HL500 vs YZ400D

[mick25]

Ok love the HL500 or not , they just need the right riders 

I race one of my stock TT500s and keep up with the best of them you just need the balls

I have seen plenty of stock TT500s and XT500s come and go through our club and would say they found them to hard to handle.
 
I have been floging around on them for the past 20 years and love them

Last year I had a ride on a forum members XT500 turned into a HL500 look alike and found it spot on .
Give me a HL500 any day

[SON]

Tahitian I believe you have already answered your own question.
Other than suspension and brakes you prefer the YZ.
Take a page out of Roger Grangers book with his 171lb TM400,
Shave as much weight off the YZ as you want to spend,
Brakes on an Aberg are no better than the YZ, but they can be dialed in much better than standard or instal a Bigger XT500 front wheel,
Both ends of your VMX Suspension can be dragged into the 21st Century it's just going to cost you!
As good as TT500 Abergs are, I believe the SUZUKI SP/DR 370/400 based bike is substantially better in every way!
To me it is one of the rarest and most desirable VMXers ever made,
And you can build one or a reasonable facsimile of one for much less than the TT.

[Iain Cameron]

OW Tahitian Red the answer is so simple .   Get both .

[Montynut]

Firko I think the Metisse has a lot different and much more important position in MX history than the HL. The Rickman brothers took the best parts and knowledge then available and built the best possible bike of its period. Basically to be competitive at the very top of MX at that time people aimed at a Metisse with whatever engine they saw as the best. Two strokes at that time where still some way from taking over I would have thought, well at least in the open class.

The HL is really the result of a small enthusiast group’s interpretation of an MX machine while railing against the recognised best of the period and accepted thinking. It is much more like the Morgan cars staying with a wooden chassis and the HL was ultimately only moderately successful. Yes I know it won one a heat of a GP but the rider would most likely have had better results on any of the top ten bikes that year.

The place of both the HL and CCM is more of an aberration of an enthusiastic small group trying to build a different mouse trap instead of a better mouse trap.

The HL’s even in 1977 did not make an average rider suddenly better they were just another bike. The romance seems to be the sound the same as the CCM which also did not make an average rider suddenly better they were just different. There is nothing wrong with that and I can appreciate people wanting to build one but not try and present it as the best bike of the period because it was not.

The best thing about a YZ400D (which is also not one of my favourite bikes but that does not mean that it is not a good bike) was that any rider could walk in put a moderate amount of money down and ride off with a very competitive bike for the season. The HL rider needed to invest several months building the bike after laying down about a year’s salary for a pile of parts. There were two HL500 in NSW in ’77 / ’78. One of these bikes is the one used by GMC to build his jig I believe. Neither bike turned their owner/rider suddenly into a winner. The results of HLs in open competition generally is very ordinary the same as all the 4 stroke specials of the period. A good rider on a HL will beat an average rider on a YZ and vice a versa.

No serious privateer of the period could possibly consider a HL just on the cost factor. The ‘77 HL with about 10” of travel which is what they were designed for was no better than a heap of bikes that year in the open class. Maico, Suzuki, Yamaha YZ, Husky, KTM (very rare in NSW) or dare I say it the Montesa (there were about 5 VB360s in NSW that year) and others. It was not like every top rider was climbing over people to ride one the opposite actually.

The HLs with massive long travel suspension just look a little silly in my option while the Honda XL/XR specials of the early ‘80s at least look right.

[oldyzman]

I had a 400d and ran it at nepean for a few days, it was quite competative in DT..
Brett

[Big Scotty]

Ive had my 400d for twelve months and love it,its fairly standard other than it has a heavier flywheel than standard,which i would recomend to anyone,but would love to have a long legged 500 in the shed next to it,taller the better,and who cares what any of them go like,as long as were out there riding them.

[Montynut]

Ive had my 400d for twelve months and love it,its fairly standard other than it has a heavier flywheel than standard,which i would recomend to anyone,but would love to have a long legged 500 in the shed next to it,taller the better,and who cares what any of them go like,as long as were out there riding them.

Very true and that 400 of yours is getting far too fast as well

[SON]

YZ400s were good at D/T, I raced at Nepean on one several times on Avon Mudpluggers???
As a Motocrosser they needed as much help as the TT Aberg.
They can be big bored to 425cc along with a balanced 3mm stroker crank and they became really fast and much easier to ride (ask Steve Gall).

[SON]

Montynut, you are right, the Framed XR/XL 500 is far better balanced to ride and so much easier to turn, which is why when the framed DRM400s get here, they will be even better.