Author Topic: Terry's "Big Red" Honda XR500RE, back from the darkness. (Read 7250 times)

Terry in Australia · « **on:** February 17, 2019, 02:00:33 AM »

Well this all started 7(?) years ago, when I was working on a CB750K1 for a customer. He'd bought the "one Owner" K1 from a guy in the US who'd parked it in his un-heated garage in Iowa, near a window, so it was crusty, rusty, and faded, but still very original.

Ken's K1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once I got it up and running, put new tyres on it and made it roadworthy again, he came to collect it, with another bike on his trailer, the XR500. He wanted me to do the same sort of work on this bike that he'd bought an an auction, but for cheap. I'd already done his K1 for what I reckon was cheap, so wasn't prepared to go any cheaper, so I agreed to mind the XR until he could collect it and take it home, 350 miles away.

He was in no rush, I had room in my garage, so for 3 years he'd ring me once in awhile to make sure the XR was still there, and promise to come get it "soon".

Big Red 2012 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

That was starting to wear a bit thin by 2015, so when Ken rang me in May or June, I just said, "What do you want for it?" We agreed on 1500 bucks which I thought was pretty fair as Ken had left some new parts with me back in 2012, (new chain and sprockets, fork gaiters etc) and even though I wasn't really a fan of Honda's XR series, I'd previously owned a Yamaha XT500 in the early 80's, and loved that big torquey single.

OKay, so now it was mine, what to do with it? While it was essentially complete, it hadn't run in many years, the tyres and gaiters were badly perished, the "uni-filter" had turned to dust (I don't know why people still buy those things, I've seen several that have turned to powder on bikes I've bought) and it had the most worn front sprocket I'd ever seen. Being an "Enduro" bike it doesn't have an ignition key, or battery, I wasn't even sure if I could legally ride it on the road.

More tomorrow.

jaytee-nz · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2019, 03:36:33 PM »

There's a person (was going to use a more defamatory word) here in NZ who is selling a "brand new" unused XR500. He wants NZ$30,000 (about 27k Oz) for it - guess what, it hasn't sold !
Good luck with your one Terry. Now that you lost all that weight watch out for the front wheel coming up quick.

spotty · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2019, 03:58:34 PM »

you know you want to put a sohc4 in there......make it look like the one i've got part built ( but you'll probably finish yours)

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2019, 04:23:56 PM »

Ha ha, thanks guys, they're slightly collectable because they only had a short model run before the (detuned) XR600 was released. I saw a minty one on Ebay go for $10K here, but mine is far from mint.

I couldn't think of anything worse than putting a CB750 engine in it Spotty, I had it up to the "Ton" when I was 153Kg, so now I've lost 50 Kg, it will have more than enough power, without the weight.

Having said that of course, I do want a ride on yours when its done!

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #4 on:** February 18, 2019, 12:27:44 AM »

OK, so to go back to 2015. I installed a K&N air filter to replace the dust that had once been a Uni Filter. The XR500RE has not one, but 2 carbs, which is kind of odd for a single cylinder bike.

photo 4 (6) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I gave it an oil and filter change, and got Jeff at Ace Motorcycles to fit new Pirelli Scorpion tyres, which are more road than dirt biased. My thoughts were that II would never do anything more serious than dirt road riding, and would have to negotiate several miles of blacktop to get to the dirt, so the Pirelli's looked just about right.

photo (22) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

XR500R front tyre by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

XR500R rear tyre by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Have you ever seen a more worn front sprocket?

photo 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The rear wasn't much better:

photo 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

And then there was the chain:

photo 1 (1) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Luckily for me, Ken had bought a couple of new front sprockets, a rear, and 3 (God knows why) chains? Oh well, if I ever convert one of my other bikes to take a 520 chain, I'll have plenty of spares.....

photo 2 (1) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once again, with road riding in mind, I chose the larger (15T) front sprocket to give me a little more top end speed. It'll still lift the front wheel at will, as I found out in the driveway tonight when I was just trying to take off normally........

So children, it came to pass that it passed a Roadworthy Inspection, and I got a red "Classic" plate for it, even though I'm still not sure if these things were ever allowed to be road registered. But hey, I'm not complaining!

photo 3 (

by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On it's "Maiden Voyage" it went extremely well, it was the middle of winter (it rained) but it aquitted itself well, with the exception of leaking oil from the kick starter shaft seal, and gear selector pedal seal, and the speedo cable seized. It still went like the clappers, and I saw 160 KPH. (100 MPH in the ancient language of the Druids) Life was good.

photo 1 (6) by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Then sadly, I took a job in Canberra, 400 miles away, so the poor old thing got pushed back into the garage, then across to the storage place, where it remained for the next 3.5 years.

ekpent · « **Reply #5 on:** February 18, 2019, 06:27:54 AM »

I bought a Kaw 750 4 cylinder off a guy sometime back for extremely cheap and he handed me some new rear wheel bearings and said he thought it needed them because 'of a bad sound' back there. I got it back home and started digging a little and the front sprocket looked like yours with virtually no teeth and the rear looked like little thin fish hooks

Guess it makes a pretty funky sound when the chain won't stick to the sprockets

Have fun on your Thumper Terrry !

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2019, 02:00:44 AM »

Thanks Eric, yeah, when I was moving it around my yard on the first day (with flat knobby tyres) I was rocking it back and forwards in gear trying to find neutral and I thought the gearbox was shot before I realised that the rusted chain was just skipping over what was left of the front sprockets teeth!

Anyway, my last post took you all up to where I left off in 2015. Oil leaks, fuel leaks and a seized speedo cable. I must have fixed the speedo cable because it's OK now, I suspect I discovered that a CB750 cable would work, because the one on it now looks just as old as the rest of the bike? Anyway, the "collection" was getting bigger, and poor old Big Red was pushed out of my garage to make room for newer (to me) more interesting (at the time) bikes and parked in the shipping container at the storage place, where it lingered in total darkness for nearly four years.

Terry's storage container of shame by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On Saturday, my son Tim and I went bike shopping. Tim is keen to buy his first bike and we've both decided that the new Royal Enfield 650 twins were the way to go.

Terry's perfect Saturday 16 Feb 2019 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's perfect Saturday 16 Feb 2019 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry's perfect Saturday 16 Feb 2019 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Before we left, Tim ordered a new Continental GT.

CBJoe · « **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2019, 10:34:43 AM »

Those Continental GTs are sharp...looking forward to hearing ride report

spotty · « **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2019, 01:54:19 PM »

thats going to need a new muffler

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2019, 08:47:35 PM »

Yep, the Royal Enfields are nice, my fave is the Interceptor with the more upright seating position, it suited me better, and interestingly Andrew the salesman told me that he preferred it too, even though he's only half my age. Tim preferred the Continental GT, but Andrew and I were about the same height and build, while Tim is around 5'10" tall, whereas Andrew and I are well over 6 feet. I liked the Continental GT too, but riding both of them, the Interceptor did it for me.

Anyhoo, looking at all those big single cylinder RE's got me thinking about Big Red. Tim had the day off, so I borrowed his muscles to give me a hand to go collect the big beast from my storage container of shame. I bought a trick bike towing thingie from Ebay back in 2015 that saves a lot of dicking around with trailers etc, so we threw it in the back of my old Exploder, and off we went.

Terry's perfect Saturday 16 Feb 2019 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Tim, being much younger and fitter than me, did all the grunt work, while I did all the supervising.

Terry's perfect Saturday 16 Feb 2019 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Here's a pic of the towing thingie, just in case someone wants to see it:

Motorcycle Tow Hitch by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Motorcycle Tow Hitch 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

So we got it home. Woohoo!

spotty · « **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2019, 09:18:48 PM »

well that should have worn the shiny coating off the tyre ( the centre of it anyway)

do you actually have room for it at your place?

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2019, 09:51:35 PM »

So it was home. Great! My (possibly ill conceived) plan was to fix the leaks, give it an oil change, get it going, and maybe even use it to commute in and out of the city for work. I'd continued to pay the annual permit fees even though I hadn't ridden it since mid 2015, so once i got it going there was nothing to stop me riding it again.

To recap, the fuel petcock leaked fuel into the carb when in the "off" position, so fuel ran into the cylinder, bypassed the piston, ran into the crankcase/gearbox, mixed with the engine oil, then ran out of the worn out kick starter shaft and gear selector shaft oil seals. I'd bought new seals back in 2015 but ran out off time to install them when I was offered big bux to move to Canberra for a new job, so it took me awhile to find them again on Sunday.

I bought a big pile of parts for my Kawasaki Z1000 "Mad Max" bike from WeBike in Japan last year, and one of the items I bought was a set of oil seal removal hooks, what wonderful things they are! It took seconds to pop out each seal, without the requirement to first remove the engine covers. Brilliant!

Big Red fettling 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Big Red fettling 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Big Red fettling by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I also found the chinese fuel tap that I bought on good old Ebuy. It's not an "Exact" copy, but close enough, and I liked the hex mounting bolts that came with it, much better than the rusty phillips screws that came out of it. I drained the tank as best I could and surprisingly, the 4 year old fuel wasn't as disgusting as I thought, even though I only used it to wash the oily crap off the parts that I removed to get to the leaky seals.

Big Red fettling 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2019, 10:03:02 PM »

Quote from: spotty on February 19, 2019, 09:18:48 PM

well that should have worn the shiny coating off the tyre ( the centre of it anyway)

do you actually have room for it at your place?

Ha ha, no, not really mate, but hell, we'll make room!

ekpent · « **Reply #13 on:** February 20, 2019, 06:22:47 AM »

I bought one of those cheapie Chinese fuel taps once for something and was pissed that the fuel line nipple was a lot smaller then the stocker. Think it was for a K7 but luckily worked out perfect later on for a little Yammie 100 enduro

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #14 on:** February 20, 2019, 11:24:13 AM »

Yeah, I was kind of surprised that it worked at all Eric but it doesn't leak, so I'm happy.

MoMo · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2019, 03:31:52 PM »

Quote from: Terry in Australia on February 20, 2019, 11:24:13 AM

Yeah, I was kind of surprised that it worked at all Eric but it doesn't leak, so I'm happy.

I've had good luck with them too, nothing like a $10 item that works. 'Course I may just have been lucky...Larry

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #16 on:** February 20, 2019, 04:03:14 PM »

This got me thinking Larry, over the years I've occasionally bought something that looked ok on Ebay but turned out to be junk, and I wonder how it'd feel to work in a factory that just turns out non-functioning junk parts?

I think it'd be pretty depressing personally, even working in a factory that makes cheap knockoffs wouldn't be too good for the soul? I know there are knockoff iPhones that look the biz but don't actually have all the features of the real deal, and I bought replacement electronic "smart keys" for my Ford Explorer and Subaru that didn't do jack? I think if I worked in one of those factories I'd be constantly looking for another job.

spotty · « **Reply #17 on:** February 20, 2019, 06:19:18 PM »

what, performing meaningless tasks in a repetitive manner knowing you're doing nothing good to advance the human race ? you got something against public servants then ?

or another way of looking at it....they're paying me

MoMo · « **Reply #18 on:** February 20, 2019, 07:31:58 PM »

Quote from: Terry in Australia on February 20, 2019, 04:03:14 PM

This got me thinking Larry, over the years I've occasionally bought something that looked ok on Ebay but turned out to be junk, and I wonder how it'd feel to work in a factory that just turns out non-functioning junk parts?

I think it'd be pretty depressing personally, even working in a factory that makes cheap knockoffs wouldn't be too good for the soul? I know there are knockoff iPhones that look the biz but don't actually have all the features of the real deal, and I bought replacement electronic "smart keys" for my Ford Explorer and Subaru that didn't do jack? I think if I worked in one of those factories I'd be constantly looking for another job.

Or...……...if you worked for a large retailer that sells crapola made in China, you'd most likely feel the same way. Don't ask me though

...Larry

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #19 on:** February 20, 2019, 11:46:56 PM »

Anyhoo, back to the story. I'd drained the bad fuel and engine oil, fixed the leaks so it was ready to go. While I was doing my research on google, I found a notice warning that the total rider and equipment weight allowed on my bike was 100 Kg. (220 pounds) Hmmnnnn, I was 153 Kg (336 pounds) when I bought the bike, which, in hindsight, might have been a little too much for a bike that only weighs 118 Kg........ (260 pounds)

One good thing about being a huge fat pr1ck is it made it pretty easy to kick start the big red fcuker. Now that I'm only 2/3 of my previous weight, I needed to learn how to start it without the same brute force, because I just don't have that power any more. After kicking it several times (and it kicking me back) I had to upgrade my footwear.

Big Red fettling 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Heavier boots definitely helped, but just being able to whale into the kick starter doesn't help much if you don't have the technique "down pat". I found this vid pretty useful:

Of course, some folks can make anything look easy, so while I found his vid useful, it was still taking 30 - 40 kicks to get mine to fire up, or so it felt. Once it was going though, it ran really well, idled like a champ, and had plenty of poke. I'm quite surprised how bright the lights and blinkers are, seeing that it doesn't have a battery.

One thing I did notice though, was a bit of valve clatter, so the next day when it was cold again, I did the valve clearances. Just like a CB750 it's a screw and locknut arrangement, with larger clearances (4/5 thou) and apart from one inlet valve having 7 thou clearance, all in all, it was fine.

Big Red fettling 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Big Red fettling 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd already pumped the tyres up, so I (eventually) started it, and decided to go for a ride. Wow, for a 36 year old bike, it's still got plenty of power! I had that front wheel up in the air several times on my short ride around the block and I was thoroughly enjoying myself until I remembered that I was supposed to fill out a log book before I rode it or I could get booked for riding an unregistered bike, so I toned down my hoon-play a tad, and rode it back home.

I'm currently at a mental crossroad. I'd like to use this bike more regularly as a commuter, like I used my old Yamaha XT500 back in the 80's. The big Yam was a great bike too, heavier though, with much less power (26 BHP, compared to 42 for the big red Honda) but was always a 1 or 2 kick start bike, regardless of season, weather or terrain. If I could make the Honda start as easily, I'd keep it forever, but if I can't, well, I might have to find something a little easier to live with. (preferably with an electric leg) We'll see.

ekpent · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:17:43 PM »

The only job I could think of that may be worse then making junk parts is being one of those fu$k#rs that sits on their ass all day making telephone calls to people trying to sell you #$%*e that you do not need or want even though your on the do not call registry !! Nice slipper by the way Terry,got a few myself

I have a large bore 600cc thumper Honda enduro also that takes too many kicks to start from what I have dealt with so far. Gotta look into it more also. Those double carbs are complicated on the Honda compared to some double carbs I have also on a Yammie 350 thumper which are very simple to work on.

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #21 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:58:52 PM »

Thanks Eric and yeah, I think I must be getting old, my oldest son, a muscle bound oaf who weighs 50 pounds more than me with not an ounce of fat managed to start it after only 3 kicks, wearing running shoes, and not even sitting on the bike! He didn't even know its got a decompressor! I think I better start looking for something with an electric starter.......

seanbarney41 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 21, 2019, 06:13:02 PM »

My buddy has a couple XR400's with big bore kits and cam...really takes some Dunderklompen's to kick 'em. And with the stock carb, they would still never start. He put a Mikuni flat slide on one and a Lectron on the other. Now they both start first or second kick...super crispy throttle response too!

Terry in Australia · « **Reply #23 on:** February 21, 2019, 06:23:04 PM »

Thanks Sean, I don't know when they went back to single carbs, but mine has 2x 28mm slide carbs, which appear to work pretty well, its just getting around the compression issue thats messing with me?

My old XT500 had a sight glass on the head with a TDC indicator which worked very well, whereas with the Honda I don't, so its a pain in the arse.......

scottly · « **Reply #24 on:** February 21, 2019, 06:30:30 PM »

Terry, that bike should have an automatic compression release, that linked via cable to the kick-starter?

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Author Topic: Terry's "Big Red" Honda XR500RE, back from the darkness. (Read 7250 times)