Finished Wally......500R

[sand slinger]

Well I have been working on the trike for almost two years and It is finally almost done. I say almost done because a hot rod project is never totally done. There is always more you can do. I originally wanted every last piece painted or chromed including the engine but at some point I had to put it back together and just go ride the thing. I have to give props to all you guys on this site that have the other 500 builds because those are the bikes that pushed me to build my dream trike. I can still remember my first time riding a CR500 and I can say it genuinely scared me so bad I did not want to ride it anymore. That was a long time ago and when I got the 250R and took it to the sand a couple if times I remember thinking how sick it would be if it was a 500. I found this site and saw pro hemis and it was game over. I bought a complete CR500 because it was cheaper than the engine alone on eBay and I began planning. I took the project to Marty Moran at MJM fabrication in Auburn CA. I gave him the 250R trike the 500 engine and pipe, and told him what I was planning. He probably thought I was a little crazy but he was enthusiastic about the project. He did a fantastic job at rebuilding the frame cradle, he cut and re-welded the pipe in several places, hand made a shift lever and kick starter, radiator mounts, and several other small super trick items. He machined the teeth off of a sprocket to make a spacer for chain alignment and also machined an aluminum kick starter stop. He made the center exit exhaust I wanted and really exceeded my expectations on the build. After that I have fully assembled and disassembled the trike twice for paint and other finishing touches. I did not post pictures during the build because I did not know how long it was going to take but here are some pics and I can post others if you guys want. I hope my bike motivates you guys the same as you have motivated me.
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[KASEY]

very nice!! there are getting to be alot of 500's in the dunes ,, yours looks pretty kool ... .. you should hook up with the crew at gordons the 4th thru the 10 th... its going to be a great ride....

[tecat-z]

very nice!

[Bryan Raffa]

Agree,,, Very Nice!!

[vegas250rr]

Nice job man, surely one of the cleaner 500's out there!!!:beer

can we get pictures of some of the custom peices that you made? like the kick stop, and exhaust

[3Razors]

How do you like those old school DG "V" bars? I haven't seen those in years

[MonroeMike]

Great looking machine you have there.

[Billy Golightly]

Very nice! Great looking build.

[HondaHarry]

Awesome. Sano Build. Thanks for sharing! HH

[sand slinger]

Here are some more pictures of the build. You can see the rubber exhaust mounts and the threaded inserts welded in the frame and some other things. The grab bar came out really smooth after a lot of fill welding and grinding. We still had to use some bondo before we painted to get that really smooth transition I was looking for. I wanted the grab bar to look like it was the same tubing as the sub frame. You can also see the custom radiator/shroud mount. If the forks look bent in the older picture it is because they are. I got some new ones on EBay, rebuilt them and replaced these messed up ones. Thanks for all the compliments and I will post more pictures of other parts later. Do any of you guys live in Northern California? Does anybody go to Sand Mountain?


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[audioworks04]

Thats some amazing work props to the fab guy and you for the time and money and ideas invested in this project. Thats one of the cleanest 500s, for that matter anything Ive ever seen. hows it ride? stock atc 250r shock and linkage looks like works possibly? Is it dune-able or just drag? How longs that swinger?
Lets see some vid of it in action.

[MonroeMike]

Glad you posted some build pics, good to see under the covers, up close.

Very nice work.

[tecate 250rr]

Very nice ,How does it run ? anything you wanna change now that it's done?

[sand slinger]

To Audioworks thanks for the compliment. I wanted the bike to look clean as possible. I cut and grinded off every gusset and tab that I felt I did not need. One of my main concerns was the geometry of the rear shock and linkage. It is as close to the stock position as it could be. The shock is just a rebuilt stock unit that has also been recharged with nitrogen. The bike is like riding a couch.....seriously. After riding my banshee and dirt bike the shocks on Wally seem so soft it is like a Sand Dune Cadillac. It is definitely dunable and I did not build it to be only a drag bike. When I take it to Comp Hill it most definitely puts the hammer down, and I can ride it all around the mountain. I think the swing arm is like 6" over. It also has a durablue axle.
To Tecate 250RR It runs great. The 250 radiators have no problem keeping it cool. It has so much low end it is just a blast to ride. It pulls 4th gear all the way up the hill and is incredibly fast. The power to weight is awesome, it is faster than many banshees with much more HP because it weighs so little. It can be a b*tch to start. The vibration is also pretty bad. After riding it hard in the dunes for two days by day three my knuckles hurt pretty bad and my hands where going numb towards the end of every hill climb. My buddy suggested filling the frame with expandable foam and I think I am going to try that. I also want rubber mounted bar mounts but haven’t figured out what ones would be the best. I want to try an out of frame pipe on the dyno and see what it does. The modified gnarly pipe falls on its face pretty early at like only 6500 rpm. I got a big pipe from a 250R sprint car that I want to try and temporary it on to see what it does on the dyno. I also want to install a decompression button in the head like the guys on bannedCR500 riders.com. I got until spring to tweak out and believe me my brain never turns off.

[KASEY]

you might want to get a cr500 guru to balance the motor,, mine is as smooth as a 250r,,, but i had the cr500 guy in the pacific northwest do my motor,,, the vibe are very minimal,,, also did you use the 250r radiators? if so did you single pass or dual pass them,,, thanks

[cr480r]

i tried the foam in the frame trick before... made no difference... i even tried silicone with poor results. the engine in my tecate vibes pretty good( i need to change the crank)... i couldnt even keep a flag in my quick release mount... well then my buddy broke my subframe and made a new one similar to yours... the larger diameter tubing stiffened the subframe and the vibes were cut in half... if you are unhappy with the vibes of your 500 you should have the crank ballanced as mentioned above.. I have ridden seven or eight different CR500's and every one had a different level of vibes... the '90 i had hardly vibed at all... my buddies extremely low hour '01 would rattle your teeth out... I suspect your engine cradle design may be another cause of vibration..

[bkelley]

Awesome, I love the simplicity. Very nice trike.

[sand slinger]

I know everybody is saying balance the crank but I was told you cant really balance a single cylinder crank. I know you can balance a banshee crank or like a snowmobile crank but who balances honda single cranks? If you guys have any connections let me know I would like to look into it.

[sand slinger]

To Kasey I wanted to mimick the CR500 plumbing as close as I could. I did not want to plug one of the head nipples and run it like the atc because I wanted the most coolant I could get in the system. I used the 90's from the stock hoses and then coupled on straight pieces to connect to the head and clear the gastank. From the waterpump to the bottom of the radiators I made a Y with a copper T and it splits the one hose from the waterpump to two hoses that go to the bottom of the radiators. It holds quite a bit of coolant with this setup and has not overheated yet. If you look on the picture with the pipe it shows the Y hose I made. Some other pictures show the kickstarter, Custom shock res mount, kickstart stop, exhaust mount, the sprocket spacer and the paint work before I put it all back together. I was wondering what you guys are running for pilot jets in the 500s? I think my hard starting might be because my pilot is too lean.
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