Honda XR500

[wbute]

I know this is a car site, however maybe there are a few bike lovers out there....
I have an 83 XR500 that I am fixing up. If anyone out there has any bits and pieces lying around or better still a complete bike they want to get rid of I would love to hear from you. I may have a few Holden bits I would swap.

[jason.ruff]

Sweet bike, I love the old XR's. I have a 85 TT600 that has been fully rebuilt, I used to race one back in the late 80's. Don't have parts but will keep my ears open, what do you need. Hard to believe that your 83 had front disc brake. but the Yamaha didn't until 85.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Honda-XR2...item4ae5a3ecf3

[wbute]

A bit of everything lol. Right side cover, rear guard, speedo, front master cylinder.
Just pulled the motor out. Going to put new rings in it. I have to split it to replace the gear selected shaft while I amat it.
I have had a few XR's over the years. 89 280 and a 96 400. Always wanted a 500 though.

[Frosty]

Nice bike, there are lots of us out there, sorry no parts, I like 2 strokes
I hope you plan to ride Vinduro with it?

[HK1837]

Good trike donor! In the 80's and 90's you used to be able to buy an aftermarket frame for an ATC250R that simply replaced the original but an XR500 engine fitted straight into. We also made a few out of original XR frames. I've thought about making another but cheaper and easier to buy an ATC350R (getting older and lazier).

[wbute]

Just want to get it back to good original condition and maybe a Vinduro might be fun Frosty.
A 500 trike HK? Sounds like that would be a bit scary lol. Never risen a trike.

[HK1837]

500 4 stroke trikes were fun, far less gear changing than the CR250 engined ATC250R's. The scary ones were the 500-ish 2 strokes, The RM465 version was a weapon. The problem was keeping the front tyre on the ground, a bike you can do it reasonably easily but regardless of the surface a solid axle trike has probably 5 x or more traction especially with flat base rear tyres. I always wanted to build one out of an IT490 but could never buy one with a good enough engine in it; the bikes were always good but the engines flogged out. I was looking at my DR650SE the other day and it'd be easy to convert one of these that was a stat writeoff (bent front forks and mangled front tyre will do it) into a trike.

If you get a chance have a ride on one, but if you are an experienced two-wheel rider be careful. Any trike if ridden by an experienced person is safer than a quad but if you try to ride a trike like a bike you'll get into trouble. The way to ride solid rear axle versions (there were some farm trikes with a rear diff) is almost identical to a jet-ski, you lean out on corners rather than in and you don't steer with the front tyre except at really slow speeds, always throttle steer or lean outside and lift the inside rear tyre.

I'll keep my eye out for XL or XR500's around here for you. There was a bike at Morisset swap yesterday, but it wasn't cheap.

[wbute]

thanks HK. Parts are hard to find. They only built the RFVC 500 for two years so that makes it harder.
Are the trikes anything like a four wheeler to ride (I appreciate that three wheels will be different to four).

[HK1837]

Not really, riding a Quad compared to a Trike is sort of like operating a ski boat versus a jet ski in my experience. I know trikes can be scary but they are also easy to bail out of or at lease use your feet for stability in some cases, wheras every time i've been on a quad i've felt like i'm in it rather than on it - more like a tractor than a bike in my experience anyway. Quads are a better farm vehicle, but as a recreational thing not anything like a trike.

Where in the frame is the oil tank on the RFVC XR500? We only ever used the old wet sump 1979-1982 engines.

Do the 500cc RFVC engines suffer from the same head cracking problen as the 250 variants? I remember I had a 1984-5 XL250R and could not find a good head for it.

[wbute]

The oil tank is in the main down tube from the steering stem.
Not sure if the 500 was a head cracker too. It's a lot bigger head so may be longer lived. Ballards in Penrith used to weld the cracked heads up and also welded the big fins onto the big fin heads on the next family of motors after the RFVC ones ended. That's when they were XR'S Only. They turned my old 89 XR250 into a big fin head and I got it bored out to 280. Wish I still had that bike now.