Maintenance & Technical > KX500 Super Motard
Build thread - KX500B1 Supermoto
derek badger:
Excuse the vagueness to the early part of the build, it was started 11 years ago and I'm only just picking where I left off about 9 years back.
So, what do you do when you're un-married no kids and an IT contractor on a stupid hourly rate? You spend your money buying stupid s**t on eBay and getting drunk. The rest of your wages you waste on rent and bills...
In the garage was an RMX250 enduro bike, a GPZ600, a Ducati 900ss and an old aircooled '80 YZ465 in Supermoto trim. The YZ and the GPZ got finished and sold and I ended up picking up a non-running '85 KX500 on eBay as my next project. It turned out to be worse than I imagined. It was a dog. A tired old abused s**tty dog. It got worse as I stripped it down too, cracked frame, broken mounts, knackered rads, leaking tank and some sort of wooden peg where a mixture screw should have been in the carb body. It had clearly had a hard life and was owned by someone with no mechanical sympathy.
And so the strip down began... :mrgreen:
derek badger:
The bike got a jetwash, all the crappy old body work was removed complete with hideous 90's decals. The wheels were binned a) they were going to be replaced with 17's and b) I was going to change the rear from drum to disk. Although I prefer the look of spoked wheels the plan was to go for cast wheels off a small sportsbike to save a few quid.
I bought 25kg of grit and gave the frame a shotblast in the garden and then a good run over with a flap disk before welding the broken lugs back on and repairing the crack in one of the lower frame rails. It then had a coat of primer and a couple of coats of gloss black. Non standard, but then the whole bike was going to end up that way.
I removed the engine and stripped the top end down. It had seized, at least once, and there was play in the conrod/crank so it went off to my mechanic for a rebuild.
derek badger:
I managed to pick up some parts over the next couple of months - NOS for the engine, a desert tank to improve mileage, side panels, seat cover etc. and start putting things together. The mechanic stripped the engine down and it was pretty f**ked, I told him to fit it in when he had time as I wasn't in a hurry for it and I knew how busy he was.
Can't remember what was going on in my life at the time but it was about 6 months before I contacted my mechanic again and he'd only got the bottom end rebuilt. I was happy to finish the top end off myself so took it home and re-assembled it.
While it was on the bench I contacted a firm about a lighting coil, they didn't make one but said if I posted them the old stator plate they could make one up for it. So it was done and I could run light later if I wanted. The engine then had all orifices masked up and together with the repaired original exhaust pipe they a couple of coats of high temp black paint. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have painted over the engine bolts, but never mind.
derek badger:
The forks were all of the following - bent, pitted and leaking what rancid fluid was left in there. I picked up a set of KLD650 forks, partially to keep the original-ish look (USD's would seem out of place in my opinion), partially as they were from a dual-sport model but mainly as they came up cheap. :) They got stripped, seals replaced, new fork oil and green gaiters fitted. The yokes needed a small sleeve for the lower bearing but they were the right stem height so they got cleaned and painted black.
The shock got cleaned up, the spring painted and then reassembled. It probably needs a rebuild or a replacement but I'll deal with that later.
derek badger:
I made up some new engine plates from ally plate and fitted the engine to the frame. I'd fitted the tank and an enduro headlight/numberboard and refitted the shock and swingarm. I presume I cleaned this up and changed the needle rollers in the linkages but I can't find any pictures.
Hmm, seems the GPZ is still in the garage at this point. Told you my memory is a bit hazy... The rad brackets are straightened and/or new ones fabricated and the coolant system is bolted back on. No idea why that cone filter is on there I've got a massive ram-air style foam filter to fit somewhere in the workshop.
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