pipe. The canister ends I made from 12 and 16 gauge steel and wrapped them in annealed .025" aluminum held down with pop rivets.

The xr75 gas tank is maybe a gallon. The engine gets a solid 60+ MPG so I am hoping to be able to make it between fuel stops but inevitably I will run out. I hate carrying stuff so I wanted the tank easily removable so I can siphon fuel fast and easy right into the tank without the need for a fuel bottle. I am using a Motion Pro fuel line quick disconnect for the line. The tank mount uses a spring loaded quick release locking pin tethered to the tank. The seat and rear fender will use the pins as well so I can have the tank off in 30 seconds or so. This will also allow me access to the carb and coil and wiring fast and easy if need be.
I was concerned at first with the holding power of the pin but it is solid. Some careful lathe work keeps the receiver bungs snug too.

Mike47

xl500 build/entry: part 4

James came over to the shop last week and locked the door behind him. I thought it was a beat down for something, or an ass raping. I was wrong. He came over to make sure I put in some time on this build since I had been so busy walking around the bike for the last month doing other shit. So he stayed up past 9PM this one night to get me moving on it again. He's dreamy!

So I found a header on the 'Bay for under the cost of a left nut. I hate that place but living in NJ means no good salvage yards and swaps are hard to cover as there aren't many catering to 30 year old Hondas with good deals being offered. So with the header and a set of flanges in hand I made the needed mods and got that bolted onto the head. The head on this engine is off of an FT500. They had larger pipes. I just made some rings to go over the head pipe ends and welded them on. The flanges are captive on the pipe now but they do the job. Then I fabbed up an aluminum intake spout to get the carb mounted. The shock finally got worked out and I have just enough room for a very slim carb screen. I added some material to the '82 swingarm to make the axle slots more usable with the 18" rear wheel and tire by closing them in and adding a set of new adjuster pins 7/8 rearward. Now I can get that huge knobby in there. I had this tire given to me about 8 years ago. It was brand new. I didn't have a dirt bike so I hung it on the wall as decoration. It's perfect! I stole the old tube from James as he bought a new one and I made some new aluminum wheel spacers to set up the '79 wheel in the '82 swinger. I also made use of an incorrectly ordered rear sprocket that was here. We lopped off the frame as well to get the rear fender sorted. I made some new extensions and got the initial mock up on the fender done. I have a ton of stuff to do still. Gonna be a long month of late nights to get it done in time to test ride and work out the bugs. I love coffee!

Mike47

xl500 build/entry: part 3

I scored an '82 swingarm that bolted right into the '79 frame-Wahoo!! A match!! I scoured the 'hood begging and borrowing for some rear shocks. After a few whacked ideas about pit bike shocks and clapped out cb550 shocks being mounted in the mono shock position not working out, I'm back to a full sized mono shock. Looks like some travel limiting devices will be in order for the rear shortly.



I have a bunch of rear axle spacers and such to work out this weekend to get that rolling and bolted on legit so I can really try some shock ideas.





The front end took a whole butt load of labor to make such a small step. I wound up using the stock cb360 axle. I picked up some bearings with a 15mm bore and bored out the brake plate bore and the bearing spacer inner support. I also found some aluminum scraps that made killer spacers. I also finally found the upper bearing nut for the stem so I sectioned and slugged and welded the stem up. I trimmed off the steering lock and built up the stops with some weld to get them to work with the original xl500 frame stop. I still have some clean up to do but it's all together. Pix. are really unimpressive looking as it looks like it should look. That sucks that so much work looks like nothing. Well, there's my 2 week update. If this rate continues I might just make it to the run....in 2013!!!!

Mike47

xl500 build/entry: part 2

Mike 47 Update:

Dropped it 6" with the cb360 front end and another 2 1/2 of fork tube shortening. 26 degree front end? Oh fun. Got the front wheel mocked on there. Ryan did a sweet job of turning my 12MM front axle from 4130 moly. I'll make the spacers next. The spacers are gonna be the axle retainers as well as the adapters to get the 12MM axle held in the 20MM fork holes.

Jay Carr is my hero for finding me the stem nut. I'll get crackin' on that real soon so I can wrap up the steering bearing issues and a steering stop set.

Did some looking at the rear wheel in place and I said screw it and ordered up a '82 swingarm. Gonna keep some cushion this time. Probably need to rework the axle plates to work with my rear wheel but I can cut and weld ok. I found a pit bike shock with a super heavy spring for free-score!!!!. That'll bring the ass down. Hoping to have it all rolling for real in a few weeks. for now it looks like this:

xl500 build/entry: part 1

So I scored the frame I need. Still waiting on the title to arrive for it but I think it'll be a non issue. So in light of that I decided to pull a few parts out of the pile to see what I can come up with. The chosen few include my newly acquired 1979 Honda XL 500 S frame ($200)The rest has been sitting here waiting for other ideas I've had that have come and gone but the run down is: a cb360 front end($30), an XL something or another gas tank and rear fender($10), a Suzuki something 21" front wheel complete with killer knobby tire ($5), and '82 FT500 Timken bearing kit that just might work ($30). That's $275 already!! Shit. Oh well, hopefully I can sell the cb front wheel off the front end to recover a few $$.

So I mocked up the front wheel, front end and frame and of course nothing fits. Not even close. The front hub used a 12mm axle, the cb front end was 20 mm, the steering stem is 3" too long and the bearing races don't fit in the frame. I need to get going on fixing all that crap later this week. More updates to follow but here's a pic to get started:



I'm going for some kind of dirt bike chopper thingy. Not really sure where it will go or if it'll work out or what. We'll see what happens.

Mike