Part 5 - Honda XR600 Adventure Build

Recent additions have been:
Blue Slip
Rego
Trail Tech Voyager
Wheels and spacers to make them work
Tidy up bits and peices


Hopefully from here on in its just a matter of refining her. 

Took a few pics yesterday after a run around the suburbs testing the speedo and GPS, hope you enjoy 

Cheers,
Scotty.

Part 4 - Honda XR600 Adventure Build

Ok folks, so after a very busy Christmas period and not updating the build up for a while. Here goes the latest:

 
We retro-fitted a universal speedo to the standard mounting, which will do fine for the blue slip and down the track I plan on getting a digital unit with a few more functions. I’ve ‘borrowed’ the nice mirrors from my Husky.

 
I bit the bullet and got some new discs: RHK Quake wave discs Front and Rear. Nice.

 
A few of the Genuine Honda parts order. Oil return line, tank rubbers.

 
A beaut fork brace – billet. From RSW Racing in the states.

 
Nice new valve covers. You may have noticed the chipped one in previous photos.

 
I forget to take a step back every now and again to realise the overall progress – often getting caught up in the detail. After an afternoons work we could really see it coming together.

 
The Staintune headers had seen better days. We scrubbed, buffed and polished these guys to get them like this. Not bad eh!? New copper exhaust seals and new studs with anti-seize. You can also see the back of the cut down CR front guard here too.

 
Rear wheel assembly back together. New Disc. New Pads, Calliper sand blasted, cleaned then clear coated. Then rebuilt with new seals and polished pistons. Braided line. New wheel bearings.

 
Universal heated grips, new grips, and new donuts. Gotta figure out power for a accessories. Will tackle that later!

 
We got a new headlight and shroud from the states. I really like the look of it – keeping it original. Main problem is (didn’t think before ordering) US model is not road compliant so no high/low beam. Looking to retro fit H3 or H4 globe into that fitting. Might be interesting. Also threw on new JET barkbusters.


Here you can see the front brake master cylinder. Had a few drama’s getting this thing to bleed up. Full treatment on the caliper as per the rear. Braided line. New Disc. Borrowed an air powered ‘suction’ bleeder to get it happening, great invention.

 
Easy pull clutch perch. New cables. Heated grips LHS. 

 
Shock in. Chainguard on. New braided line. You can see one of the new gussets we added here too.

 
I threw the rack on for a trial fit, and to figure out what to do with number plate locating, tail light etc.

 
While we re-wired the front end and tried to figure out a lighting solution I got to planning a custom dash to hold a few switches, a 12v cig socket for charging etc. Here we are getting ideas.

 
All of the wiring has been re-sleeved in a plastic tube/shielding. All non-factory connections have been tidied up with waterproof connections as well.

 
 
Here’s the ‘final’ colution for the number plate/tail light/blinker set up. Again, borrowing from the Husky, I got some nice blinkers. LED light from Supercheap Auto. Not bad I reckon.

 
We tidied up the rear end wiring too. We’ll tuck this away eventually – but just to show how we’re keeping it neat!

 
Progress on the dash.

 
And yes, here we are getting excited. First lot of oil since the pull down.

 
 
And finally a test fit up of the new outfit – shrouds, tank, headlight, windscreen. 


We fitted up the tank the next day, checked oil levels and decided we’d see if she started. This is actually the first time my father heard it run…
Once we had the tank and everything on, we turned the fuel tap on only to see fuel flowing from the overflow. A stuck float bowl? That’s what we figured at first. We eventually got it sorted – took it off, stripped and cleaned again. Inspected the jets (#155 and #62) I’ll double check that…
But eventually she sparked up, only about 5 meaningful kicks actually. Used the old XR technique from back in the 250 days –and also the kill switch, full throttle and decomp in to clear it trick. Worked every time.

As you can see in the short clip I overlooked a couple of things, so may look like a bit of a goose in the clip (left choke on!)….but hey we were all excited to hear her fire up.

Part 3 - Honda XR600 Adventure Build

We’ve made good progress and the bike is slowly getting re-assembled. We’ve run into a few small issues that required some special orders – tank rubber / insulation above top frame tube, wiring insulation to run town main frame, washers for chain slider and a few others.
I tried to fit up some old tapered handlebars I had lying around, along with some universal adaptors however it wasn’t to be as the adaptors appeared to be different diameter to the bars themselves. I have settled on the standard size 7/8 bars for now – Pro-Tapers in a Henry /Reed bend. At least the cables all reach.
We fitted all new cables (Clutch, Throttle and Decompression Lever).
The clutch perch I had on the bike was broken. I had a spare universal easy pull perch and lever and it’s come up really nice with the new cable. Fingers crossed the clutch will hold up for a while.


This photo shows the decomp cable all in place, new spark plug cap and plug, new exhaust studs and the high pressure fuel line that we’re routing the wiring in. We might replace it with the genuine heat reistant material once it arrives as the fuel line wont fit into the plastic bracket that holds it and the oil line against the frame.


We ended up going for a new airbox. The old one was hacked up and had a few unessesary holes drilled into it.


We’re routing all the cables properly now, but getting them all into place in this photo after we re-wrapped and re-soldered some dodgy splicing that took place over the last 20 years. You can also see where we started to fit up the frame accessories (stand, peg mounts etc) as well at the gear shifter, brake pedal etc. A bit of work went into getting the brake pedal feeling ‘tight’ again, trying a few different shims and washer to space it out and getting it feeling new again.


Carby cleaned and back in place. Choke lever still broken – it’ll have to do.


We threw the muffler on to check everything cleared with the new airbox in place. You can see part of the updated chain guard as well. Also new grease nipples to the linkages and swing arm.


Trial fit of the new plastics. US model rear guard doesn’t have the light cut-out. I’m going to run a different setup on the numberplate holder, tail and brake though anyway. The flat rear guard adds to a smoother finish.


Case saver fitted. Sprocket all cleaned up, gear lever straightened and painted. Sprocket cover is being modified to fit over this for legalities and registration.


Rebuilt the throttle housing: It is a little worn with the ‘pull’ side cable hole a little more elongated than it should be. A good clean and grease and fresh coat of paint to seal it all back up.


Some goodies arrived in the post today from XRs Only. Awesome shipping…California to Sydney in 7 days. Very Happy.
I’ve picked up the rebuilt shock and fork from Tekniks. Nick showed me a project XR he’s working on too….that sounded exciting. Will get the springers fitted up on the weekend. It’s all coming together now. 

More updates soon.
Scott.

Part 2 - Honda XR600 Adventure Build

So after getting the frame back from powder coaters (who did a very good job and I would recommend them) we could really hook in.

I knew after reading a few older posts in the 600/650L threads that I’d need to flush the frame of any sandblasting and coating debris.


I began by plugging up the frames oil storage, and ran about 250ml of kerosene into it. I let it sit a few minutes then gave it a good shake up, then let drain into a bucket. I repeated this around 3 times with the frame up right, then another 3 times with the frame upside down so the oil ‘tank’ was at the lowest point. I flushed thoroughly with water, then one last fill of kerosene to get rid of any water. I used compressed air to blast out any leftover liquids and let dry in the sun for a couple of hours.


You can see here the amount of crap that came out on the first and second flushes. Bit of a worry, but it came clean in the end.


Next was cleaning up the swing arm. I didn’t get an overall before shot, but this old girls through the wars. There’s some fairly bad grooves from letting the chain slipper wear though, in fact the chain slipper on it when I bought the bike was an offcut section of plastic.



Here you can see condition before and after.


It then got masked up and prepped for paint. I opted for painting the swinger over powder coating as I wasn’t sure on the tolerances for bearings etc. Perhaps I’ll see how the paint holds up and if not might look at coating this at a later stage.



After Paint, while my Dad worked on cleaning up the engine.




Even after several goes at degreasing and scrubbing she still looked a bit sad. I had read on here a few guys have gone down the path of acid washing and also a full soda or sand blast. I figured she’s all rebuilt and mechanically fine, I didn’t want to go tearing her down too much. A solid clean-up and fresh coat of paint should do the trick for now.
Remember, I’m doing all of this on a bit of a budget. It’s not a full on resto – just a backyard resto!


So once we masked up bits and pieces, into the custom spray booth it went (read; garden shed) and several coats of high temp aluminium finish engine enamel went on. A bit ‘silvery’ but generally much tidier!




While we waited for the engine to dry we set to work on installing the new steering head bearings and the triple clamps.



Then all the new swingarm bearings were loaded with grease and the swinger was installed.




The brakes need some real work. I’ve blasted them for now, but they’ll need a full overhaul. The rear piston is basically hanging out, and the seal is visible, and torn.


With the blasting cabinet running, we took the opportunity to clean up the remainder of the misc. bolts and brackets.



While we waited for some paint to dry, we set about cleaning out all of the threads on the powdercoated frame. While the powdercoating place did a good job, they did miss two or three threads.


With the engine dry and bolts all sorted we set about lifting the engine into the frame (very carefully). We masked the frame off, and laid cardboard on the frame rails and on the front down tube to prevent scratching. A few goes, a bit of sweat, and just a few swear words….and it went it in! Stoked!
We took the chance to step back and admire…and threw in the recently revived and polished Staintune headers for a photo!


The final work last night was looking at tidying up some of the wiring. The heatproof casing had perished. We’re looking at using some high pressure fuel line as a casing. Thoughts?

No updates from Teknik on the suspension yet...hopefully this week.

More updates again soon. Cheers!