Pics of my atc 500r project
I guess its because I have always ridden and been a big fan of the 2 stroke 500cc MX'ers and the fact that Honda supposedly built a couple of these things for their factory racers to test, I have always wondered what it would be like to ride an atc with a 500 in the frame rails!! The biggest hurdle in my mind was how to make it look like it was an original machine built this way from Honda, and that included keeping the stock airbox! After all, the cradle of the 250r was not exactly the best place to wedge a 500cc motor. There was one thing that I could not overcome in my mind, and that was how to get a forward kicking kickstarter on the big motor. I asked a good friend of mine Terry Underwood, who is nothing short of a genius, to build this bike for me since I did not have time to tackle the project myself not to mention I could not come up with a durable kick design for starting. (Terry has built things like a twin cylinder fourtrax 250r, an all aluminum version of the honda pilot chassis with a twin cylinder rotax motor that was featured in dirt wheels magazine in the early 90's, and also a V-8 250r!! Yes, he machined a block that houses 8 250r cylinders and uses a common crank!! so my project would be a cakewalk for him!)
I was hesitant to show pics of the atc because it is fresh out of the shop in raw form, but I plan on a complete restoration that will ultimately make it look showroom fresh and I will be sure to post pics when it is done! The only problem is that I don't want to quit riding it!! I do have a couple of more things to do to it, including making the kick lever fit exactly in the factory fender cutout and fabricating a cover to hide the external kick mechanism. I can say that the conversion was a complete success as the bike really rides like it still has a 250cc engine, but only 2 of them! The handling, durability, and sheer power is just awesome!! The kickstarter works like a champ, and this is a 1985 500 motor that does not have the compression bleed off slot in the top of the cylinder to aid in kick effort. If I would have used a later model engine, the starting would be even easier! It is still only a 2-3 kick starting procedure which is no different than a 500 bike and yes, you can actually get the plug out of it as quick as you can a standard 250r!! Overall, I think it looks just like it would have if we could buy this from Honda. Well, maybe the kick mechanism might be integrated in the cases, but let me know what you think.
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SOON MY PRECIOUS!
Originally Posted by prohemi500
