1985 CR500RF Rebuild

[Hoony]

this has been a slow resto over 2 years. part one was a cosmetic tidy up and safety rebuild as it was missing spacers in the swingarm and rear wheel, so i pulled everything down except motor ready for my first viper season  on this bike (2006) as i rode the prevoius seasons on my 250. i never owned a 500 when i was racing seriously (pre VMX days) and as i am going though a mid life crisis it was time to tick something off the list.

Heres a pic of the bike when i got it back in Jan 2006, it was used as a trail bike (could not think of a worse bike in the bush) the guy who bought it wanted a bike so he could ride with his kids, he said i used to ride big bikes years ago so it will be fine, he rode it once and then put it back in the dealers to sell for him and bought a 250cc fourstroke trailbike.

it was rough but fairly original but had signs of bush mechanics.

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[Hoony]

heres a few pics of a hacked up airbox and dodgy work to the pipe. why anyone would have an airbox like this beats me, have a look at the nice sweeps on the tailpipe.

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[Hoony]

the sub frame had also been butchered for the pipe as you can see.

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[Hoony]

another shot of the airbox.

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[yzhilly]

Hey Hoony there is some nice welds on that pipe and frame . It looks like he was trying to choke some life out of the beast so he could ride it .

[Hoony]

the frame was badly mashed in and cracked but as i wanted to ride it this had to wait till now as i have aquired all i need to finish the job properly, i did of course fix the pipe, airbox and sub frame for 06-07 seasons, now it is time to complete the rest of the resto.

[DJRacing]

Great to see the big 5hundy Hoony, and its about time too .  That airbox, what are you going to do to fix it or will you look around for a better one?
I know pro-circuit do a pipe for this bike and it look BIG and Mean. Its like a snake the way it twists around the bike.Venomous

[Hoony]

frame pic.

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[Hoony]

ok this brings us up to race ready for season 2006, a tidy up and repair of all dodgy works and ready to try the bike out and work out if it need a engine rebuild or not for this season. the frame and extras will be done at a later date in part 2 of the resto which i will post later.

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[Hoony]

a few of the things i want to rectify are the horrid colour blue barrel and head, what was this guy thinking who did this, it looks great on suzuki's but not on a Honda.

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[Hoony]

later model (1986 CR500RG) frame has a fewmods from prevoius model as follows

stronger engine mounts, different footpeg mounts and pegs, different coil and CDI mounts (CDI & coil are totally different, 85' is similar to the 84' RE model) a small lug to protect the rear brake torque arm, different sub frame mount at the top.

i got this 86' frame on ebay and it was low hours, the 85' frame was too far gone as the engine mounts and crushed frame railes and lots of dodgy work swayed me to a replacement rather than a repair. i had to cut off the CDI & coil mounts and made mounts to fit the 85' model CDI & coil.

here is a pic of the original CDI & coil mounts for the 86' Frame.

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[VMX Andrew]

hey hoony i just found a honda cr500rf 1985 model for sale....how much do reckon its worth..cause im seriously thinkin about buyin her....more pics if you want them.....

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[Hoony]

send me some more Andrew. it looks fairly original, i got mine for $2k, i reckon that was a bargain so if you get it anywhere around $2.5k thats a good price. beware the dreaded water pump housing for corrosion and give it a good once over.

[paul]

cant see it for that much 

[090]

My thoughts exactly Hoony. Ah Paul,when you ride an 85 you KNOW you're alive!