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Only $10 for all 2024 SX, MX, and SMX series (regularly $30).
I also took the opportunity to mount the front fender once I knew the gas tank and pipe wouldn't interfere. I also spent some time splicing in a oem style Honda kill switch with some nice connectors.
This bike was fairly complete, however it was missing a mudflap. I don't even have great pictures of one, but sort of figured out what it should look like and I know it should be white.
I mocked up a template with an old cereal box and drug out the original front fender that came with the bike. I hated to cut this up because it wasnt "that" bad, but a vent on back was broken and I was pretty sure that I would never use it for anything. It had a close enough shape to work with so I proceeded (hey it was free right?).
The airbox was also missing the lid. Unfortunately I dont even know what it should look like, so I took a stab at it. I used the cereal box again and repurposed the busted up original number plate.
Then I got into the rear fender, and the silencer, and the side plates, and before I knew it I was zippy tying the front caliper in place just to roll the bike out of the garage for the first time in 6 months.
The Shop
The project so far looks fantastic.
https://motocrossactionmag.com/the-real-story-of-americas-most-famous-d…
My clutch cable I decided to leave alone. It has one lone broken strand up by the perch. Certainly I can use it for now and just keep an eye on it. The throttle cable was fubar though and already hung WOT on me. I noticed my 1993 RM125 cable looked similar and sure enough Motion Pro 04-0114 for 89-93 RM125 was perfect replacement. Scored one on Ebay for $10 shipped.
Regardless, I wasnt having it so I devised a method to straighten it without trashing the finish. Thankfully powdercoat is flexible so you cant even tell that I touched it.
I also tore into the carb. It had some pretty nasty green crap in it. The needle was in the 2nd clip (from top) and the pilot was a 15. That seems a bit on the crisp side but oh well. I had a 2001 CR250R that loved a 25 pilot on a Mikuni and surely made more HP than this thing. Plus nobody blew their junk up off idle or midrange. The main was a 350, I'm guessing standard. It cleaned up well and I was able to reuse everything.
And here is my craftsman offset wrench. I just could not "un-see" how well it fit. The idea of not having to form metal in a suitable profile was very appealing so I zipped the head off of the wrench and also zipped the shifter from the splines. A little cleanup and I'll have some good area to weld on and its going to fit really well.
Also the graphics are moving at a snails pace, but they are coming along. I hope to have something in a few more weeks.
The fit is really good. And while it looks long, remember that the old shifter was pretty stubby. I took a shot of my KTM peg-to-shifter distance for comparison.
Carb got cleaned finally. New OEM style vent lines installed.
Got some universal number plate sheets and trimmed out the side plates.
Also getting the front number plate squared away and found an oldschool cloth Renthal bar pad in the garage. The white and blue will be right at home on the ATK.
My fancy "fork holder tool" ended has been put into service as a step for my kids rope swing.
The vid shows some details of break down.
To make matters worse, there is no info on rebuild procedures for these forks. Turns out there are a few tricks. Luckily I found a pretty in-depth, 6-page article circa 1986 from Motocross Magazine.....only problem is the article was entirely in French. I spent 2 weeks manually typing every word from French into Google translate to get the English translation. It was extremely helpful because adding fluid is not as simple as it would appear.
In the meantime, I stumbled across the ultra-elusive "MX" gas tank. There are not many of these out there and they go like hotcakes whenever one pops up on the market. I don't intent to immediately use it, but I will try to source a matching seat for the future. It gives the bike a radially different look.
I'd be very surprised if you can't fit a late model ,entire 48mm front end on the bike. If you intend to ride the bike much, it gives you a Lot of options for a far better front end than what it had / has. KTMs use 29 x 50.25 (?) x 15mm bearings top and bottom, perhaps the ATK might be the same?
I was looking to get just the KTM 18/20mm offset triple clamps to fit to my CR500, to get rid of the 24mm std offset (the WPs I got and the CRs Kayabas both having 35mm offset of the axle from the centerline of the fork tubes) but got an entire CC front end, with the Brembo caliper and Master Cylinder for $500, a couple of years back.
I know how to make the CCs work to my liking, and make them actual Closed Chamber forks ( which they are far from, as std, hence the variable performance many complained about), so found a way to fit them to the 500. Anything's possible with a bit of engineering!
That RM 500 you've got looks to be a Lot of work for you to do, by the way. Good luck with it.
Pit Row
Can you give me some advice on the forks and shock.
Did you take off the bottom fork lugs?
If so how do they come off.
Also how do you remove the anodised resovoir
On the rear shock
Thanks in advance
I need to strip these parts off my bike to be anodised
Micah
Here are some of the fork components. The part with a zippy tie around it is an old broken bottom-out bumper. These were busted up on both forks. I replaced them with those red polyurethane tie rod end boots. You can get them at Autozone in their isle for $7.
Forks back together with approximately 650cc of 5w Maxima fluid. The springs feel a bit soft, but I won't know until giving it a ride.
Here are a couple vids of the install, showing some of the ins and outs of adding fluid. I hope I got it right...but hey, there isnt much guidance on this old stuff.
Last thing to do was to change the oil. Found out I cant get my front skid plate bolts out with the pipe installed. So I pulled the pipe. Got to the allen head drain bolt and it was all buggered up. I tried hammering a 7mm allen into the worn 6mm head. That didnt work. I drilled the hole clean, hammered an 8mm allen in there and that worked. Got the old oil out...installed the drain plug and just as I snugged it down the head popped off. So....no fire yet.
Here is a walk around that shows it off a little better. Getting pretty close to wrapping this up. I also have to toot my horn a bit...this is exactly how I wanted the bike to look! I'm really happy with it.
10/10 for the ingenuity, i just think its way too long to be practical.
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