1987 Honda TLR200 Reflex Refresh

I love to acquire projects but am not as good finishing them correctly. My new project is a 1987 Honda TLR200 Reflex that I picked up for $900.

This is the bad side. The other one actually has side plastics.

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I wanted a trials bike and I wanted to get my 4'11" wife a dualsport. Most modern dualsports are way too tall. Even a TW200 is too tall for her to put her feet down. So I get a trials bike and get to pretend it is a dualsport for my wife - genius!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Most of these bikes get turned into dual shock trials machines. Owners take off all the road gear and buy some trick trials bits. I want a dual sport with a few modern updates.<o></o>
One of the issues with project is that I usually don't care about aesthetics. I am an engineer, not an artist. So the goal is a budget rebuild that looks a little better and is mechanically sound. This will also be a learner for a possible cafe project.
I took the bike out on a few rides before tearing it down. At Taskers Gap, an extremely rocky OHV area near me, I would take the harder line to practice my non-existent trials skills. It is a different type of riding and I think it will be alot of fun. The bike performed pretty well except for the weak brakes and something that sounded like noisy valves.<o></o>
One of the first items to fix was the headlight. It comes with an old sealed beam unit that is $65. <o></o>
After reading a few posts on forums, I found a separate bulb out of China and cut apart the old sealed bulb to come up with an $8 working light.<o></o>

The original light

The new bulb with the old harness soldered to it


The old housing with original bulb cut out.

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I drained the oil and next wanted to clean the oil screen as recommended by the manual. To get to the screen you have to remove the right crankcase cover. This was fairly easy except there is a tab on the frame which makes it really hard to pull the cover off. The Reflex was a budget bike which uses a XR200 engine. Most of my engine tech help comes from the Honda XR forum on Thumpertalk. When different bikes share parts little issues like clearance for the case get ignored.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

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I got this crud out of the bottom of the engine. Who knows how long it has been since this has been done.

The bike before it turns into a pile of pieces. It is fun working a bike at my place. I live in a townhouse with a one car garage. I have to push my other bikes out of the garage to get enough room to move. Even then I am still stepping over stuff the whole time.


I then pulled the engine to get started with the real teardown.

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I pulled the head to and wondered what I would find. The bike did not have many miles on it but I was afraid it might have sat still for years at a time. The cam looked OK and was within spec.


The pick points to a little oil journal.


This plug, which is smaller than a pencil eraser, fits in the hole. Supposedly it is critical for proper oil flow. Lucky I didn't lose or ignore it.

rockers seem OK.



I found this wonderful piece of 80's era emissions garbage. I will try to find a special place for it in a landfill.

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Does anyone know where to get small breather filters for a project like this. The smallest I have found are as big as a D battery. I don't think you need much for a 200cc engine.

The cylinder came off without a problem. No major problems so far.
Valve looked OK. I needed to buy a valve spring compressor. Do you see the bottom bolt holding the intake manifold on? Well it was stuck. And it was very hard to get a wrench on it with the manifold hanging over it. I tried most of my tricks then I got out the reverse cut drill bits. The proper technique is to hold the head on an uneven surface with the drill at a bad angle. Then...


..break the drill bit and tear up your finger. This is best to do a couple hours before you are going to a three day exercise. My wife is a nurse and she looked at me like I was an idiot and then made me go to the emergency room.


Cylinder is oil glazed but I bought a cylinder hone. The ring gap measured OK.

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The Reflex was a budget version of the TLR200 - the TLR200 doesn't have that tab.

No blood no glory

Nice work. If you are set on getting the head apart you can do it without a compressor - you only need it to re assemble.

Find a deep socket that just about matches the diameter of the valve spring. Fill the drive hole with a rag or tape or something. Place it over the top of the valve then give it a good rap with a hammer. This will release the collets and away you go. The tape keeps them from launching into orbit. Don't be afraid to give it a good rap.

I have disassembled many old Hondas using this method.


KP

I am suprised you went to get medical attention for a cut like that. I would have just put some electrical tape on it and called it good

Blood, god's penetrating oil.

I got my budget spring compressor out.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Dual shocks on a light old bike like this are pretty weak. I can compress them by hand. I used 550 cord and my vice to put just enough pressure on it to disassemble the shock. Do not try to use this method with a modern single shock.<o></o>
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On a whim I polished some of the tapet covers. I have always seen people polish aluminum. It took a good bit of time to do these two covers. It must take forever to do a whole frame like the sport bike buys do.
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<o>Valves need a little bit of clean up. And yes, the cut is healing fine.</o>
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<o>The head will need some cleaning.</o>
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I got some more work done on the Reflex. I got the shock apart and painted the body and associated parts after going after the rust with a wire wheel on my grinder. I also removed the rust from and painted the springs. I read on some forums that some people had luck with rust oleum. I know the paint my not last on the springs but flaking paint will look better than the previous rusty mess.


I kept the stock stickers and taped over them during painting whenever I could.

I also got to work on the exhaust. Again the wire wheel on the grinder took off a ton of rust. It is also important to point out that even if you are only using one side of a grinder, the other side still spins rather quickly. Luckily the skin on my knuckles should not damage my grinder wheel.

Early in the clean up


Looking better

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After primer and paint

The satin black looks more like a flat black to me.

The frame is something I have been putting off. The old paint was pretty rough.


This is the original color code. It was alot harder to find the old Honda Red than I thought. I could not find anything close except for Color rite which quoted me over $100 for the paint, primer, and clear coat. I am sure their product is worth it for a nice restore. It just did not fit on my soon to be dirty budget build.

The NH-111 is actually the silver spring-arm paint. I could not find it anywhere.

The rust and paint removal took quite a while with all the weird angles and obstructions.


Primer Coat


Final coat. My wife chose the color. I am happy with it. I also bought some spray on bed coating to us as a frame protector. I am not sure if I will do that before I put it back together or wait and see how the paint holds up.

I just used an old can of engine paint I had lying around - Chev Orange.Pretty close to the Honda red.

true true

More Progress

I got the rear brake panel painted. It looked pretty good until I got some ATF on it from filling the front forks. I had to touch it up.


After weeks of taking things apart, I finally put something back together. I installed the airbox. This victory was quickly lost when I had to take it back off to properly route the wires.


Look at the steering bearings!

It was a surprise to me that it had loose bearings, especially when they fell all over the floor during disassembly! I looked in the manual and it said there should be 18 balls on each race. Mine had 20 up top and 18 below so I went with that.
I just used grease to keep them in place during assembly.






This is the bike in its current state. I hope to get it rolling soon.

I'm watching this thread to see what I can learn. I just picked up a very nice '87 model.

I had no idea. What are the other differences?

The Reflex has smaller dia forks,steel wheels,steel bash plate,steel brake levers,the lean carb,and maybe a few other things.I've never seen a Reflex in the flesh,only in pictures.

Axis power,
Very nice. Restored or original? How many miles?