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1979 honda xl185s trials bike


mrmikkelsen
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On 7/23/2020 at 3:58 PM, bashplate said:

nice work there buddy. I built a trials bike out of a xl200r about 10 years ago, as regards the suspension, I just backed all the settings to as soft as they would go and it worked realy well.DSCF4682.thumb.JPG.56be3dabb6832a6961a263907d5592e5.JPG

I really like your tank color scheme, it looks classic British.  One of those TLR kickers would be nice to have too.  I get about 1/2 stroke with the stock kicker before it stops on the rear mounted footpeg.  The single shock xl suspension sounds perfect for trials too.  Soft & cushy, and springy enough with the damping adjustability.  Nice rig. 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Three and half years this thing has been in my work space, several other bikes have come in later and gone out sooner, but finally this one is done too.  It fired up today and sounds like a brand new bike.  I removed a bunch of brush on one side of our house to make a trails area, and I can't wait to get out there and learn how to ride trials.  

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Well, I was going to put a bunch of detail pictures up here but it looks like I've reached my upload limit. Fitting I guess.  Here's the last one that fits, the top view with the narrow side panels, tank rear cover, 1979 pennies capping frame rails all proudly in view.  

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  • 6 months later...

Darn it, out of upload capacity, and I have two more pics to post.  I've been riding the bike a bit now.  The footing position still needed to be just a tad more rearward to get the front end feeling neutral and easier to lift.  I welded on footpeg extension to the back side of the pegs to widen the pegs into more modern proportions and the balance of the bike feels right.  Also, I was getting as much steering turn as I wanted, 15 degrees less than the TY175 seemed to be the issue.  The fork legs were bottoming against the tank.  I didn't want to swap for something like CR250M triples that stick way out, so instead I grabbed a section of 1 1/4" chromemolly frame tubing and used it flatten the front edges of the tank.  The bars now to the same degrees of rotation as the TY and it steers much better through the tight trials type corners I've been practicing on. Unfortunately this was post-painting.  I taped over the area before shaping though so paint damage was minimal, and I used some DupliColor Chevy Orange engine paint to touch it up- a surprisingly close match to the two-part automotive Flash Red used otherwise.  Fun bike, much more grunt than the TY175, taller to suit my 6' height well.  I'm only getting about 1/2 kickstarter stroke until bottoming on the footpeg, but thankfully that seems to be plenty to get her running.  Now the only problem is figuring out which one of these fun bikes should I keep and which one should I sell.  

 

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