The Honda XL (and other vintage singles) thread!

[JeffS77]

Originally Posted by NordieBoy

Works Performance do 16.75" and 17.5"
I think it's stock and long.

thank you

[jitterymonkey]

My stock exhaust is getting bead blasted & a new coat of paint.
So, my son helped me put on the homemade Supertrapp pipe.

Sounds pretty good with 5 disk, but, holy cow is it short!
All the hot babes this bike attracts will have to wait till the stock exhaust is back on.

& please forgive all the patina (rust) & the leaky petcock.
She's a work in progress.

[jehu]

I owned this one for 19 years. 1976 C&J 440. I commuted, scrambled, road raced and toured on it. I rode it from Salmon Arm, BC to Nolan, AK and back in 1982.

[dorkpunch]

Wow, thats pretty impressive! How many miles do you figure you put on it? What kind of maintenance did you do? Any major problems? More info!

[Bendernz]

My friend Pete had an XL250 ike that with a leaky petcock. One day out riding I noticed he was no longer behind me. I went back until I found a circle of burnt scrubland about 30ft across.

Pete and our other friend Les had put the fire out and towed Pete's bike away quickly because, technically speaking we should not have been there. In fact we'd been specifically told we weren't allowed to ride there by a ranger because of the fire risk we posed. Bollocks we said, and went riding anyway

Pete's bike was totalled.

Just sayin, is all.

[jitterymonkey]

Originally Posted by Bendernz

My friend Pete had an XL250 ike that with a leaky petcock. One day out riding I noticed he was no longer behind me. I went back until I found a circle of burnt scrubland about 30ft across.

Pete and our other friend Les had put the fire out and towed Pete's bike away quickly because, technically speaking we should not have been there. In fact we'd been specifically told we weren't allowed to ride there by a ranger because of the fire risk we posed. Bollocks we said, and went riding anyway
Pete's bike was totalled.
Just sayin, is all.

Sorry to hear that horrible story. Pete wasn't hurt,I hope?
I know it was stupid. New gaskets & a screen are on the way.
Really need to rig up something so I can start her without the tank on.

[Bendernz]

Nah, Pete was fine. A mild scorching of the gonads led to him bailing out off the bike, and I think he got bad bruising around the butt because it was clenched so hard at the thought of setting the nearby forest alight. The fire spread in a circle and they only had sand to fight it with - must have been quite a performance by the pair of them while I rode happily on and missed all the action.

None of it seemed to affect his astonishing success with the ladies over the years.

[jehu]

Originally Posted by dorkpunch

Wow, thats pretty impressive! How many miles do you figure you put on it? What kind of maintenance did you do? Any major problems? More info!

I'm only guessing at the mileage but I know I put 15000 miles a year on it commuting 50 miles, round trip from 1983 to 1986. I bought it in 1977 for $1000, it was my only means of transportation and probably put at least the same on it yearly from then to 1983. It was a 403cc, I think, when I first bought it, then was bored to 412. It wasn't worn out, I just wanted to go faster. In 1985, when I decided to road race it, I rebuilt the bottom end for the fist time and bought a stroked crankshaft from Powroll which made it a 440. What a difference! I had to replace the head and cam at one time also because I ran it a few drops low on oil but that was my dumb fault. Best of all, the little bugger was fast. It topped out about 105 and on the AK trip it got 75mpg. I was dumb to sell it but I'd bought a bike with better suspension and wasn't riding it.
The top photo was taken on the first day I road raced it in 1987. Goldwing front wheel, 12" Barnes disk, Rebel caliper, Betor forks and B50 tank. The bottom pic is what it looked like on the day I sold it in 1996. TT500 Yamaha forks, YZ490 brake, Elsinore tank (still have). Note the look of intrepidation. What a dumbass!





First race



Next to last

[bpeckm]

Nice post... and to "see" jehu...!! Always intersting to put a face to the myriad posts, been following your cafe/street/xl threads... muchos thankos!!


Can you elaborate on the "C&J 440"... I googled it and came up with... you! Don't know the bike/background....nice!

[OLDschool1]

Guess I'll start here with my 1st post. New to the forum, but not new to riding. Bought my XL500R 5 years ago. It was a farm bike and sure look like one. After some TLC, it turned out to be a decent bike. Bought it for the kids to play in the dirt with. Turn out I was the only one who could kick start it and to make a long story short it ended up being mine.

It was set up for dirt riding and I decided to convert it back to street/dirt. Built a utility rack, put on turn signal, upgraded the headlight, put a trunk on it and fresh new all terrain tires. Just finish it this weekend after dropping the motor to address oil leaks and carb issue. Was able to take out for a short ride. Was fun!

I have 5 other bikes and this one seems to be my favorite for riding in town. Haven't got her on the freeway yet, but if it can handle it I'm sure I'll be commuting to work with it.

Here she is:

Work in progress


Finish and ready for the street



Originally, pick up the bike for $200. Spent an additional $300 to get it street legal. Most of the cost is in my labor which I'll leave out. Grand total $500 so far.

[Al Tuna]

Here is my 500$ 1982 XL500R.

[IHWillys]

Originally Posted by neilios

My latest project, another Honda single. ...

The last C&J framed 350 you posted was gorgeous. I am looking forward to seeing more of this one.

Ken

[Steamboatsig]

I added a pistol case.

[JeffS77]

XL500R's rule





adapting a XR400 4.5gal tank.

[jehu]

A couple pics I snapped at the Del Mar show a few years back.