BannedCR500Riders.com

To think that I almost sold my 97 CR250 a few weeks ago for $700. Thats all anyone would give me for an "old" bike......So I told that dude in a tastefull manner to go rape himself sideways and upside down!!

Thanks to a good buddy from the KXRiders site I was guided towards this bitchen site. The project is now underway. So instead of taking a royal boner up the corn hole, I decided to build my AF. I will do my best to document every last detail. Many thanks to those on this site who have already given my good advice.

My CR250 brand new back in Novemer 1997


My CR250 3 weeks ago and 2 hours before I pulled the motor to post it on craigslist



My 92 CR500 motor, carb, electronics I bought for $600 2 hours after I sold the CR250 motor, carb, electronics for $500


Frame work in progress, cutting off the forward motor mounts and half the "X" brace.

No turning back now!!!!!

Right on.
I have one complete gen1 conversion, and another one that just needs to be assembled.

They are still good old bikes.
I will probably sell one of my gen 1's and try a gen 3 chassis next.

Question 1........

Before I cut up my "X" brace on the frame I would like some feedback. Honda put it there for a reason......I read here somewhere that someone relocated the whole brace higher and did not cut it. I also read that the thing to do is to cut off the bottom half........What about removing it all together?.....This Gen 1 frame was built super rigid to begin with. What are some of the thoughts here?

I've seen it done all 3 ways.... didnt seem to make much difference.

Personally?

I'd reposition the whole thing.

Good luck with your build, it looks like you took good care of your 97' 250. Where did you get the full side cover decal??? I need one for my gen. 1 that I just finished.

Rue wrote:Good luck with your build, it looks like you took good care of your 97' 250. Where did you get the full side cover decal??? I need one for my gen. 1 that I just finished.

I got the whole "Geico" graphics kit from Senge Graphics. Reasonably priced and they are good quality thick graphics.....I don't remember the website but just google Senge Graphics and it comes up.

Thanks for the lead. Let me know if I can be of any help with your build.

Like Bob said..."No turning back now!!".....I did some asking, and some looking around the site as far as the "X" brace was concerned and decided to follow the directions on the GEN 1 build instructions. I cut off half the "X". I took my time grinding down the old welds from the front motor mounts......I don't think I did too bad a job for a rookie...



So now that my frame mods are almost done (you gen 2 thru gen 5 guys are probably hating right about now ) I decided to introduce the 500 to its new home.







Then came the topic of tank fitment....I remember reading about someone here on the site that tried to mod an IMS 3.2 gallon tank and totaly jacked it up....not that he was a moron or anything but it looks like modifying the tank is gonna be a royal bitch!! I can understand now how easy it would be to screw the pooch on this one. I've had this IMS tank on the bike since freaking Y2K....so if I totaly fuck it up......whatever.....I got 12 good years out of it. I might try a Clarke tank if I screw this up since I hear that the Clarke is easier to mod.

Its hard to tell in this picture but here is where the work must be done


From what I can tell the area I marked in pencil on the tank will need some serious "foreplay" with a heat gun before I just ram her in......


On the plus side though, there appears to be a shit ton of space in the area where the water outlets and spark plug are at.......


I have a heat gun but I am not too crazy about modding this tank until I have at least the head stay mount installed. If any of you evil genius types have any comments or thought please feel free to post up.......

If you feel I'm dicking this all up, you can say that too......I dont "butthurt" easy.....

No dicking it up yet!!

Looks great,

I think a lot of gen1 builds use a single side headstay, or use a "thin doubled plate" style (oe style) made with 1/8" steel and low profile Allen head bolts and thin nuts to reduce the room needed.

Gmbond wrote:No dicking it up yet!!

Looks great,

I think a lot of gen1 builds use a single side headstay, or use a "thin doubled plate" style (oe style) made with 1/8" steel and low profile Allen head bolts and thin nuts to reduce the room needed.

Wow......thats good stuff....as you can see from the pictures I will need all the space I can get!!

I have a question about an exhasut system for a CR500. I've always been either an FMF or Pro Circuit guy all my life.....however I did find a low priced PSI pipe for a 1990 CR500. Does anyone have an opinion on this pipe for this bike? Is it a top end or low end pipe? Should I just stay away from it?

If you end up having to go with a Clarke there is no mod needed as I understand. I had to mod the stocker slightly it wasn't bad I just followed the advise of the fellow hoons and took the plunge. Clean the area where you need to mod and heat about a 4 inch radius until it gets a glossy look to it, I used a 2"x4" 6" long that I wet before applying very slight to no pressure just the weight of the 2x4, Have water near and add to cool the area.

Refer to the following links.

asteroid500's Gen. 1 tank mod

http://www.bannedcr500riders.com/board/ ... highlight=

AlisoBob's
http://www.bannedcr500riders.com/board/ ... &showall=1

Today I began to strip down the whole rear end of the "former" CR250 to inspect, grease bearings, and clean up.....Gonna want the "new" CR500AF to look her best!!

All bearings in the swingarm and linkage look pretty good so I'll just get them cleaned up and re-greased....


On another note I noticed that there is a 500cc race currently going on in my garage. My KX500 chassis is complete but I'm waiting its waiting on the motor......The CR500AF motor is complete but I'm waiting on its chassis!! All I need for the Kawi is my jug to return from the platers and all my Honda needs is for the frame to go to the fab shop for its mods!!! THIS IS INTENSE!!!

AND THE RACE IS ON!!

Hard to judge your progress with all that green in the background!

So the swingarm has been cleaned up and every bearing has been cleaned and repacked.....every screw, nut and bolt has been cleaned and treated with anti-sieze on the threads.


Meanwhile, I found a bitchen Fab shop here in Tehachapi that reminds me of the old shop I grew up in down in Los Angeles.....Same type of foul mouthed old dudes that build hotrods.....I'm in the right place

Showed them what I need and they said no problem. I've seen some of the work they have in the shop and it appears that these "old school" guys have some skills......They said I should have it all back and done by mid to end of this coming week....I will post as many "DETAILED" pictures as I can once its back

One the way to the Fabricator

I've got another question for the masses.......I am having my radiator modified to accept BOTH hoses out of the CR500 head like I've read about here at "BANNEDCR500RIDERS"!!....Has anyone with a GEN 1 AF ever experienced overheating problems under heavy loads or on single track? Should I look into an overflow bottle and if so what models have bottles that might bolt up to my GEN 1? Or am I being too paranoid?

Are those..........LBZ........BAGGY PANTS...........in that photo?

scooter5002 wrote:Are those..........LBZ........BAGGY PANTS...........in that photo?

That gear was my "SMP" stuff......but I had "LBZ" as well...loolllll

Has anyone with a GEN 1 AF ever experienced overheating problems under heavy loads or on single track?

if youre gonna overheat, it will happen.....
go ride and if your boiling it regular, go from there

USMC 500 wrote:

scooter5002 wrote:Are those..........LBZ........BAGGY PANTS...........in that photo?

That gear was my "SMP" stuff......but I had "LBZ" as well...loolllll

I miss the old Smp stuff they made great gear.

I still ride the dunes with my old LBZ gear. I have a brand new pair of red ones for a girl too.

Just got my Gen3 back from roosty to build, but i'll get to the Gen1 I have had sitting on the racks for a couple years one day.

OK.....I got good news and I got bad news.....

First the Good.......Bike is done!!

Once I picked the bike up from the Fab shop it took me about half a day to get her all together. Grimey old fabricator charged me $150 bucks and made me a head stay, swingarm spacers, welded on some motor mounts and made me all the brackets so that I can use stock CR500 pipes and silencers. I told him that asthetics were not a big priority and that I wanted funcionality so the work is not as pretty as some of the stuff I've seen you boys do.....but it works.

Swingarm Spacers


Front motor mounts



I had to modify the IMS tank significantly to make it work but a little patience with the heat gun and she went on......

Before


After


And here is the finished bike.....


I didn't do a whole lot of cleaning and polishing of the bike or motor as I wanted to get it all together, ride it to make sure everything worked and then tear it all down for a good clean up.

So now the BAD news .......

Acording to the dude that sold me the motor, it has been sitting in his garage for a couple of years. So I drained the tranny oil and filled it with fresh oil, new plug (I used that NGK BR8ECM short plug gapped at .024). Once in the bike I went through my start up routine and it started on the second kick......and boy do it sound mean!! I let the bike idle in the driveway for about 3 minute and noticed that the motor came up to temp QUICK.....after 3 minutes I placed my hand on the jug and it was VERY warm.....so I ripped up and down the street a couple of times and went throught the gears. I noticed that the bike felt kinda low on power and under full throttle in 5th the bike started to stumble.......I pulled back into my driveway and shut her down......I looked down and saw some coolant dripping from the overflow line.....I am running a 1.6 cap and its brand new. So it looks like I'm having cooling issues. I did not mod the radiator like I want. I ended up connecting the two water outlets on the head with some spare radiator hoses and a "T" that I had. I wonder if this is the problem. Also I am running way more coolant than I am water in the radiator but I wouldn't think this is a problem.

Its ugly but this is the best routing I could come up with using the available space under the tank.



And this is the lower radiator setup


The hoses up top have some pretty gnarly turns and bends but no kinks however the tank does press down on them a bit once installed. I wonder if the flow is being restricted here. Another thought I had was air in the system causing cavitation which can also cause overheating.....Do the CR500's get air trapped in the system on fill up? And if so, how can I bleed all the air? I might yank all those hoses and try plugging one outlet and running a single hose to the radiator to see if it helps.

Help me out boys......I wanna ride her!!

More coolant than water is a bad idea...

If you filled it to the top, it will always push some out the overflow due to expansion.

It will seek its own level, usually about 3/8" down from the cap opening.

It should stabilize there....

Thanks Bob........I actually rerouted my previous hose setup....I'll post pics later.....I filled the cooling system with 50/50 distilled water and white vinegar to clean out any scale that might be in the system. I then ran the bike for 10 min and kept an eye on the radiator temp with a fluke infared tester. It didn't seem to overheat in the 10 minutes it idled in the driveway. However I did notice another problem....drip, drip, drip from the small weep hole under the water pump......time for new water/oil seals. So I'll now drain the cooling system to see if any crap comes out. Another issue I'm having is that the bike runs good throught the gears but as soon as I start to build speed and rpm in 5th wide open the bike does this.....bbbbrrrrRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA..papapapapapapapapa. Its stumbling on the top end. I am at 4000ft elevation with FMF gnarly pipe, FMF turbine core 2 silencer, and all stock jetting.

Hey Bob, or anyone for that matter......What are you running in your radiators? Engine Ice? Water Wetter? Regular coolant?