XL500 slash XL250 fuel tank renovation restoration remodel

What do you do with a motorcycle fuel tank when you do some customising? It seems that the fuel tank is a central design element of any motorcycle. All custom bikes have a custom tank or at least a non-standard tank. I got this XL250 tank with the XL500 which has not been restored in any way, its got a few dents and the paint is quite faded. But I still wanted to retain its character which tells us a story of its former life, but I still wanted some personal design input. So why not leave part of it as is and customise part of it? We see this in architecture all the time, so why not motorcycles? I have grown to like 'patina' on things, its not all clean and shiny, but rather wears scars of its life. So this is my first attempt at motorcycle tank renovation or remodel if you will. The top third of the tank I have taken back to bare metal and given it a rough polish, then sprayed it in clear coat and lastly added a black pin stripe to divide the old and the new.

KZ650 custom 16 x 3 wheel to XL500S - Job Done

A pretty straight-forward wheel swap. KZ650 and XL500S rear wheels both have 17mm axles, so just needed to modify the axle spacers. Has to bend the brake-torque arm slightly, but then bolts straight up. Brake cable bolts up, just had to trim down the wing nut to fit. Also fitted a new chain which I had also left over from the DR400 project.

XL500s with 16 inch wheels aka vintage supermoto

Really like the way these 16 x 3 wheels look on the XL500S. Rear wheel bolts right in with minimal modifications. The front wheel is a very different story, its a little bit too wide for the stock front end. Either USD forks or conventionals with wider leg spacing would do the trick. Looks like more brain-storming and research til late in the night is required....

XL500 front wheel shenanigans

Those who have a long memory will remember this front wheel I created for my DR400 vintage supermoto build. Its a CB175 hub, custom spokes (136mm long) and a rear aluminium rim from a late 70s YZ250 which is 17 x 2.75. Pros - a large range of tyres will fit, axle is the same size, fits snuggly between the fork legs, can use a cable speedo ex Honda CB (23 inch front wheel speedo very hard to find for stock front wheel).Cons - finding a way to secure the brake stay to the fork leg. More pros than cons, so thats good! With the speedo, an original 2.75 x 18 front tyre is very close in diameter to a 110/80 x 17 tyre, about 10mm in diameter taller so the speedo will be accurate.

Of course there is an option 2....The other 16x3 wheel fitted with a front tyre (brand new). I got a CB750 triple clamp from 66 motorcycles to see if it would space the fork legs further apart in order to fit in a wider front tyre. This clamp is 20mm wider, but the wheel still needs to go to the brake side by around 5mm amd I'm not sure where that is going to come from! There will be a little bit of custom fab work to fix the brake plate to the forks and how to mount the brake cable!

The Great XL500 rewire of 2014.....

.....has begun. David and I spent yesterday afternoon starting the rewiring process. The second pic shows some of the dodgey old wiring, all fixed now. The harness is a good fit and wiring up to the alternator and cdi was pretty straight forward. We used brand new bullet connectors and utilux plugs just like the factory. Also wired the tailight and rear indicators.So thats about 20% done. Just need to source horn, flasher unit, battery etc etc etc etc etc....

Re-used ZX12 switch blocks on XL500

I also have these ZX12 switch blocks left over and will use them on the XL500. The left switch will be used exactly as is, but the right one will be re-tasked so the kill switch will be the headlight on/off and the start button will be the kill button.

ZX12 chain guard re-used on XL500

This is one more part that is getting reused. I recently parted-out my ZX12 as the crank had spun a bearing and I still have quite a few odds 'n' sods left. So I thought, if we can make it work then we will! After a bit of cut and shut it works well, and you will always know where it came from!