Kaff's XBR (now sold to.... "don't worry, I've got this covered!" - ylisuuta

[guest1130]

Hello everyone, new to the forums and new to bikes  !

First off, I'd like to do a bit of an introduction of myself, so you'll know what youre dealing with here. I'm a Finnish bloke closing in on my 30's (tho I like to think of it as mid/late 20's), been studying for the majority of my life and am now more than halfway through my machinery studies at the University of Oulu. I've always been into cars, and back in -02 or -03 (can't recall the exact year right now) I bought my first project, an -88 Toyota Supra. That car turned out to be a bit of a rust bucket, and I had no idea of what I was doing so the inital conditions of this project were far from ideal. The car was broken all the time so I had to learn to fix it. I also bought a second car (-88 Volvo 340  ) as a winter beater, which was also broken all the time, so I had to toggle between the two, getting one to run in order to fix the other.. I did a lot of mistakes with those cars but also learned a lot!! Sadly, the end of the Supra came as a broken crank bearing just as I was about to start my university studies. As you know studying is a time of poverty, so I had to sell the baby to a fellow Supraclub member as it was, and took a real beating with the price. I've been studying for 3 years now, not really having a project vehicle (except for the overall maintenance of my current daily driver), but doing all sorts of mechanical and electrical stuff as a hobby.

On to bikes..

I've had a bike-fever every summer since I was 16, but never found a good enough excuse to actually buy one. This summer the fever was too overwhelming, and I started to gather justifications to proof myself I really need a bike:
1. I need a project for the winter, or I'll go mad.
2. Bikes are cheaper and smaller than cars
3. I really really want one!
(the text editor is going weird on me so I'll continue with a reply...)

[guest1130]

(continued)
So I started to dig into the world of motorcycles. For me it was clear from the beginning that this bike was going to be customized - for me, building is more than half the fun. Before really learning about bikes I had never heard of a café racer before, and became fascinated by the stripped down, sleek look of these bikes, and the pure functionality of their designs. So then it was off to searching for the right bike to start with. I first thought of some classic british bikes, but those were too hard to find/expensive here in Finland, so I chose to look at Japanese bikes. At first there were a few alternatives - a couple of Honda CB's and a suzuki GS. But then.. out of the blue this bike shows up for sale:



It's a -90 XBR with 67k km's on it - a rare find since these were never imported to Finland (as far as I know only three exsist here). I immediately saw the potential of a café racer look on this frame and also the price was right, so a deal was made. I haven't actually seen the bike, just pictures, but it's a runner.
The bike is located in southern Finland, and I currently live in north so I'll be able to pick it up at the end of this month, when my summerjob ends. I don't have a licence to drive it yet, and I plan not to get it this summer, so I'll prolly just take a quick test drive on it to see if there are any obvious faults, and then start tearing it apart.

I have very ambitious visions about this bike, so hopefully I'll obtain/learn the skills to make it look and perform just the way I want it to.
I'm really glad I found this forum since it seems that there's a lot of knowledge regarding the XBR here, which hopefully will be very useful to a newbie like myself. Hopefully this will be a start to a great and fun project!

And please, bare with me with my posts, english isn't my native language

[guest987]

Welcome Kaff.

Firstly please do not apologise for your English. It is considerably better than a lot of members on this site. Try asking any of us to post in Finnish.

XBR'S make fine cafe racers. Look up Hurleys efforts on this site and you will see what I mean.

Again welcome and please keep us updated.

Rob.

[mini-thumper]

Hello Kaff
Welcome indeed! If you can't find what you need about XBR's here then it probably doesn't exist any where else.

Strangely I was only talking to a work colleague this morning about how I would like to visit Scandinavia again. My last visit was to Norway in 2007 and I would like to visit both Sweden and Finland next time, probably in 2011. Why not organise a Finnish Singles Rally so I have a genuine excuse? Not that I really need one.

Good Luck with your project, and keep firing those questions in during the long winter restoration.............

Boyd

[guest1130]

Thanks for the welcomings RobG and mini-thumper!

I had already read through Hurleys amazing XBR project before I joined - that was the thread that made me find this community. I'll be thrilled if my project will be anywhere near as high quality as Hurleys, tho mine won't be quite as "racey" as his. My vision for this bike is to simplify and lighten it to the max, and get an almost "street fighter'ish", rugged look with no chrome, just matt colours and machined surfaces.. I will be picking up this bike on the 29th of august, so hopefully a real update will be available then.

As for the Finnish singles meet, I might ask around on local forums if there are thumper enthusiasts here, as said, I'm new to this scene so as of yet I don't have any knowledge on the Finnish biking scene.

[mini-thumper]

My vision for this bike is to simplify and lighten it to the max, and get an almost "street fighter'ish", rugged look with no chrome, just matt colours and machined surfaces..

You could name your bike "Matt Finnish"

As for the Finnish singles meet, I might ask around on local forums if there are thumper enthusiasts here, as said, I'm new to this scene so as of yet I don't have any knowledge on the Finnish biking scene.

Excellent............not saying "No!" is nearly a Yes.

Boyd

[guest1130]

So, I already have a few questions, which might help me with locating spareparts for this bike. Since the XBR 500 was never imported to FIN, you can imagine that spareparts are hard to find locally. So here goes:
- Which hondas have the same engine / transmission?
- Where could I find good (read: cheap) EU webshops that sell spares for this bike?

Also, I'm curious about the wheels, what are the widest wheels that can be fitted to stock alloy rims? I've also been thinking about upgrading the wheels, rims and brakes, would like a disk brake to the rear as well. Has anyone fitted SRX rims onto XBR? Or any other bikes rims for that matter?

[el vencejo]

All the RFVC motors are very similar, shouldn't be a problem to install a motor from any of the aircooled XR's up to 650, or a Dominator lump.
Have you thought of taking the complete front end from another bike? That's often easier than making a wheel fit and making brackets for calipèrs etc., usually the only detail work is to match the new stem to the old headstock. Might be worthwhile looking at a full rear end swap too: swingarm, brake, wheel... perhaps front and back ends could come from a later 250 sports bike?
Once you start to change a bike the options are endless

[guest1130]

Very true, the options are infact endless. But, before cutting and slicing, there are a few things to know about the Finnish policy with bikes:

There's a quite strict policy here in Finland concerning the street legity of modified bikes. On the other hand we have the advantage of having no annual MOT's.. So if the bike purchased is already registered (which mine is) AND stock - there's no need to ever do MOT's again. The catch here obviously is that if/when modified the bike should be taken to MOT to pass the modifications, which can be tricky.

Modifications regarding suspension and hence forks always require a special "handling test" (it's referred in the Finnish biking scene as "kopterisääntö" - a sort of curseword amongst bikers) here in Finland. There are two companies that qualify doing the test here and the test costs 500€ ... So I think you understand why I'm quite reluctant to modify the forks.

My option one with this bike is to build it - keeping in mind that IF the coppers stop me and demand my bike to go through MOT, it will pass without a question. I might even do the MOT without demanding. Option two is to build it, ride it, stay quiet about the modifications and hope that nobody (cops) notices..

[el vencejo]

I live in Spain, we have an annual Tech. Inspection for older bikes (every 2 years for bikes less than 10 yo). Strange thing is that the only detail listed on the bike docs is tyre sizes!
So I've made many changes to my bike, an SLR650 (will soon post pics of finished article), b will have to use the original wheels for the ITV but take my chances with the 17 inchers I use for the other 364 days.
Fortunately the cops and Guardia are laid back in the Axarquia, only bother folks who are seriously taking the p**s.

[guest1130]

Hey all, not much of an update on the XBR but a motorcycle related purchase. After countless hours in different motorcyclegearshops I ended up with an Arai Chaser in pearl black finish as my helmet. I tried on at least 25 different helmets from various manufacturers but nothing fit me nearly as good as the Arai. It's not the cheapest brand, but it is from the budget end of their collection. I initially thought about buying an open-face helmet to support the cafe-racer look, but for safetys (and/or my gf's opinions regarding safety) sake I chose to go full-face.

Not ridden with it yet, since I haven't even seen my bike yet, so can't really comment on noise levels or stuff like that, but I must say it's VERY comfortable, cool looking and has neat features like the protecTint pinlock visor (that I got for free ) that automatically turns to dark smoke when under UV-light and otherwise stays clear.

As for REAL bike updates, I'll be going on a well deserved week's holiday to Turkey on the 1st of september, and will pick up the bike after that, so stay tuned.

[guest868]

Good helmet the Chaser, though mine is coming up for replacement. 3 years and 50,000 miles and despite being washed many times it is humming a little...



Look forward to more on the bike.

[guest1130]

Hi, I'm back from my holiday and tomorrow, I'll get the bike back home where it'll be torn to bits . I haven't ridden it yet, but I have started it on the trailer and had a closer look of the overall shape the bike is in. The engine runs OK, no weird noises or anything, but the exhaustpipes leak quite a bit (which really doesn't concern me much). The electricity of this bike is a mess; the previous owner had started to replace all indicators with smaller LED ones, but had not finished the job. The indicators are there, but they haven't been connected to anything. Headlight works at both HI and LO beam, the taillight works and the instrument lights seem to work ok. The horn, indicators and the brakelight don't work. There's also lots of different kinds of post-factory electrical joints on the wiring loom (some of them don't seem too safe..), but, I'm not worried about that either since all the electricity will be renewed.

It's obvious that the bike has been tipped over at some point, since the cluch lever has been straghtened by hand (poorly) and the left haldlebar seems to have bend a little also. The frame is in "ok" shape - a bit of rust here and there, but nothing dramatic. The tank, fender and sidepods have been resprayed but the tank seems to be rust-free from the inside. Center-stand is rusted and broken and the wheels are done.
Overall, it's everything I expected and paid for. A really nice billet for a café racer.

[Fuzz]

Hi Kaff.
Whats the mileage on your new bike ?

& if not TOO cheeky , what sort of price did you pay for it

[guest1130]

Hi Kaff.
Whats the mileage on your new bike ?

& if not TOO cheeky , what sort of price did you pay for it

Hi Fuzz!

no secret - as stated before the bike has around 67 000 km's (~42k miles) on it and I paid 1000€ (~£820) for it.