Honda cx500 DualSport Conversion:

[Gravel Guy]

 

[The Bruce]

 

[Thrasherg]

I really love this project, such a great thing to do with a plastic pig, that's what CX500's were called in England.. I hope I will get to see it in person one day..

Gary

 

[EnduroRdr]

I really love this project, such a great thing to do with a plastic pig, that's what CX500's were called in England.. I hope I will get to see it in person one day..

Gary

Well Gary, maybe you will, we are dreaming up a TAT ride possibly this year (I ain't gettin any younger!) although I don't think we will get all the way up there by you. I'm thinking Utah is about as far as I will take it.
Have you found some good riding yet since your move? I'd love to see pics of you and your family sloshing through the high country snow on bikes

 

[Thrasherg]

I am still waiting for my bikes to arrive, everything including the bikes was put in to storage when we left Austin until we had a new house in Seattle. We just bought a new house and all our belongings will be delivered on the 10th march, then I will start riding and get some pics up.. My wife and I will ride the TAT this year in July, we will start in OK (just above the Texas pan handle) and hope to ride all the way to the OR coast.. If all goes well, we will ride the CDT (continental divide trail) next year.. Let us know if and when you ride the TAT, as I will certainly try to meet you somewhere to see you and the bike..

Gary

 

[The Bruce]

Gary, forget OK. Nothing to see, really. Unless you light roads that are sand with no turns for 20 miles at a time. At if it rains Coming from your side I would start in Trinidad, CO and go west from there. That will also save a couple days. That is my plan when I eventually get to ride west on the TAT. Or, you could ride the CDT south and pick up the TAT in Salida.

 

[Thrasherg]

Thanks Bruce, originally we were leaving from Austin and it just seemed easier to ride up the pan handle and start from OK, now that we are leaving from Seattle it gives more flexibility to our starting point. I will definitely talk to the wife and push our star more west as we wanted to ride the non-flat parts of the TAT!!

Gary

 

[EnduroRdr]

Coming from your side I would start in Trinidad, CO and go west from there. Or, you could ride the CDT south and pick up the TAT in Salida.

I second that! having lived in OK (for one summer a long time ago) Bruce is right save the time and travel costs & start in Trinidad.

 

[Thrasherg]

Thanks guys, and sorry to hi-jack the thread..

Gary

 

[EnduroRdr]

Thanks guys, and sorry to hi-jack the thread..

Gary

Yea no chit! enough chit chat on my project thread!

 

[The Bruce]

build on

 

[EnduroRdr]

Ok back to the rear rack:

after mounting the side racks (with tanks) the top rack looked kind of out of place: as seen here.

So I thought I would build another one out of stainless steel to match the head light and side racks (stainless sand blasted and clear coated) gives it that grey/silver aluminum look.

Started with some 1/2 inch tubing:
Bend it in to a square and cut some cross braces and some flat bar support braces.

Then miter the ends for a good "T" joint fit with the other tubing:
Ok I cheated and used the mill with a 1/2 end-mill bit.

Next tack it together and re-check measurements:

Here compare to the old rack:

so now lets see how it fits the bike:

Ok that all seems to work, now with an Arkansas ride planned in April (AR 500) and probably not enough time to get my pelican boxes matted to the racks I will try out my old soft bags on this rig:

 

[Pumper54]

Just found this thread today and read the whole thing. Your skills and craftsmanship are out standing. Do you mind if I steal your pics about building your head light bucket? I have some friends that build choppers and that set up would look great on one.
Tom

 

[EnduroRdr]

Just found this thread today and read the whole thing. Your skills and craftsmanship are out standing. Do you mind if I steal your pics about building your head light bucket? I have some friends that build choppers and that set up would look great on one.
Tom

Go for it, you are not alone, I had several others inquire about it also.

Here is a pic of how I bend the circles, (only this illistration is where I was bending tubing for my sons racks to fit his DR250).
In this example I was bending ovals for side racks using 3/4 stainless steel tubing. The solution here if you need perfect circle as in the headlight is how well you can re-clamp the tubing in the bender to continue the ark without any sign of change. My method is to bend almost 180 degree, stop rewind it back to about 90 degrees then re-clamp the tubing circle in the same slot on the bender using some vice grips holding it to the bender (you may need to do this 2 times for a total of 3 bends to get the complete circle) but use a pad - I used a thin piece of wood slat so as to not allow the vice grip teeth to damage the tubing. Then continue the bending and allow the ends to overlap (side by side). You can cut off the excess and it is easy to re-align them like the photo of the circle in the bench vice right before I welded them together.

Here is a shot of the type bender I used for making the circles (only here I am making ovals):

This one shows where the ends over lap:

The resulting piece after bending and before cutting excess:

Hmmmmmm you know a double head light might be cool too using the oval as a base frame to mount them in.

The finished product: I know it's not CX related but what the heck this thread has already ventured is other directions anyway

The head light has created a lot of interest among ADV and TWT readers.
too bad I didn't have the camera out when I was bending that time so I could have shown how I clamped it in order to get a perfect circle.

Good luck:

 

[Pumper54]

Excellent work, I have found that you can never have too many pictures. They help us non skilled people to see what you artists are all
talking about/doing. Also as a side note, at the other forums I belong to thread drift occurs at about post #3 Most of the time it wonders back on course but it may take a while.

Tom

 

[EnduroRdr]

It's been quite a while since I posted an update on the DS/CX.

We took another trip to Arkansas in April 2012 (kinda like a semi-annual retreat these past few years). I'll try to plan another one this fall too - .

Posting pictures of that ride kinda seems like it should be in the Ride Report area "After the Ride", but since there was some drama concerning the CX I decided to post it here. ( not sure yet, maybe I'll post it twice so it will get the attention it should in the RR section).

Anyway, we had originally planned to ride the Arkansas 500 ride planed by Scotty, but son number 3 wanted to go with us (me, son-2, son-3, and 2 other brother-in-laws). Son-3 is still in high school and could not miss a week so we had to go during his spring break which was the week prior to the AR500.

Nuff chit/chat:
Here loaded up and ready.

Loaded the xr400 also so another son could ride.
This one loaded on the back of the travel trailer.

Plan was to drive up Saturday morning, Camping along the way first night in Mena then on to Magizine Mtn for Sunday night.

On the road - shake down test - first time mounting a bike on back of camper So far so good! (I had already tested tandum towing my smaller utility trailer behind the camper, should have done that this trip but I dont want to give away the story on that part just yet).

Now that's a nice rig. this guy has all his bases covered Bikes and Boat!

First night, got to Queen Willhelmina state part around 4pm, setup camp, drove back into Mena for grub and spirits. (Just remembered Mena is in a dry county), oh well, had a few brew stowed in the ice chest back at camp.

Next morning woke up to this:
That's the road leading out of camp ground?

The original plan was to meet up with the 2 Brother-in-laws at Magizine mountian. One of them was driving in from western Colorado and would be in AR on Sunday, the other leaving Houston had a business meeting Monday and would catch up to us that night.

Turns out me and Colorado B-I-L would get to Magizine Mtn within a half hour of each other. Good timing: First order of business was unload his KLR and lets take a ride!

Gas stop:

Oh oh, take a break and discovered the KLR dripping some oil!

Seems to be minor as long as we keep an eye on it - dripping from a hose connection.

Son-2 saw a barbed wire fence along the road during the break and decided to do his impression of "Steve McQueen in the fence" sceen from "The Great Escape"

So we ride another couple of hours or so and take another break:
Here the cx and xr pose by this really cool lake in the middle of the mtn range just south of Magizine.

The lake - note we are about 1600' in elevation and this is a natural looking lake that is traped between to ridges. Would be a cool place for a cabin!

Back on the road:

Then we take the climb up to the top of Peti Jean Mtn (not the one where the State park is, But just south of Magizine Mtn is another mtn named Peti Jean) This is where I notice the CX running hot and loosing power.

More to come on that one.
But for now I need to re-charge the laptop. will post more soon.

 

[EnduroRdr]

Ok got plugged in:

Ok so we are intending to stop at the peak and naturally do the photo thing. But the cx was running like crap and running hot! So I rode right past the peak got on the down side and cooled her down. Should have stopped anyway but I thought I should keep moving before it boiled over.

So now it's lunch break:

Took some pavment back to camp:

Once back at camp the bugs were eating us alive. Also we realized that Magazine Mtn area is one range and with the river just north of us, there was not as much mountian riding as we had hoped for, so we decided to move on northward. Houston B-I-L arrives and doesn't even unload his bike. We move in the morning! Onward to Huntsville AR (another state park with full hookups).
Leaving camp in the morning - we take a few parting shots of the fantastic views:

Then on the road: we see "Last liquor for 50 miles" Better make a stop -

Lunch break in St. Paul along Hwy 23 - pretty good eats!

Ok we finally arrive at the next camp Withrow Springs State Park and unload:

Nice place and full hookups:

Ok so now we got all 5 of us together, bikes unloaded and ready for action. Plan is get up at sunrise and ride. Spent a couple hours the night before planning a route to have lunch at Oark Cafe then do Warloop Rd (along the Arkansas section of the TAT) weather looks great - gonna be a great day.

We get up, get our gear on, grab and pack some waters and snacks. Start up the bikes to warm them up, and as I am walking around the camp making sure we got all our last min stuff taken care of, my bike dies! OK I figure it was not quite warm yet and I had taken the choke off a little too soon.
Go to re-start it and she doesn't want to start! Not even a pop! So now everybody is ready, helmets on and everything and the CX is a no go!

Ok break time everybody, take off helmets and start the troublshooting!
Spark, check! Gas, check! Jumper cables needed now! No pop no nuttin!
Ok I figure it was ticking really loud and so I pull the valve covers and check valve adjustment. (yea I know it was running about an hour ago and should be at least 4 hrs cool to do it right but we are getting desprate). Valve adjustment seems ok. Ok I got some starting fluid in the camper and so I pull the air cleaners off. Hit the starter button and I notice fuel is blowing backwards through the carbs - W-T-F????? This can only mean one thing to me - valve timing must be off! Pull the valve covers again and plugs out, compare TDC per stator (confirmed by watching piston through spark plug hole to the intake valve timing) - sure enough it seems to look like it is slightly off. Ok only one way to really confirm that, gotta pull the motor to pull the cover to expose the timing chain! We are so deep into it by now - Rick even gets out of his riding gear! I confirmed this problem while pulling the motor when I turned the crank by hand (using a socket on the stator bolt) and I feel it clunk, the valves are hitting!

So here we are - Colorado plates & Texas Plates on the trucks, I know as folks were walking through camp they must be wondering what these rednecks are up to now - pulling this bike apart. (But then we are in Arkansas so maybe this all seemed normal - )

Sure enough get the motor out, pull the rear case off and we see the timing chain climbing up over the sprocket on the cam. I suspect the timing jumped when it died. (I actually think it jumped one tooth the day prior, causing it to run like crap and hot that day) then jumped another tooth this morning.

From Here Forward I am coping my post from the CX forum. I have a thread over there also where I post a lot of the mechanical things about this bike.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hello folks, update on my "DualSport CX500"

The lesson learned here is do not ignor those sounds! Took a ride around town back in March and noticed this agravating ticking noise - mostly at stop signs because the supertrapp muffler is all I hear at speeds. So back at home I let her cool down overnight and in the morning adjusted the valves - even though I just did it about 1500 miles ago! Crank her up and still ticking. Well we were planning a ride in the hills of NW Arkansas in a couple weeks and I figured it is running pretty good so if it is serious it will get worse.
Fast forward to April and our trip. Day one (about mid way into a ride) noticed the bike running slower - loss of power! and on some steep mountain roads running hot! Well limped on home (back to camp) and figured since the ticking is a little louder that the valves must be the issue.
Again adjusted the valves the next morning. Then while letting the bike warm up (helping the rest of our crew to get ready) the bike died. I didnt hear it as I was on the other side of camp gathering stuff to take (water, food, etc). So now i try to restart it and no luck. Dig in to investigate, good spark, getting fuel so now I am removing the pods (air breathers) and while trying to start it again I notice gas fumes blowing backward out the carbs. Oh crap! I knew that probably meant valve issues or timing off! Sure enough after compairing piston position (verifing TDC with marks) the valve timing seemed off!

This was also confirmed by feeling a sticking feeling (like something was hitting) as I turned the motor over using the bold on front of crank.
Although it was turning over using the starter (without making noise) but by hand it was hitting something.

Dang-it now here we are in a camp ground and we are pulling the motor. Here is a pictorial of the events.

After opening it up at camp we could see the cam chain had jumped (it was actually climbing ontop of the cam sprocket).
I had never adjust it - apparently neither had the previous (and or original?) owner! The adjuster looked like it had never moved!
Ok so put it all away in the back of the truck. There will be no salvaging the cx for this ride!

Now once home I could dig in deeper. And found the cam chain was indeed banging around in there.
Even worse than some I have seen here on the forum.

As you can see here mine was actually slapping around so bad it was banging on the metal bracket!

So now I removed the heads fully expecting to find bent valves. You can see the top of the pistons and the bottom of the intake valves show they were hitting.

Now get this: to my astonmishment, I did the WD40 test (spraying in the intake & exhaust ports on top of the valve stems) and no leaks! Well one intake has some tiny seepage after 5 min.

So now I'm into replacing a bunch of parts, but since replacing this many items (water pump seal - tripple by pass - also while in there and all external seals) running up about a zillion in parts! I am thinking I may be able to use the valves again (after removal and checking runout then re-lap them)

Comments - opinions welcome!

And yes I did not adjust the cam chain before the trip - my stupid oversight! I should have come here first and ask about the noise!
The motor actually only had 12K on the odo when I bought it and I only put another 5-6K on it. Sound like very pre-mature cam chain failure to me, some of you have 50K on the original chains!

 

[EnduroRdr]

Re-posting from another thread on the CX forums where I posted an update:

name='Blindstitch' date='24 June 2012 - 06:09 PM' timestamp='1340582957' post='183129'

Ok so what's the tensioner blade look like?

Ask and you shall receive.

Here is a picture of the chain guide (compared to one I got from a buddy who unloaded a bunch of cx parts on me).
The one on the right is the one that was running in my bike when it all went to crap. Left is a good used one.

And here is the adjusting guide (the one that bends) - again right side is from my bike - left is a good used one.
I would have expected this one to look at least as bad as the straight guide did.

Here are a couple of peices I found in the bottom of the case.

And here is where they came from: (the back side of the straight guide)
Again the right side is from my bike:

Here is where it contacts the case - I suppose all the slapping of the chain broke it on the back side:
Note the pointer used to set crank timing meets the guide in same location of thick backing - where it broke.
(good used one is in picture mounted in my cases - not the broke one I removed)

Here are a few notes about the chain:

Take a look at this shot, you will notice the chain on the top is shinny and the links look a little beat up. (the picture doesn not show as much difference than the good one - but in person it looks worse)

The chain from my bike was stiff, would not move like the other "Good" chain.
You can see by this picture the chain from my bike (on right) kinks up and doesnt hang nice and straignt like the good chain.

To show how worn out it is I re-installed it (for photos), here not the holding bolt slot at it's maximum adjustment where i am pushing it with the screwdriver.
While looking at this photo, notice the chain where it slides on the adjusting guide - it still has a gap - this chain is way streached!

And here I installed the good used one (from the extra parts my buddy gave me).
Note the adjuster slot is about in the center while I pushed it with screwdriver - this chain is still good for use.

And another shot here showing how the chain from my bike was so stretched it would actually climb up on the teeth of the top sprocket.
Note how the links do not fit down into the gaps in the teeth nice and smooth like they should.

As usual, all comments welcome!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Update time: while I have the motor apart I wanted to eliminate one seal - the cam shaft exits the motor to hold the mechanical fan. And since I converted to an electric fan I dont need the cam sticking out the motor anymore.

See here to show how the cam sticks out - notice it is oily

Also here you can see that the end of the cam is really close to the electric fan when it is all installed:

So after studying the parts I can see the cam spins the tach drive using a worm gear then goes through the shaft seal. Here the seal is removed from the case.

The section behind the worm gear is the bearing that supports the cam. So in theory I can cut the section of the cam off that drives the worm (since I no longer use the mechanical tach either) and I will also save the little bit of weight from the cam and the power that it uses to drive the worm.

Dang I am starting to feel like Mert Lawwill grinding his harley cam followers in On Any Sunday -

Ok Im sold, lets cut the cam -

Ok now its time to make a plug for the hole. I had a perfect peice of aluminum stock to load in the lathe.

finished plug ready to install

I made the plug about 3 thousand larger than the hole for a good press fit but to be sure I didnt have any leaks I made sure to use some Loctite.

Now to pressit in I just used the bench vice. To help it all fit nice I heated up the case to about 220'f before pressing it in place.

The finished part:

 

[EnduroRdr]

A few pic sould not post (then I remembered that there is a limit here on the number of pic in a single post)


While in there I figured I would improve the tach cable hole plug I made previously in this thread. Not that it had any issues but while I'm at it I figured I should add an O-ring to the plug just to make sure it didnt leak any oil either.
The plug no o-ring:

The plug with groove and o-ring:

 

[Irishcoffee]

I'll bet your riding partners would have appreciated this attention to detail IF you had performed it PRIOR to the trip!!!

 

[EnduroRdr]

I'll bet your riding partners would have appreciated this attention to detail IF you had performed it PRIOR to the trip!!!

Yup!

 

[Irishcoffee]

Yup!

In the corner for three hours young man. Here, wear this hat!

 

[Tourmeister]

Bump for a great thread.

I am still amazed that you had the tools with you to just remove the whole freaking engine from the bike while in a campground!

I am also amazed at your fab skills. Other fab folks might not be impressed, but for us fab challenged peeps, the stuff you cranked out was impressive! I LOVE that headlight and can see why you would have gotten so much interest in it.

What is the current status on the motor? Got everything back together and running right? Got any recent pics of the entire rig with the luggage on the bike?

 

[Thrasherg]

When I get back to Texas, I know who I am going to hit up to try and help me finish my RG500/R6 project (although I hope it will be finished before I move back to Texas!!).

Gary

 

[EnduroRdr]

Scott, Yes I have much to update! I just need to find the time to get it all posted. Not to divulge too much info but I am riding it now and even did another trip to AR with it last week of this past March. More to come!

Gary, I'm living and working in Louisiana currently but what the hey, drop it off I have 3 son's that would love to do the test riding