Topic: Terry's barn find XR500R

[scottly]

Well the good news is that I've been researching the "Thumper Talk site" and the official BHP figure (from the factory workshop manual) for my wonderful XR500R is 41 BHP,
I don't know what that equates to at the back wheel exactly, but using the "15 percent rule", means that it should still be making around 35 BHP at the rear wheel.

Terry, I did a "negative HP" on the dyno today, which measures drive-train drag. The FT showed a 4 HP loss at about 7200 RPM, and I would expect your bike would have similar loss, so figure 37 RWHP.

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Scott, thanks for that mate, and yeah, 37 BHP would be an excellent result! As I'd posted earlier, it "felt" way more powerful than my old XT500, which had 27 BHP at the crank, so maybe 23 at the rear wheel?

I've received more parcels of parts so I'm waiting for a sunny day so I can install them, but I've got another distraction, I did my fortnightly "welfare check" of my mum, who's on her own since my dad passed away in January, so while I was in my home town, (200 miles from here in Melbourne) I drove over to my cousin's place and collected my "Worlds Fastest Bicycle" that I built a few years ago.



One of the teething problems that I had was that the alloy rear rim with spindly spokes was a weak point, so I found a heavy duty rear wheel in the US that should sort that problem out, and thanks to Cal, managed to get it shipped out to Oz.  (Companies that don't ship internationally piss me off, but I've already had a whine about that) I've also ordered a "boost" bottle which is supposed to sort out a fuel reversion problem I'm having, a pair of expansion chambers that I'll have to modify to suit, and............ a nitrous kit.

I'm still thinking about a jackshaft kit so that I can use the bicycle's 21 gears, but I'm also woondering if I can't adapt a go kart torque converter to suit, that'd give it a seamless "CVT" transmission, and might be a bit more reliable than the jackshaft kit. The biggest problem of course, is trying to work out where to stuff all these parts in a bicycle frame! Cheers, Terry.

[faux fiddy]

(and easy to start, as long as you're 300 pounds in your hob nailed boots)

Don't get too careless with that thing. It will kick back and break your leg.

[grcamna2]

Terry,
I'd like to hear more about that FAST bicycle !  Does it have 2 chain saw engines ? Make a thread on it !

[Redline it]

very nice bike!

[Terry in Australia]

Terry,
I'd like to hear more about that FAST bicycle !  Does it have 2 chain saw engines ? Make a thread on it !

Thanks mate, I built it a few years ago (2009, I think?) when my cousin bought me a lifetime membership to the Dry Lake Racers Association. He wanted to go watch Oz's version of Bonneville, and so I thought it'd be nice to take something there to break (or probably create) a record.

I bought two of those eBay Chinese bicycle engines, and machined up a jackshaft assembly so as to connect both engines to drive the rear wheel. My cuz is a trained 2 stroke mechanic, so I took it to his place for him to tune it, and (as he's about half my weight) to practise riding it. Sadly his father and sister died shortly afterwards, and we didn't go any further.

I just love anything with an engine in it, and I was always building minibikes and gokarts when I was a kid, and I love to tinker with anthing mechanical. I'm going to continue with the bike's state of tune here, and hopefully my cuz and I will take it to the salt at Lake Gairdner in South Australia next year, to officially make it the "Worlds Fastest Bicycle". Today I bought this thing, so maybe we'll attempt the "Worlds Fastest Tricycle" while we're at it............

[grcamna2]

Terry,
How's your cousin doing ? I think he would be the guy to set-up/fine-tune those 2 engines in synchronus to get them both pulling Nice 

[Terry in Australia]

Yeah, he's good mate, his dad died of stomach cancer, but he was in his 80's, but his little sister and died of liver failure a year later.

My cuz is a great guy and has the most interesting "barn" full of vintage cars, and a few bikes, (including his old Indian Chief) and is looking forward to retiring from Esso later this year (he works on an oil rig) so he can work out of his garage doing small engine rebuilds and general fab work.

Here's an "arty" pic my son took of his 1928 Dodge "Fast Four" that he restored when he was 15 years old. It's looking a little tired now, but it's now back on the road since this pic was taken in January. Cheers, Terry.

   

[750K]

Great xr terry, my friend has an xr600 and says it's a beast of a dirt bike. I had a 79 xr250 for a bit that was a blast to tear around on. The night before I sold it the local cops pulled me over on the street, it wasnt street legal at all, with no lights or signals or brake light. I had no helmet on, just a led head lamp haha, somehow I didn't end up with a ticket.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks mate, I must roll the ol' XR out into the sunlight, it hasn't fired a shot in anger in the last couple of months since I started my new job, but it'll get a flogging when I go on annual vacation in December.

I don't know what it is with me, but as soon as I buy a bike I wanna get more performance out of it, (even my Triumph Rocket III with it's massive 2300cc engine is kicking out another 20-odd BHP at the rear wheel due to exhaust/air filter/computer changes, not that it was at all necessary) so I've been thinkiong of finding an XR600 engine and installing a big bore kit and hot cam as part of an engine rebuild and installing it in the XR500 frame, just for fun.

I missed out on one XR600 engine that someone had installed in a go kart, but the owner wouldn't part it out, even though I offered him what wanted for the whole kart? (he lived too far away for me to just buy the whole kart) No biggie, I'll find one eventually, nothing exceeds excess...........