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Doris' XT500 Page |
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Bought in 1990 (the way it looks on the left pic), it didn't run at all. I got it as a project
to learn fixing a motor rather than to ride it, but it turned out to be so much fun to
ride (after I had fun fixin' it) that I still have it. This is the REAL bike of my heart,
one cylinder, clean simple motor, character. Too small and not reliable enough for
touring, though. I did try to improve it's touring capabilities, before I decided to get
an entire different bike for that purpose: I put in the extra oil line from Wunderlich,
changed to 12V electric (also the Wunderlich kit, what a mess, people: don't use it: you
have to redo the whole wiring, the ignition is still 6V, the generator doesn't produce
enough power to charge the battery nor to run high beam, blinkers won't work on idle rpms,
...), and bought a bigger Acerbis tank. Due to rost it needed a Sebring exhaust and due to
fatigue a pair of Koni shocks. The newly replaced piston broke off a piece on the way to
Greece so that it has its third piston now. 
After sitting in the garage for two years - due to electrical problems and me beeing busy
with my other bikes - it gained my interest again and I came up with the crazy idea to put
a side-car on it. A friend with a Dnepr had raised my interest in side-cars, besides that
I needed a winter vehicle and the XT needed some kind of justification for beeing kept as
a second bike. Initial questioning at various dealers and shops were rather disappointing:
too little, too weak of a frame, and the like. Then I found an encouraging ad, and decided
on a low-cost minimum quality version, just to try it out. You can always improve things
later. And this is what I got:
- additional frame bolted on the original frame on the "unterzug" pipes and one
mounted into the steering bearing seat (100 kb JPG)
- Velorex side-car frame with wheel, shock and swing arm, no breaks
- four-point bolted mounting of the side-car to the additional frame
- aluminum "floor plate" inside the Velorex frame
- an aluminum box with a 20 kg plate underneath it and a 35 kg car battery inside as
weight. Optionally I can bolt a weight pack on instead (which is smaller in size), e.g. to
mount a bicycle rack or move large items.
- stronger springs in the Koni shocks
- a little later I changed to progressive Wirth springs in the front forks and thicker oil
- specially made fork stabilisor (made by Karl-Heinz Bayer)
- after the original velorex side-car damper leaked, the swing arm mount was welded
differently so that a bilstein damper with the original velorex spring fits
- to do: find a steering damper
- to do: hook up the car battery to the original battery, put in plugs for charging (both)
and for running whatever from the car battery
- to do: add side-car brakes (the levers are there already, but i still have to fit the
drum into the wheel)
- to do: make and mount an "action bar", to hang on for a passenger, better: to
be able to have an active co-rider!
- to do: replace the entire front end (forks, triple clamps, wheel, brake) with those from
a XT600 (already sitting in my garage). This is not as much for stronger forks as it is
for a disk brake (with 3 wheels you need at least 1 break that breaks)
If you're interested more, there's a front view picture
and a rear view picture.
I have been riding it around town and short tours now for a couple thousand kilometers and
this is my impression: I was astonished on just how much it pulls sideways, left when
slowing down and right the rest of the time - better than any work-out for upper arm
muscles! It reacts very quick and direct to change in excelleration as well as pressure on
the handle bars, to a lesser degree on shifting weight. That makes both: a very agil and a
very nervous handling. The power of the little 500cc motor (officially 27 hp, probably not
much more) is enough for its weight, its sprinting is not much worse than what it was
solo, only top speed isn't as good: 120 km/h it'll do, before it used to go 130-140 km/h.
The brakes are as bad as they are solo. The front brake is now usable again with the new
springs in the forks, before they hit and the fender got tangled in the tire (a nasty
sound that scared me to death until I figured out where it came from).
Last but not least: what do I expect to be able to do with it? Well, winter riding, transporting all sorts of things, maybe
an occational dirt road experience (no jumps and
the like!). Going for cross-country skiing or
mountain-biking to places where the public transportation system don't get me. Go to
motorcycle gatherings: all that barbeque gear and beer kegs, that I could take with for
parties ...
Update: summer 2003 and ongoing:
Winter riding, normal wear and extreme low maintenance had the bike optically and technically go to shit.
I finally decided to take care of it and completely restore it - not "original", but according to my purposes and wallet size.
In april I took the side-car off. (Wow, I had nearly forgotten what XT-riding means! Looking forward to all the nifty improvements I have planned...)
After all the summer riding (with the other bikes) I found time to completely strip the frame. I had it sandblasted and put 180µ zinc coating on before getting it painted silk black.
All of the non-aluminum parts I took off either went for galvanic zinc-platingand (black) alodining or were sprayed with zinc spray and 2 layers of silk black from spray cans - after spending hours derusting with the steel brush. Only the back fender was to bad to be salvaged, even most of the rubber bits were in astonishing good shape.
The front end is cleaned, painted, repaired where necessary and tucked away. The triple clamps of the 600s front end fit nicely (with the original 500s bearings), only the steering stop limit had to go and the slot for the steering column lock needed to be enlarged.
The rest of summer of 2004 I sporadically spent in the workshop (better weather saw me riding instead), and by fall I could actually start a "brand new" engine in an almost new-looking bike! For the detailed report - in German - see here.
By the way: the bike has a name, too. What would fit better than "Ben Hur"?!
.. and more XT500-related links:
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| Last update: Januar 2008 |
