1987 XR200R. red dirt redemption

Hurco550

Keep er' Between the Ditches
DTT SUPPORTER
DTT BOTM WINNER
I snagged this little dirtbike the other day after a bit of Facebook marketplace searching. Mr.E proved his xr200 affectionately named meatwad as a more than capable little trail bike after trying to keep up with him on the Georgia single tracks on my big boned dr650. Irk also got one, and since I'm an easily swayed youth, I had to get on the xr200 train.

This bike will be a race -to- spring beak low budget build, as once completed, it will be hauled from my home in Ohio to its new home on my brother in laws place on his farm in Georgia. It will provide a way to get him riding dirtbikes, as well as being there for me to tool around while I'm there.

The bike came to me from the p.o. not shifting from whatever gear it's in, so exploratory surgery will be in the near future, but I'm guessing a bent shift fork is the culprit, but she is running, on the second kick at that.

The next part will be addressing the under sprung and under damped suspension. In stock form they are well known to be pretty ok for any rider, as long as said rider weighs less than 125 lbs. Out front I'm planning on throwing the xr500r forks and disc brake wheel that I have laying around, and the jury is still out on the rear shock.


So pull up a chair and watch ol Hurcos garage muddle through another project.

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Nothing says "I'm going to biff this landing" quite like staring directly at the front fender mid air. Ha

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Just like that, 15 minutes on the lathe to whip up a spacer and you got yourself a disc brake xr500 front end on an xr200. The neck tube on the XR 200 is three quarters of an inch shorter then the xr500 but they both use the same bearings so a spacer takes up the slop.

The downside, my xr500 is no longer a roller lol
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I mean I thought we were all supposed to have five build threads going at the same time....

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Hurco550 said:
I mean I thought we were all supposed to have five build threads going at the same time....

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Well... duh. Of course. Pretty sure that is how you get a site supporter tag.
 
Well I understand now why the right peg was in the box o parts instead of on the bike. One of the mounting bolts was broken off about 1/4" into the boss. Ridesolo gave me these extractors a while back and they've proven themselves as a very valuable piece of kit.
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also, next to a Briggs powered mini bike, I don't think there is an easier bike to pull a motor out of. Exploratory surgery will hopefully ensue tomorrow to see how bad the tranny is. Also, to no real surprise because of the burning oil, compression is a bit low, so a top end refresh may be in the future while the lump is out.
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A quick Internet search said stock compression ratio on the XR200 is 9.2:1, so maybe those numbers are OK on a cold engine?
 
JSJamboree said:
Im out, not going to follow. Im still waiting for the minibike to come back into the fold.

ill make you a sweet deal on that thing if you wanna finish it ;)
 
Hurco550 said:
ill make you a sweet deal on that thing if you wanna finish it ;)

We are starting a pullstart racing league here in indy this summer, so I MIGHT take you up on that depending on were I am at with my other projects. This would be super cool to race in that. My Black Widow 'isn't legal' because the motor is so hopped up at this point.

https://www.pullstartracingleague.com/
 
Exploratory surgery yielded some less than desirable results. Firstly, I found a wiped out cam journal, a max over bored jug (with low compression) then when I finally found why it wasn't shifting, things weren't any better, as the culprit was a broken chunk from the case where the shift shaft was...
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