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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Oct 10, 2010 16:01:55 GMT -5
Hello all!
My name is Ray, I'm 26 & wanting to get into flat tracking in a bad way. I live in Great Bend Kansas & I'm in the process of looking for a bike to build up for racing.
I went to the race at the Barton County fair grounds & have been dreaming of trying my hand at it since. I'm here to learn since I know almost nothing about flat tracking. I have been riding mostly on road & working on bikes for 10+ years.
I'm leaning towards the older Yamaha thumpers (XT500 / 550) as I hear they are popular, simple & cheap. Or a later 125 ~ 250 two stroke MXer I could convert. What would be a good beginner's bike?
Thanks for any help & ya'll have a good one!
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Post by tsmiley98 on Oct 10, 2010 18:39:48 GMT -5
Hello all! My name is Ray, I'm 26 & wanting to get into flat tracking in a bad way. I live in Great Bend Kansas & I'm in the process of looking for a bike to build up for racing. I went to the race at the Barton County fair grounds & have been dreaming of trying my hand at it since. I'm here to learn since I know almost nothing about flat tracking. I have been riding mostly on road & working on bikes for 10+ years. I'm leaning towards the older Yamaha thumpers (XT500 / 550) as I hear they are popular, simple & cheap. Or a later 125 ~ 250 two stroke MXer I could convert. What would be a good beginner's bike? Thanks for any help & ya'll have a good one! look around there are bikes race ready or basket cases for sale all the time. Vft.org is a good place to shop, I got my bike off there and love it. This was my 2nd year racing. |
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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Oct 10, 2010 19:56:29 GMT -5
Here's my first hurdle I suppose. I'm reading the rules here & I don't see a class where I could ride a XT500 (the best lead I can find around here) due to my (lack of) age.
I've been asking around & have been told to avoid two strokers. Which blows 'cause there are tons of 125~250 MXers around here for less than a grand.
I can lace wheels so getting the proper bike & getting the proper wheel tire combo on it I'm guessing would be the biggest step.
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Post by tsmiley98 on Oct 10, 2010 20:24:53 GMT -5
Here's my first hurdle I suppose. I'm reading the rules here & I don't see a class where I could ride a XT500 (the best lead I can find around here) due to my (lack of) age. I've been asking around & have been told to avoid two strokers. Which blows 'cause there are tons of 125~250 MXers around here for less than a grand. I can lace wheels so getting the proper bike & getting the proper wheel tire combo on it I'm guessing would be the biggest step. two strokes are fine, my racing partner bought a 1996 cr250 and raced it for a season, he did awesome on it, and gave those 4 strokers something to chase. I started in the 0-400 class, great place to race, plus I turned 30 this year and ran the 350 in the 400 and vintage open. So that's an option, the only huge advantage the bigger bikes had were on the 1/2 mile and even that was not enough to keep me from running top 3, |
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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Oct 31, 2010 21:59:43 GMT -5
Well I have my bike now! I picked up a 1974 Honda XL350 for the vintage 400 class. Here she is!  I drove 1600 miles in 36 hours to pick her up. Hard to find these things apparently. She runs & rides, just poorly. The brakes either don't work or lock up & the throttle sticks wide open, which I found out on a pitch black unfamiliar road with a suicidally dim headlight. Fun stuff. For now just gonna get her running right, everything up to snuff & stripped down to her bare ass. |
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Post by verticaltwin on Nov 1, 2010 7:04:22 GMT -5
Uh oh... I can see that I'm gonna need a few more cc's next year!  Good luck getting it ready. |
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Post by tsmiley98 on Nov 1, 2010 8:19:51 GMT -5
Uh oh... I can see that I'm gonna need a few more cc's next year! Good luck getting it ready. weren't you already planning it kyle? That's a nice looking bike, my first bike was titled and had low miles,it worked great, you'll have lots of fun,and those guys will help you along the way. |
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Post by tsmiley98 on Nov 1, 2010 8:25:58 GMT -5
One of the first things I did was get a set of wheels and tires and convert it to a hydraulic rear disc using CR honda stuff.
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Post by verticaltwin on Nov 1, 2010 10:04:36 GMT -5
Uh oh... I can see that I'm gonna need a few more cc's next year! Good luck getting it ready. weren't you already planning it kyle? That's a nice looking bike, my first bike was titled and had low miles,it worked great, you'll have lots of fun,and those guys will help you along the way. Yeah, I've been planning on building a 350 based motor, but extra $$ has been hard to come by lately. I'm bringing a sideport head up to Lincoln for Ed to look at. Needs valve guide/seat work, at least. Them Honda top ends are pricey to build up for power! Ray... That is a good looking 350. TJ can give you good advice, as he ran good on a stock framed 350, stock motor too (I think). |
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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Nov 1, 2010 19:03:46 GMT -5
Uh oh... I can see that I'm gonna need a few more cc's next year! Good luck getting it ready. Haha, I bet you could rice circles around me on a moped! Thanks guys. Yeah, she'll be 90% stock to begin with besides wheels / tires. I have been wondering about a better swingarm / brake / rear wheel setup... Care to tell more about this CR swap? |
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Post by tsmiley98 on Nov 3, 2010 16:54:21 GMT -5
I ended up coming across a set of CRF 450 wheels, they were stocl hubs with sun hoops, had a set of dunlops on them. The guy was running them on a CR500 street tracker. The only differences I have found are the caliper bracket and rear disc size. You can buy a rear caliper, master cylinder and pedal for under $50. then all you have to do is get a wheel. Just get the same caliper as disc you want to run. the guy gave me a new rear disc but it is for a 450 and doesnt fit my 500 caliper. From there I just mounted the wheel, centered it and cut some spacers. I had to drill and tap a hole for the brake rod from swingarm to caliper. There are some pictures around on here of my bike and its build.
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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Feb 28, 2011 2:04:04 GMT -5
Been working some on my 350 lately. We got her running pretty strong I think. This is by far the oldest & slowest bike I've owned so I don't really know if it'll be nearly fast enough. It has impressed me though, for a 36 year old single, it gets up & goes pretty quick like. Starts in a few kicks too! We've stripped her to her bare ass, ran the iggy straight off the mag (forgot to wire it through the kill switch, oops!) rebuilt the carb twice (found a hairline crack in the overflow tube, man that was messing with us something fierce!) rebuilt the petcock, got new rear brake pads & cable, new points, plug, checked the valves (in spec, woohoo!) a giant K&N, etc. Now I've taken her down to the frame, cut off all the excess & going to replace all the bushings to tighten things up. I'm building a seat pan from a chunk of aluminum I found. The stock rear wheel has a new Dunlop K70 (air pressure suggestions anyone?) on it for now & I'm putting a Seca wheel in the front end I've modified a little for my 19" up front.  Still haven't gotten the K180's I ordered.... If It gets down to the wire I guess I'll get a K70 for the front too. Once the wheel is fitted properly (need spacers yet....) I'll rebuild the front end & play with thicker fork oils. This thing is spongy! Anybody know where I can get a fork brace? I'd like to reinforce this front end some. Took the stock pipe & cut the muffler off. Cut off that funny triangle thing underneath the motor & welded the holes shut. Got a universal sausage muffler to weld on to that for my pipe. Hopefully that will wake the motor up some more, the freakin' stock muffler was a boat anchor! I'm trying to concentrate on getting a raceable bike first then seeing what I need to tweak & working on my riding skills. I know I'm not doing this by the book as some would say. I don't have money for a framer & built engines, etc. I pretty much have no idear what I'm doing. Be easy on the new guy please! Any advice greatly appreciated! |
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Post by verticaltwin on Feb 28, 2011 12:38:18 GMT -5
Glad to hear its coming along... You are farther along than I am on the 350. Uncle Sam set me back a bit this year on the ol' taxes. More than likely I'll be on the 250 again, and maybe try to get the 350 together for Stockton in August.
I bought a 75 xl350 beater this winter and have played with it a little bit. Got it running with no trouble, but its a little noisy on the top end. I'm holding off the total teardown until I get it running proper on a 36mm Mikuni carb and get a gasket set. Its no rocket at all... but there is definitely more torque at lower rpm's than my 250. You can feel that smooth "heavy flywheel" power... good for flattrack!
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Post by kawasakifreak77 on Feb 28, 2011 20:16:41 GMT -5
At first I was a bit nervous too, my top end ticks a bit. After we checked the valves, tuned everything up & she's running strong I'm hoping they're just like that.
I know some older bikes sound loose, maybe the XL too?
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Post by tsmiley98 on Feb 28, 2011 23:40:04 GMT -5
Kyle, look into an XL 250 flywheel that is a cheap way to get some weight off and help acceleration. The best is the TL 250 flywheel that are hard to find, was looking for one for a long time, but there may be a new ignition in my bike too this year.. .
my bike ticks a little too, jsut seems to be that way.. as long as teh valves are adjusted you should be good..
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