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MY BMW R1200GS HERE!!
How I took a 1981 Honda XL500s from this.....
To THIS !!!!!
By Derek Herbst
I bought the junked
Honda XL 500 S on EBAY for 221 Euros...
The seller
claimed that all the parts were there, which for the most part is true as the bike could have simply been
reassembled with its existing parts and been a functioning bike, but what was
not stated was that a good many of the parts were aftermarket and not original
parts. The Headlamp and housing, the seat, the handlebar-end indicators
("Ochsenaugen" in German) the total removal of the rev counter, and, in its
place mounted with cable ties, a beeper that goes off when your indicator is
flashing, a grotesquely ugly tail light of unknown origin (Possibly Russia or
Red China!!!) and, the only thing I will keep on the bike, a 12 volt
conversion. (The original bike had 6 volt electrics)
So... I drove down to a town called Rosenfeld to pick up the bike in my VW Sharan, and it was exactly as depicted in the first picture. Half stripped down and covered in oil, grease and grit. The guy at the workshop where the bike stood was quite amused to see me come get it. He actually seemed relieved to get the thing out of the door. It appears that the owner of the bike sent it to him for repairs (I'll get to that later) and possibly ran out of interest in the bike, or money, but probably both - and put it up for sale on ebay.
The seat and tank were already removed, so, quick as a flash I removed the front forks and wheel, and smartly loaded the bike into the sharan with no trouble. This simple exercise left me totally filthy with grease, etc. and I then realised what a task lay ahead of me in just cleaning off the dirt before I could commence work.
The first week
consisted of
removing all parts down to the frame for cleaning and repainting as necessary.
The front forks came out first to have the red gunk that was brush-painted onto
them removed. I have no idea what type of paint was used, but it certainly was
not automotive paint, as it made my hands go red just while handling the forks.
The stuff had also been applied to the shock springs. I went thru about 4 litres
of paint thinner and 4 litres of petrol just in cleaning up the bike.
Once the forks had been cleaned and prepared I sprayed them with an aluminium
colour which brought them back to life. I wanted to go with the original metal
and no paint, but one side was scratched from the application of a coarse
sandpaper which had removed the electroplating at some point in its life, so the
paint was my only option, as electroplating would be expensive.
The following week was my first go at putting some of the restored parts back onto the frame, to get a feel for how the bike would look completed. The forks, handlebar, swinging arm, side covers, shocks and rear fender had been repainted and the frame had been cleaned and prepped. I had to spend more time cleaning the parts than I did painting them.
The Plastic parts took a lot of work to sand down and prepare for spray painting. After the desired smoothness was achieved I sprayed on a plastic primer, followed by a filler coat, which i sanded again, and then put on the colour coat and sealed with clear lacquer. I used spray cans for the entire bike from a company called Dupli-Color, which brought amazingly good results. The most difficult was the clear coat, because one tends to spray too much at once which results in some running of the paint. A little patience pays off during this phase of the job.
Manufacturing the stickers was a bit of fun, and took me about 3 hours to do. The side covers are not perfectly flat, so the black background sticker needed a cut to get it to stick without bubbling. I will probably refinish the black by just spraying the side cover with matt black in the shape of the sticker, and then put the lettering onto the finish.
The engine was worked on gradually as I was waiting for paint to dry between coats. This allowed me to maximize my work days. The defect was that the timing chain had stretched over time and finally jumped on the cam sprocket, causing the valve timing to go out. Any XL500 owner worth his salt will know that this has disastrous effects on the valves. In my case the inlet valves bent, and had to be replaced, along with the timing chain and valve stem seals. Honda recommend that the new valves NOT be lapped, as this deteriorates the coating on the valves, causing them to burn.
The battery had burst at
some point in the bike's lifetime, and the acid had gotten onto the engine
casing, causing mostly oxidisation, which made black stains on the metal.
I sent the engine in for blasting and then coated the entire engine in heat-resistant paint. The result was quite spectacular! Even after riding the bike over 1000km. the finish on the engine shows no sign of heat discoloration.
The fuel tank was the last item to be painted. Once again it was the final clear coat that proved to be the trickiest.
Once it was completed it was a most rewarding moment to finally put it onto the bike and admire the picture.
Finally, the engine
and exhaust was fitted to the bike, the drive chain adjusted, along with the
brakes, clutch, and throttle. After a final inspection, I fitted the battery,
turned on the ignition, and had my first go at starting the beast.
No luck after 3 kicks...!!! I was disappointed, but decided to finish up for the
night and go to bed.
As my head touched the pillow it dawned on me that I had not tried to use the
choke. I went to sleep deciding to try again in the morning. I got up early next
day, and tried again, this time with the choke, and... VROOM !!! One kick and
the beast was alive!!
Later that day the tank decals arrived in the mail, so my daughter and I put them on and went for a short ride. It took a few more days for the Headlamp to arrive. The bike was now practically complete. The saddle was not original, so it took me a few weeks to hunt down the right one. Eventually I got it fitted and immediately the bike looked better.
I registered the bike the following week and took it for its first ride where I could open the throttle wide and see how it really goes. I was disappointed. from about 5500RPM the bike just gave up, and wouldn't accelerate. After consulting the excellent www.xl500.de I decided to give the carburettor a makeover, so I bought a carb service kit and fitted everything. Still, the performance was dismal in the high end. After much pottering around with carb adjustment and replacing the spark plug, suppressor and flylead, I decided that the ignition timing must be to blame. As there is no Honds dealer in my town I went to the Yamaha guys to ask them if I could use the timing light. Turns out that they don't even use a timing light any more, and they assured me that if the bike was starting and idling ok, then the timing was ok. I wasn't convinced so I went out and bought a timing light. The timing at Idle was perfect, however, the timing did not advance at all under acceleration !! I whipped off the right hand engine cover and inspected the advance mechanism. the thing was jammed solid!! A washer onder the mounting nut was the culprit. It was too wide, and was jamming the outer collar of the centrifuge. I bought a washer of the correct size and installed it. This bike goes like a rocket. Loads of torque and accelerates 0 to 100km/h in a fraction over 6 seconds.
The bike is operational, thanks to the kind help of a number of visitors to this page who kindly GAVE FREE OF CHARGE a number of things I had been battling to find. The heat shield on the exhaust header pipe was sent to me all the way from a gent in the USA.It proves the old advertisement to be true.. You meet the nicest people on a HONDA!!!
Now it looks better !!
The bike is fun to ride, and I am seriously considering doing another one........ watch this space!!!!
Derek Herbst
NEW PICS !!
LINKS
Information sites for the Honda
XL500S and Honda XL500R:
Lots of Good info and Photos of XL500's
www.xl500.de (Also has English pages and forum entries, with more to follow)
www.hondaxl.it (Has shop manual and parts catalogs in.pdf format)
www.xlintperformance.com/ (More pictures and of XL models)
