This project started with a Honda crf450 -2007 and a Honda cr 500 -1991 motor.
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| The left side of the motor. |
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| The right side of the motor. |
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| The CRF450 -07. Total running time before this project was 20 hours. |
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| The crf engine is on it's way out. |
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| The engine is out and this is before any cutting and grinding. |
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| The crf450 motor was 29.0 kg ... |
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| ... and the cr500 was 2.5 kg lighter. The engines were measured without carburators. |
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| The Y-piece was cut off and trimmed. |
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| The frame was also trimmed. This is just after the Y has been cut off and before I raised the Y position. |
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| I made my own tubing to extend the lower part of the Y-piece. |
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| I rounded off the edges in the lathe. |
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| With some force I could just pop in the extended Y in the frame. |
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| The Y would sit in place by itself when done. |
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| I raised the Y so far that the left radiator would touch the Y, so I had to modify the radiator. It is very thin so it was difficult to weld. |
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| After welding and grinding. |
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| This is the soon to be upper engine mount, which was made out off square tubing. |
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| This is another part of the upper engine mount. This part was entirely made in my lathe from 1937 and then later welded together with the above part. |
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| This is the setup. |
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| The setup from another angle. |
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| I decided to make a glide plate for extra strength and engine protection, but I guess the real reason was Eric Geboers RC500 -89 which have one. I made it of a 4 mm thick aluminum sheet. |
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| As I am using the crf radiators, the head needed to be modified. My idea was to plug one of the connectors and make the other one a little bit bigger. |
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| Here is a comparison between the original and one with greater inner diameter. |
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| Some other radiator modifications. |
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| The CDI holder to the left and the ignition coil holder to the right. You can also see the modified head with a plug and the upper engine mount. |
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| First time trying it out. |
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| There is some minor bugs, that I have to fix, but the bike is rideable. |
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| During this session the muffler fell off ... |
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| ... but I had fun until then :-). |
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| One of the reasons I choose a crf450 to convert was the minimal(no) suspension change needed for the bike to handle as intended by Honda. If you take a smaller bike to convert, crf250, cr125 or cr250, where the difference in power and weigth is greater, you not only have to change the spring rate(ofcourse), but I think you need to change low speed characteristics and maybe the geometry of the rear linkage. |
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| One thing I miss about the crf is the engine braking, which makes the front feel more planted going into turns. |
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| But the power is great and I guess you need to ride more with the brakes. |
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| Play riding ... |
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| ... into the sunset. |