Let’s start with the problem, my XBR is looking very tired and it’s become a bit of an embarrassment in my office car park. Do I buy a new bike? That’s the question I asked myself and when I’d set my criteria (single-cylinder, road styling, cross ply tyres, cheap to run) I realised that this described an XBR500, and Honda doesn’t make them anymore. Bugger. So, what’s the solution? I could go and buy an MuZ Skorpion but they cost £4,000. I haven’t got £4,000. With a sinking heart I turned back to my garage and started picking my way through my stock of XBR bits. It all started to feel like last January when I built the bike to go to the Elephant rally (see picture, above right). I’d had no idea that I’d be using the bike so much this year, and to its credit it’s done pretty well, covering nearly 10,000 miles. The trouble is, it started off looking scruffy, and now it looks awful.
I got to thinking about what I wanted from my bike and what I could do to improve its looks, and then I had the bright idea to chronicle the rebuild on the club website, if only because it will force me to finish the job. Half of my commute is on the M4 motorway so a fairing would be nice. I have a Powerbronze full fairing that I fitted to an XBR for a blast to the Bol D’or in 1988. It’s ugly but it works well and it’s quite light. The trouble is that when my brother fitted it to his Katana 550 in the early 90s, he hacked the belly pan with a coping saw, and it looks dreadful. I was pondering this as I rode to the Caerleon classic bike show last Sunday, it seems that every feature of the bike needs money spent on it, even the bloody fairing. I got to the show, parked up and walked over to the first autojumble stand, and there was a Powerbronze belly pan, in the same colour, for a fiver. Spooky.
Wheels seem an easy choice, I could just slap on a set of standard XBR/GB spoked wheels, but all the rear drums are now oval. I’m more inclined to try and source a suitable disc brake spoked rear wheel that will do the job. I’ll have a look at the Honda NX650 rear wheel first because there’s a cush drive fitted to that, whereas the next option, the XR250/400 rear wheel, doesn’t have one. If anyone has done a similar job then I’d be interested to hear from them.
As for the rest of the bike, I quite like most of it. Virtually everything needs painting or polishing but the only other item that needs attention is the tail unit, which I think is too long to be pretty. I have stripped off the unit and played around with some wire, bubblegum and string and I reckon I can knock up something a lot nicer that will still enable me to use the standard seat and seat hump. However, my fibreglass skills are pretty ropey… but there’s always body-filler to mask any blemishes.
I have a set of Raask rearsets tucked away, but in my opinion, they are badly made and if I go for a disk rear brake then they’ll be useless. I think an afternoon spent rooting around my local breakers should produce a serviceable set of sportsbike footrest hangers. It will then just be a matter of welding on suitable lugs. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Time will tell. I know it sounds daft, but I’ll probably have problems finding hangers that will place the pegs far enough back for my liking (feet under arse).
Exhaust systems are a worry to most XBR owners, with only Laser 2-1 and Jama 2-2 systems available. This might be the time for me to take a visit to Gazelle to have a stainless system made up. Mind you, £400 isn’t cheap, even if it will last ten years. I can’t see any way around the problem, there just isn’t a decent looking system made for the bike… and I include the standard set up in that statement. I’ve often pondered how difficult it would be to adapt an NX650 high-rise pipe to the XBR and the fact that my chum now has an NX may mean that I will have to give it a go. There are some lovely after-market systems made for the NX and if I could adapt one of those, I’d be a happy bunny. If the front pipes fit and the run from those to the silencer isn’t too convoluted, then perhaps I could just get a middle section bent up in stainless. I’ll let you know how I get on.
However, before anything else, I have to get the motor seen to. The valves need re-seating and I’ve got a new cam and followers to fit. The cam is from the G and F models, whereas my engine is an SJ. The difference is the addition of an automatic decompressor on my engine. Having said that, I can’t see that removing the decompressor is going to cause me a huge amount of grief so I’m going to try it. While I’m at it I’ll probably get the barrel, head, and rocker box painted black (easy to clean, doesn’t show the oil leaks).
So stage one is to fit the fairing and make up the missing mounting brackets. Having made sure that it fits, I’ll strip the bike down and get the motor off to my favourite mechanic, and the frame off to the stove-enamellers. Whilst that’s being done I’ll attack the rear end and build a plug and mould for the new tail piece, before laying up the new item in glassfibre. Then it will be the turn of the wheels; if I do source a suitable disk brake rear wheel then I’ll have to weld the calliper torque arm bracket on to the swingarm (and then send that off for painting).
Phew, I’m looking forward to it, I’ll post an update in a few weeks, by which time I will almost certainly have encountered several nasty problems and surprises. Stay tuned.