Holy cr*p it's a 1976 Honda CXRL650R street-tracking dirt-jumper! (and beer)...

osteoderm said:
The front fender is certainly ugly. It's also free, effective, and easy to remove... progress will continue in other areas.

I can dig it. Also, meatloaf.
 
Bike is turning out awesome, entertaining narritive is great and the meatloaf I will be attempting very soon. May I suggest a small sacrificial amount of the beer you will be consuming be added to the mix to help flavour and keep it moist.

Carry on with the great work.
 
This build is deeeee-cent!

One question though. What did you use to grind (or saw?) front suspension triple clamp? I have a dominator and it has an ugly salient ignition mount there (it's a one-piece thing). I'd like to get rid of it but im not really sure which tool should i use. A friend said that cutting the most of it off with an angle grinder is not a good idea since it will start spitting little pieces of the alloy. But if i cant cut it, i can still grind it?
 
tort said:
This build is deeeee-cent!

One question though. What did you use to grind (or saw?) front suspension triple clamp? I have a dominator and it has an ugly salient ignition mount there (it's a one-piece thing). I'd like to get rid of it but im not really sure which tool should i use. A friend said that cutting the most of it off with an angle grinder is not a good idea since it will start spitting little pieces of the alloy. But if i cant cut it, i can still grind it?
Die grinder or a Dremel with the right bits.
 
Love the writing style and the beer and meatloaf banter. I'll be watching this craziness for sure. ;D
 
Nice work! I figured the stock forks would be too long, but it looks like the redone wheel fixed that. I'm onboard.
 
Worst cb650 ever said:
Nice work! I figured the stock forks would be too long, but it looks like the redone wheel fixed that. I'm onboard.

helps he lowered them 3" internally as well.
 
Maritime said:
helps he lowered them 3" internally as well.

Whoops, I must have missed that part of the build! I'm taking notes because I'd like to build a thumper similar to this one myself.
 
tort said:
This build is deeeee-cent!

More like descent, haha.

One question though. What did you use to grind (or saw?) front suspension triple clamp? I have a dominator and it has an ugly salient ignition mount there (it's a one-piece thing). I'd like to get rid of it but im not really sure which tool should i use. A friend said that cutting the most of it off with an angle grinder is not a good idea since it will start spitting little pieces of the alloy. But if i cant cut it, i can still grind it?

The best way to deal with that ignition mount is to not have one. I started out by swapping the XR650L triple clamps for XR600R ones (real desert race bikes don't need no stinkin' keys). After that, it's just grind grind drain grind with a crappy water-filled compressor, cheap right-angle air die-grinder, and many NAPA house-brand Roloc clones.
 
Ok, thanks, deviant and osteoderm. I'll saw off most of it by muscle power and then release all the tools i have, including die grinder.
 
I am wanting to put a smaller wheel on the XL250 im building. can i ask where abouts did you source the new rim and laces from its killing me trying to find a decent size and laced that will fit.
 
deepwaterimports said:
I am wanting to put a smaller wheel on the XL250 im building. can i ask where abouts did you source the new rim and laces from its killing me trying to find a decent size and laced that will fit.

The 19" front wheel is a rear CRF450R rim laced to the stock XR650L front hub with stainless spokes from Buchanan's.
 
Hunter S. Thompson famously said, "Love is the feeling you get when you like something as much as your motorcycle."

To that I'd add that love is also the feeling you get when your buddy buys a new bead-blast cabinet.

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After welding, I acid-passivized the welds and gave them a once-over with a red Scotchbrite pad.

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Bead-blasted the whole thing with 50-grit Skat Speed Bead, then swapped media and re-blasted with 80-grit Skat Glass Bead. Super-smooth satin finish with just a touch of sparkle in the sunlight; just like a vampire in vapid teen pulp romance novel:

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Never has a motorcycle exhaust been so trivial and plotless.
 
I too love the muffler setup.
The tail needs a little shortening I believe.

osteoderm said:
The 19" front wheel is a rear CRF450R rim laced to the stock XR650L front hub with stainless spokes from Buchanan's.

I thought all dirt Hondas had 32-spoke rears (36 front), the air-cooled certainly did. I guess the crf has joined the modern 36 spoke world afterall...

Keep up the good work!
M.
(An rfvc aficionado!)
 
Cuba Libre said:
I thought all dirt Hondas had 32-spoke rears (36 front), the air-cooled certainly did. I guess the crf has joined the modern 36 spoke world afterall...

Having zero previous experience with dirt, Hondas, or wheelbuilding, I'll just nod along dumbly. However, the front wheel I built does have 32 spokes. Could it be that the front hub(s) I have are oddball? The whole bike is a mash-up of XR650L and XR600R parts from various model years.
 
Tonight's inebriation is brought to you by Dany Prignon's excellent Fantôme Printemps Saison. All the usual beer blogs will bore you with all the usual blather about Le Printemps bright, green, semi-citrus bitterness and funk of thyme, lavender, and oregano. Me, I like it because it's seasonal (ie., guzzle all you can before Dany replaces it with this year's Fantôme Été, and because is comes in a whacking great bottle topped in both a cork AND a bottlecap:

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Such redundancy of containment suggest that there is something devious and sly waiting inside, not unlike the ghost on the label, The Phantom itself, with wry smile and angry eyebrows... All I can say for sure is that I'm only half way through the bottle and already leaning heavily on auto-correct to get through this post. Correction: all bottle the gone good.

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Another 29.4oz of 8% artisanal Belgian happiness finds a home in an empty bike-builder's belly. Huzzah!
 
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