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Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 8:08 pm
by JonW
hey Petros!

Thanks for the kind words. Well, yes if you really wanted to you could probably mark the silencer, but in normal use the rear suspension is such that with the smaller wheel that it should be ok. We'll have to see when its ridden in anger of course, but its not like im going to jump this bike, id do that on something more modern but not on this one; too much time, effort and money in it to risk dumping it of course. :)

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 1:07 am
by JonW
The other thing I did while the bike was at the workshop was sort out the brake caliper bracket... Yes, again...! I had become less happy with the alloy unit I made last time round over time as it still wasn’t quite right. Sounds crazy to have another go at this, but remember no one makes this bracket any more, even tho my old staple Talon in the UK who did make one became hard work to deal with when I asked them, saying they didn’t have the CNC plans anymore and forcing me to contact my local importer who was only interested in selling parts current in the catalogue, sigh I used to love the work the UK guys did and spent up big there over the years, their loss I guess, but disappointing all the same.

Anyway, the issue has always been that with these big forks and the small fat ‘motard wheel which means the spokes are right in the worst place, even on a big disk, there is very little room to package anything, especially a caliper with half of its piston count on the side next to the spokes. The initial bracket I made left the caliper close to the spokes but seemed to work, yet I screwed up one of the caliper mounting holes and it was steel, plus I made it by hand. The second version was alloy and done on a mill, but it brought the caliper a bit closer to the spokes and I could see it had been glanced by them in use as it had slightly marked the caliper back. Damn. We’re talking the difference of millimetres with this stuff as its so tight and very little gap can be the difference between a working brake and a death trap of course.

This meant I had to have yet another look online for a spacer for the front disk. You’d think I’d be able to find one of those... Remember, I’m using an OEM KTM parts here, including a genuine KTM ‘motard wheel with an OEM hub and these were part of the KTM range for many years, but no... After 2 years of searching every now and then I had given up and made up spacers for the disk with some alloy stock from the local hardware store which was about 3mm thick. I could see that what I really wanted was 5mm and online KTM parts guys listed a spacer for that, but it was always ‘sold out’. This time I decided I needed to make a final push to sort this out and located every listing online and I emailed all over the world, I really really had to sort this problem out and either find a spacer or make one. And.... Not one reply from anywhere... Not one! I appreciate if you’re in Iceland and you get an email in English that it might be confusing, but this could have been a sale, right? But, Nope, nothing, nada, nix, ekkert (that’s Icelandic by the way, see how easy google translates stuff online parts sellers?!). Then just as I was about to give up I found a place in Aus that listed them, it was on about google page 15 or something as it was not well referenced. I sent out another email without much hope of satisfaction... 10mins later I get a reply and they guy says ‘I have 3 in stock, just never bothered to update the website’. I ordered right away and was on cloud 9 all day, gotta love small businesses who find the internet a hassle! :)

Whats great about this unit is that the design follows the shape of the hub, pretty cool and not easy to make without a CNC of course.

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So, using the new 5mm spacer the disk moves over circa 2mm and this means the caliper moves over too, taking it away from the spokes. Naturally I wanted to best to make use of the shop machinery while I was there, but also the assembled knowledge so I discussed the best plan with the guys and showed them what I had done, this issues and the plan. No one liked making the alloy bracket any thinner where it mounted the forks, so suggested I either use steel or remove material from the forks. Fair enough, but removing the forks seemed no fun, and of course I could never go back to using them on a KTM after, well not without spacers...however, while that is not a real concern but I always like to keep parts standard.

With this in mind, I decided to revist the old steel bracket and check the spacing with that. I worked out a mathematical equation and came up with how much I needed to take off a steel bracket. I was about to embark on making a whole new bracket when it was suggested that I just use the old steel bracket for now and prove the maths, it would be less work and if I liked the result I could leave the fork legs alone of course. I went with that plan and milled off a bunch of steel from the old bracket.

Fitting up went well and the workshop gave it a thumbs up and it was suggested that the hole I misdrilled might even helicoil, so next thing I’m learning how to do that and its back on the bike done after a lick of paint. Much simpler fix than I thought, and while its steel and not sexy alloy at least that means its strong.

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So, that’s another job ticked off...

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 3:47 am
by JonW
I'm still working thorugh the little jobs that were the fallout of making and fitting the new underseat muffler. One thing about running a pod filter is that you don’t have an airbox. Goes without saying perhaps, but with no airbox the heat from the exhaust rises right into the intake weakening the mixture at slow speeds. Lean fueling is not ideal of course, so as I had a little leftover heatshield material (same type that I used for the silencer) I decided to have a play. After a quick cardboard template I had a shield cut out. With a gentle curve folded in it bolts onto the exposed thread of the pipe clamp when that's done up. Simple and effective and... no rattles... Perfect!

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With the carb drains replumbed and some new fuel pipe it was time to finally bolt the seat back on. Naturally this is not so easy now with the underseat silencer in place, luckily I had allowed some room for the bolts in my plans or it would have been impossible and with a bit of a fiddle everything was back in situ. Slipped the side panel on and I guess its time for a few new pics of the ‘lil beastie... Gimme a few days :D

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 8:53 pm
by JonW
You've got to love this forum; it's a community stocked with friendly folk who will offer ideas when you want to do something new and sound advice when things go bad. But what no one who doesn't use the forums could ever understand is the building of friendships between geographically disparate people who've never met simply because they share the common bond of enjoying the same bikes, strengthened by appreciating eachothers work.

Over the past few weeks I've been talking to Petros about his and my 'motard builds. He an I certainly share a common appreciation our eachother's projects, having built a number of similar bikes over the years, tho I don't ride quite like he does... few do! LOL! :smt003

Petros was concerned for the gearbox of my poor XT as I don't have a cush drive in my rear hub. That's a fair point really as Yamaha utilised one in the road based XT, and only those bikes conceived primarily for off road don't bother with one. Ive ridden big single KTMs with and without cush drives on the road and having a cush drive fitted absolutely makes things feels smoother, and if the rider can feel it, then the gearbox certainly does. Fine to not have one for racing on the track too, gets all the power down rightaway etc, but then you probably expect to replace some gearbox parts along the way with that usage anyway so wear is less of an issue. Ok, while my bike isn't going to get high milage use, it will 'probably' (ahem!) be hammered a bit when it does get used, it is a 'motard after all! This means that a modicum of mechanical sympathy would'nt go amiss, and since i like to do things right it really should have a cush drive fitted.

My problem has always been that KTM cush drive hubs are few and far between in Aus, and when you do find one its silly money as these hubs are either trashed or sought after. That's not much different anywhere in the world really as plenty of people have found that KTM make quality parts and in the main they last and last, so if you want to beat on a set of wheels, then the stronger of the KTM hubs from the bigger bikes is not a bad place to start.

Petros had just picked up a used cush drive hub for his bike and let me know that the same shop had another one in stock, and asked if I would like him to broker the deal for me. How wonderful is that! Of course I quickly said yes and true to his word he collected and shipped me the parts and I cant thank him enough for doing this for me. Cheers mate! :smt023

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One thing I love about this unit is how well its made. These take a huge pounding from the big cc thumpers and KTM have been using the same hub since 1991, so we know it's engineered well. It was designed with a massive 3205 double row angular contact bearing in the sprocket side and 2 6205s on the wheel itself. The cush bearing is hugely over engineered of course, and will no doubt get an easy life with my XT, it runs about half the horsepower (and weight!) of the KTMs. Conversely the hub I have now in the bike is the 125-380 unit that was known to occasionally fracture the sprocket mounts in the 250+ bikes, and while i've never had that happen to me or any of my mates over years of KTM abuse, it is food for thought considering my usage of the hub as the XT might weight much the same as a 250EXC and produce less bhp, but I believe it makes more torque.

I don't know about you, but I do like to forensically analyse used parts to get a feeling for how they were used. If you can gain some confidence from the parts by their appearance then you start in a better place, no matter how grubby they are. One thing to note is the presence of the sprocket here, it's an OEM KTM alloy unit that is very little used. That says a lot to me about the owner of the bike it was fitted to, obviously they respected their bike and bought the proper parts for it right until the end. The bearings bear that out too as they look OEM to me. The only thing I found that wasn't OEM was where the PO had employed a lipped seal with 1mm smaller ID to account for a groove that had formed in one of the alloy spacers. No doubt this is sound engineering practice but I will fit the OEM sized seal and a new spacer of course as KTM still supplies these parts. Its interesting to ponder that as this hub was fitted to a KTM Adventure 640 that repair could have been done anywhere in the world of course... who knows where that bike went during its life and what stories this hub could tell were it to be able to talk!

Ok, so I've started to make a list as I need to buy a few new parts, including bearings, seals and cush rubbers and then clean up the hub and sprocket carrier to ready it for building into a wheel. Right now I'm unsure if i should just build up using a new rim or steal the Excel off the existing wheel, it does match the front and is a top quality rim of course. I'll also need at least one of the sets (2 sets of 18 are used on KTM wheels) of new spokes for this hub as the solid hub uses a different setup on the sprocket side. Either way I'm excited to have a foray into wheel building as Ive a spoke wrench and balancer already. :smt041

Thanks again Petros, you're a star mate! :smt023

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:29 am
by petros67
Jon ,

No problem mate , I have followed your lovely builds for some years ,
we share the same passion with although we live some distance away same goes with all in this forum.

When I was just thinking of you and wanted to show you below link I just came accross your message
once I logged on here and read your post.

I really have a crush of your XT project mate and all the efforts your gone through :smt007 :smt007 :smt007


https://www.facebook.com/motostation/vi ... 085038996/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


:smt006
Petros

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 7:57 pm
by JonW
Thanks Petros!

The video on the link made me laugh, I half expected the bike to kickback! We've all been there.....

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:02 am
by JonW
Im not really sure if this is progress or not, but I have a rim for my new hub.

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Looks great.... but theres a catch... read on.

Saw this set of rims advertised locally as "Motard 17" Excel Rims". Hard to resist...

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Dropped over to see them and the front has been repaired (The ad said 'no damage', er)... and they are not Excels... Hmm... I took a punt on the set for the rear, not knowing if the holes were the right type.... and of course, they arent.

Seems these San Remo units came from a Husqvarna and as such have a hole pattern thats opposite to KTM. :smt012 I found this info on a motard forum: "The husky is a Reverse-European drill pattern, KTM uses a Standard-Euro I think, and the jap bikes uses what else, a Jap drill pattern."

You can see the hole offsets are completely different to my KTM OEM wheels with Excel rims:

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Currently talking to the sellers of spoke kits, some can do me a kit that will work, but seems plenty can't. Watch this space I guess...

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:16 am
by JonW
Well the wheel subproject hasn't moved on any, but I did have to pull this bike off the lift to start stripping the 421, so I did finally take the pics I promised to take of the new exhaust etc.

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I just love that last photo... :smt003

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:25 pm
by justind97
This thing is bad ass looking! Love it! Reminds me a lot of my Aprilia SXV 450 I had.

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2017 10:34 am
by petros67
:smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 2:37 pm
by hondaror
I bet it's fun to squirrel around on!!!

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:05 pm
by kpke
petros67 wrote::smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007 :smt007


This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 7:16 pm
by JonW
Thanks guys!

Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2017 1:07 am
by JonW
PLEASE NOTE:

And then in July 2017 Photobucket came and fucked it all up for everyone...

This build started off with Imageshack hosting the photos, they got greedy and while they continued to host the photos for a while I moved to Photobucket and all was great with the world until they decided we needed to pay $399/yr to post our pics across the net.

So, Thanks photobucket, you trashed this thread and thousands (more like millions!) of other around the world.

IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS THREAD WITH THE PHOTOS AND MY REHASHED TEXTS (BUT NOT THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON THE THREAD), HAVE A LOOK AT MY WEBSITE, 2SMOKED.COM.

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Re: My new project... XT500 supermoto

Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 4:52 pm
by Headcoats
I left imageshack too and in hindsight what fee they are asking in comparison to photofuk'd it is a steal

I tried to log into imageshack on my old password etc and they still have over 400 images of mine and for $18.99 a year fee , I could actually view them LOL
They are offering 50% discount now, I wonder why !