SR500 Cafe style

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Neseng
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:04 am
Location: Perth, Western Australia

SR500 Cafe style

Post by Neseng »

For a number of years now, this old SR500 has been an ongoing project to breathe some new life into it. I acquired it as a pretty scruffy looking machine that had been flogged
daily as a commuter bike by the previous owner. My intention is to turn it into a Cafe Racer style 500, based on the look of the British sports bikes of the 50's and 60's.
The biggest difference would in the brakes and wheels.
The following photos give an overview of what progress has been made so far.

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This is how she looked before I began.

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This was the look that I was originally going for. However, I have scrapped the idea of using this tank and seat as they would have given a very cramped riding position for street use.

The first big job tackled were the wheels. I wanted to keep the cast alloy wheels but didn't like their 'chunky' look so I removed some metal from between the spoke webs on both the front and rear wheels.
The next thing to tackle was the brakes. It was decided to use a double disc set up on the front and to utilize FZR400 calipers in preference to the very heavy and clumsy SR500 original calipers.
The original SR500 discs were heavily modified to produce the ones shown in the photos. In the process, they shed almost 1kg each in weight!

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View of inner side of original SR500 disc on left, and of my modified disc on right.

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View of outer side of original SR500 disc on left, and of my modified disc on right.

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Completed disc - inner.

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Completed disc - outer.

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Modified SR500 disc mounted to modified SR500 wheel.

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Modified SR500 disc mounted to modified SR500 wheel.

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Next on the agenda was to design and make caliper mountings for the FZR400 calipers.

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Inside view of caliper mounting.

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Left and right.

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The newly modified front end, FZR400 calipers, modified SR500 discs and modified SR500 wheel.(Mock up only hence the yucky bolts!)

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I really didn't like the ugly and heavy SR500 top triple clamp since I would be running clip on type bars so a new triple clamp was designed and made.

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The new top triple clamp (not completed yet) with a new instrument cluster mounting that lowers the instruments by 20mm.

There is still a lot to do and work on this project slowly continues between other commitments, ...but, we will eventually get there. I have enjoyed sharing this and I hope that it inspires others to tackle their own special builds.
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JonW
Posts: 10600
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2009 4:33 am
Location: Sydney
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Re: SR500 Cafe style

Post by JonW »

Nice project, a lot of work in those parts as anyone who has done that sort of work knows. While many here will moan about 4Ts, I enjoy my XT500 'Motard and just today I sold my XL500R, sad to see it go but the garage space is welcome. Bittersweet...
80 XT500 Supermoto!
81 RD350LC Resto
82 RD421LC Hybrid
82 RD350LC decapitation project
82 RD250LC JDM '251LC' YPVS
83 RZ350 Resto
84 RZ500 Resto
85 RZ350 F1 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Resto
86 RZ350 F2 Hybrid

Like Watches? www.PloProf.com & www.DeskDivers.com
Hellgate
Posts: 244
Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2013 2:37 pm
Location: OKC & AUSTX

Re: SR500 Cafe style

Post by Hellgate »

Wow. Very nice work. I like how you reused the wheels and discs.
Cheers!

Pete

'12 Tuono V4R APRC, '05 R6, '88 RZ350, '82 XV920R
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