XL 500 S

[shinyribs]

The KLR top yoke was too big to fit in my lathe, so had to send that to a buddy to get bored out.



Turned up a couple cylinders to weld on to the top clamp. Recreating the stock mounting situation for the instruments.



Fitted the steering lock and everything works as it should.



Happy that the instruments are in such good condition. Kinda bummed that the hole in the top nut is blocked by the bars. That's where the vent hose from the fuel tank should go. Not sure what I'll do about that yet, but very happy with how the fork swap played out in general.



Ride height looks spot on to what I wanted, if not a little high in the nose. Probably just gonna buy some 17" shocks to replace the rotten 16" stockers.



Nothing at all wrong with the rear drum brake, but the whole rear wheel/brake assembly is stupid heavy. Over 20lbs without a tire.

[shinyribs]

Put of feelers on rear wheels locally, but in the meantime I rode the Mighty Murray next door to retrieve the engine from the other shop. That's some high class transport right there.



While the engine ran great, it's super leaky. So on the bench it goes. Athena gasket set is in the mail already. I'm growing quite fond of these aircooled, kickstart thumpers. The compactness is just fantastic.



Engine teardown shows all the internal to be in great shape. Some signs of blowby between the rings, but nothing I don't expect from an aircooled bigbore single.







Still haven't inspected the bottom end. Waiting on a flywheel removal bolt to show up. But I'm confident it'll be fine. I mean, c'mon, it's a HONDA!



Tagging and bagging. I was happy to find a sprung clutch hub, so I won't feel bad if I decide to run without a cush drive. Which very well may be the case as I got a text saying a buddy has some WR wheels he's not using.



For now it's just soaking and scrubbing for a while...

[StealthCB]

Nice bike, shop and tools, my friend! Looks like this is coming along really well! I would love to come check everything out in person one day and maybe get some footage for an episode of The Moto Barn!

[TOOLS1]

I think it could use a bigger piston.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

StealthCB wrote

Nice bike, shop and tools, my friend! Looks like this is coming along really well! I would love to come check everything out in person one day

Come on by if you ever need anything I can help with. If you happen to own a dirt bike, bring that with you and we'll attack the 100 acres while you're here.

StealthCB wrote

 and maybe get some footage for an episode of The Moto Barn!  

Erm...not sure about that part.

[shinyribs]

Been busy with this bikes. Got the engine glass beaded and whipped up a little stand for it to make reassembly a little easier.







Alright, so I've been thinking this bike needs a longer swingarm from the get-go. It will look better visually and it's a pretty short wheelbase anyway. I'd never shorten the wheelbase on a offroad-only bike, but I don't mind on a 50/50 bike like this. Beside, I doubt 2" would make that much of a difference.

Anyway, I started taking some measurements off my 250 and 400 rear wheels to see if either would be good candidates to use in the XL500 swinger, then the swingarm of the 250 caught my eye. Took some more measurements and it seemed too good to be true, so I pulled the rear apart on the 250 to take a solid look.

Pivot shaft diameters match. No need to bore or sleeve anything. Clears the engine case, too. Too easy.



Pivot width on the 250 arm is about 20-30 thou too narrow. Likely the frame would pinch in this much anyway, but a simple spacer would do the job right. Again, too easy.



With the 250 wheel in it's arm in stock position the chain run is dead on the money. I mean 100% perfect. Like it was meant to be! Rim is slightly off-center, though.



Leveled the frame and pulled a line. According to my ultra accurate plumb bob the tire needs to move 4mm to the right. Not terrible.



I can shave about 2mmoff the caliper hanger without creating any clearance issues. That would pull the chain run 2mm off and I could pull the tire the rest of the way with the spokes. Running a 2mm thick sprocket spacer wouldn't weigh much,but honestly, ifI got everything within 2mm I doubt that'd be an issue anyway.



Is it worth the effort? Well, the longer length definitely looks better.



And the shocks lay close enough to the arm that new mounts wouldn't be too crazy to sort out.


Looks aside, I weighed the entire swingarm/wheel assemblies to see what the difference was. Granted, there is surely a weight difference between the two different tires,so not 100% accurate. But there's no innertube in the XL tire right now and I forgot a couple pieces of drum brake linkages (stay rod and lever arm directly off the drum) when I weighed things, so the XL setup probably actually weighs a couple lbs more than what I came up with. So the difference in weight is nearly 20 lbs.

XL500 rear assy minus a few bits = 48lbs 12oz



Complete XR250R rear assy =31lbs 12.8oz (minus fluid if we're being picky)



Right at 20'ish lbs off unsprung weight/rotating mass? yep, this needs to happen. Time to go shopping...:thumb

Oh, not sure if I mentioned it, but the KLR front end saved about 8lbs. I kinda thought it would have been worth more weight, but 8lbs isn't bad. Figure the KLR fork tubes are larger in diameter and length, so they also have longer spring inside and more fluid. The XL bottom yoke was steel whereas all the KLR yokes are aluminum, but the KLR yokes are pretty beefy. Considering these bikes weigh about 297lbs, and this will strip roughly 28lbs off the bike... roughly 10% overall weight loss while gaining better brakes and giving up nothing? I'm pretty pleased with that!

It would be even lighter if I went monoshock, but I refuse to do that. I'm not dropping the stock airbox and these bikes deserve dual shocks. Wouldn't look right without 'em. More updates to come as budget allows ...

[TOOLS1]

I like that engine stand. You are becoming quite the carpenter. On the swing arm being off, I wonder if the pivot holes could be off a little bit causing the swing arm to be out of alignment by the 2mm. I have seen a lot of bikes like this. If you saw how fast they were put together at the factory, you would wonder how they were as straight as they are. I would check it with the original swingarm before starting to modify the wheel.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

I think it's just a case of the XR setup being narrower overall due to having a disc and a solid hub vs the drum and cush drive of the XL. It was pure luck that the chain lined up. No real surprise that the wheel ended up offcenter.

Honestly, a 4mm offcenter wheel on a bike like this wouldn't phase me. I might not even worry about it. Probably just pull it over with the spokes if I do anything.

[shinyribs]

TOOLS1 wrote

 I wonder if the pivot holes could be off a little bit causing the swing arm to be out of alignment by the 2mm.

This didn't really click at first, but I thought about it some more. I think you're saying the pivot points in the frame may not be exactly parallel to the front axle? At first I thought you meant they may be shifted to one side, but that didn't make sense to me at the time. But thinking of it now I can understand what you're saying. You know...a man could cheat there if he was so inclined. Intentionally offset the pivot holes to kick the rear of the swing to one side...then just realign the rim with the axle adjusters and call it a day. Hmmm...is that redneck or clever?

[TOOLS1]

Yes, that is what I was talking about. I have never seen a frame where they were perfectly aligned.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Bit of a large update. Try to breeze through it without being too boring.

Knocked the swingarm pivot spacer out first. Took all of 2 minutes and not much to look at, but it needed doing.



Borrowed the wheel out of my XR250R, again, and propped up the bike to set the rake (angle finder taped to the fork tube). Stock rake is 28.5 degrees, so that's what I went for. Swingarm angle isn't severe and eyeballing the seat/tank level looks aesthetically correct to me. Rear tire to fender clearance definitely seems to have grown, but I didn't think to measure this before. Would love to know the distance from a footpeg mounting bolt to the ground for a stock bike to determine how my ride height is compared to stock, if anyone has this measurement.




Right side foot peg was tweaked up pretty good. Nothing a little heat and leverage couldn't fix. Needed to fix this before I could set the brake pedal height.



The bracket for the pegs are incredibly heavy, but the brake side peg has a huge hole (12mm) drilled in the center to accept the pivot bolt for the pedal which creates a pretty decent weak spot. It bent right in the middle of the threaded hole. Amazed, lucky and happy that the threads are still healthy after bending it back in to position.



It pained me to cut off a bunch of frame tabs, but I had to clear out the old to make room for the new. Had to make an extension to reach behind the footpeg to attach the pedal to the new master cylinder. Not really happy with that looks of it going above the peg, but I couldn't bring myself to let it hang underneath. It is an offroad bike, after all.

Everything tacked up.



Turned up this little doodad to attach the pedal to the clevis on the master cylinder. I hate split pins so I threaded it to accept a 5mm bolt instead.



Little stub on the other end got pressed in to the pedal and plug welded on.



And that's job done on converting the pedal assy to disc. Won't mount the reservoir until I after I get the exhaust ran so I don't mount it where it'll get melted. Rear master cylinder is 1/2", same as a XR250, so it's a good fit. I bought a handful of these things at Barber a few years back. I guy had buckets full of them he was selling for $10 each. I wish I'd bought so many more of them. Brand new Nissin mc's cheaper than rebuild kits!



Here you can see the pivot bolt that mounts the brake pedal to the peg hanger.



Tecknowledgy being what it is, and seeing other guys design parts in SolidWorks...well,unfortunately I'm not that guy.

But I did mock up a couple shock mounts in my version of Solid Works. Lumber  :D Just gonna do a pic dump instead of trying to caption each image, but will give a quick explanation of my train of thought. Initially wanted to slant the mounts on the same angle as the shocks since I thought it would look better/slimmer, but it didn't produce enough contact area on the box tubing of the swingarm. So I went ahead and mocked up another mounts that just runs 90 degrees to the arm and, while it is larger, it actually looks much less busy.

Broke out Grandpa saw and the chisels for this.



Slanted







90 degree







Still deciding which of these to turn in to aluminum, but I'm leaning towards the 90 degree. Stock caliper guard won't fit with the shock mounts going where they need to go. I could scoot the mounts forward 1/2" but the shocks wouldn't be laying at the correct angle to match the shrouds on the side covers. Reckon I don't need a caliper guard with these knots hanging off the arm anyway.




Forgot to check clearance around the new pedal, so popped the lower case and clutch cover on for a quick look. All is well in pedal land.



Google says stock ground clearance is 10.2". Not sure how they measured that, but I'm looking at 13.2" at the bottom of the peg bracket. That appears to be the lowest point to me. Have I actually raised the bike that much?? Stock seat height says 34.6" and I'm seeing 36.5" at the absolute lowest area of the seat. So I guess around 2"+ raised? Stock wheelbase shows 56" and I'm 3" longer at 59". Must've gained some wheelbase on the forks, too. Not crazy about that much wheelbase, but we'll see how it does in the woods. Hopefully the turning radius will be ok, but this isn't going to be my primary single track bike. I'm sure it will be welcome on the road.

Time to scrounge up some aluminum square stock...

[TOOLS1]

I like the 90* shock mounts.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Your wish is my command. 90 degree it is.

Scored a couple blocks from a buddy and got busy.

Turned 1/4" off one face of the block.



Scribed and pilot drilled for the shock bolt.



Turned 90 degrees and ran through with a holesaw to create the bottom of the clevis.



Zip through with the band saw to open up the clevis.



Then it was hand tools mostly to clean up the inside of the clevis.



Bandsaw again to rough cut the ears off.



Then back to the drill press to open up the shock bolt holes, then to the vise for tapping.



Last trip through the bandsaw for the final cuts.



And finally to the belt sander to finish it all up.



Hot glue gun to stick it all together.





36" seat height, 13" ground clearance.



Reckon I'll be making a new sidestand



Shot these parts with Harley textured black. Wonderful stuff. I'm not gonna black out the whole engine, just wanted this black for the chrome headpipes I found to contrast against. I dig the look.





Stuck this much of the engine + the output shaft back on the bike to start aligning the rear wheel and fabbing up exhaust. My cush drive showed up today and I hope to get the rear wheel sorted out this evening. No clue what I'm gonna run for a muffler.



I need to pick up a legit digital camera. The flourescent shop lights don't play well with my phone camera anymore...

[shinyribs]

The 250L cush ends up too wide to fit in the 250R arm ( whooda thunkit), but it worked out easy enough.

Realized the seal sits pretty far away from the bearing, so I took some measurements and went to work.

Turned down the cush to leave just enough room to hold the seal.



Turned up the axle spacers. Made the disc side to fit right off, but had to wait til I could measure to shave the sprocket side to final size.



Disc alignment is good.



Then measured for final fit on the sprocket side. Close, but it's all good. Makes me wonder why Honda used a wider arm for the L anyway.



If there's any doubt the chain run was too easy look at that slider lined up with the primary sprocket.



Leveled the frame and pulled lines again. Chain run doubled-checked and is still good. Went to see about centering the rim and it's bang-on perfect. Didn't see that coming, but I'll take it! Roller status complete.

[TOOLS1]

I guess it is better to be lucky than good.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

TOOLS1 wrote

I guess it is better to be lucky than good.
TOOLS

Heck yeah. Story of my life. I'll take what I can get.

[shinyribs]

Turned up a slug to extend the side stand.



She's standing on her own feet finally.  I'm absolutely loving the chrome headpipe. Sooo happy I found that little booger on ebay.

[TOOLS1]

TOOLS

[shinyribs]

Muffler for the XL showed up today. I figured this would be an OK setup, but I'm actually pretty pleased with the outcome. Got home with the muffler and ran over to the old shop and found some old bends for building headers. 1.75" was bang on perfect.



This is the whole midpipe to be welded. I cut the small elbow on the right off the u-bend to get started. Things were looking good, so I trimmed the second elbow on the left and stuck it in the muffler. Things were still lining up good, but I had little gap between the two elbows. That little piece between the elbows just happens to be the sole piece of pipe I cut off. Too easy.  Dang ol Honda's are so willing to run they damn near build themselves.



Tidy underneath. No craziness.



Took the spring off the shock to check clearance with the tire at full stuff. No issues.



Curious what the wheel travel would be with the longer arm. Measures out to 8.5" of wheel travel. Not alot by modern dirtbike standards, but pretty average for a dual sport. Exact same wheel travel as the KLR forks, so once again, perfect balance without even trying too hard. I'll take lucky over good any day.



Longer wheelbase does create this problem now ( tire hitting the tag mount), but that can be sorted out easily enough later. Probably gonna ditch this whole lighting assembly for something less massive anyway.



Pretty pleased with the look. Just gotta turn up a little cuff to attach the midpipe to the headpipe. They are identical size, so I just need to make a little something to slip the two together. It looks ridiculously long in these pics, but in person the length looks right. Getting there...

[TOOLS1]

I want to ride that thing, but I would have to duct tape 2X4s to my boots to touch the ground when I stopped.
TOOLS