My FT500/CBR600 Hybrid Project...

[J6G1Z]

A while back I had the chance to pick up a lightly crashed FT500. The bike had about 29K on the odometer & was involved in a low speed dump on its right side. Fortunately the gas tank, fenders, number plates, seat & tail-piece escaped unscratched. This bike was a perfect candidate to modify & customize however I wanted. One of the first things I did, was to remove the broken & bent pieces & then scrub all the grease & grime that I could off the bike.

I then went about learning what options for a suspension upgrade was available. I learned that the early Honda Interceptor & the early Hurricane front forks would slide right up into the OEM Ascot triple clamps. In my opinion the early CBR600 Hurricane is the better option of the two, due to the fact that the Hurricane rear wheel will also fit into the Ascots swingarm giving you matching 17" wheels on each end. Here is a previous post on swapping the Hurricane parts onto the Ascot chassis. http://ascot500.com/index.php?topic=16.0

I tend to work in bursts as money & parts become available & then I'm stuck in neutral for a while until I save up & buy more parts. Lately I have been working on small things like an aluminum "Dash" for the new Trail Tech Vapor that will mount to the upper triple clamp. I have also fabricated an aluminum strap to act as a rear brake caliper stay. I bought a reverse megaphone muffler & a 7" round headlight assembly with turn signals & mounting brackets from EMGO. These are nice parts & really look good on the bike. I also picked up a black rear license plate frame that has LED brake, tail & turn signals built into the perimeter to clean up the back end of the bike. http://www.cyclegear.com/CycleGear/Accessories/Add-ons/Other-Add-ons/brand/SPEEDMETAL/LED-License-Plate-Frame/p/44045_59408 Here's a few pics.

[J6G1Z]

Here's a few pics of the EMGO reverse megaphone on the bike & the rear brake stay that I made. The bottom picture shows the round headlight & the turn signals.

The reverse megaphone really gives the bike some bark & sounds quite authoratative!

[J6G1Z]

Here's a couple of pics that somewhat show the stance of the bike. I don't know how much lower the bike is now, but the sidestand still works... barely. I ordered some Hagon shocks for the back that are 1/2" shorter than the OEM shocks, so that will lower the back a bit more. A couple of my original goals were to lower the bike & remove as much weight out of it as possible without going crazy with the drill. So far I have removed the front & rear fender assemblies, the air-box, the heavy original muffler, the left side passenger peg assembly & most of the right side peg also, the rear frame handle on the right side, plus a few other odds & ends. The center stand will be removed after I'm done working on the bike & the heavy original battery will be replaced by a compact battery that only weighs 3lbs. Once I have mounted the new shocks & the new tires, I will roll the bike up to my original FT500 and measure the ground clearance difference. I'd like to find a large scale & weigh the two bikes also. Well, here are the last two pictures for today.

Thanks
J6G1Z

[J6G1Z]

Well... The big brown Santa truck stopped by today & dropped off a few toys.

I now have a new pair of Hagon shocks & a new ultra compact AntiGravity battery. The Hagon shocks are really nice, but the battery is incredible! It feels like a toy it's so lightweight. I took a few pics so you guys could see how small the battery really is.

Now I need to fab up a battery box & have it welded to the cross bar behind the engine case.

J.

[FT500R]

The stance of the bike looks great.

Everything looks very clean on it, great work!

[J6G1Z]

Thanks. Actually the bike is still kind of dirty, but the pics don't show the chain spooge & road grime that I failed to remove. I'll get her back on the road & ride it for a while to see how well it works, then blow her apart again & really clean it up.

J.

[FT500R]

I just noticed on the pictures you were missing one shock, good thing you bought new ones 
The ride height seams about the same as mine with the cbr900 forks, although I think the 900 forks should be considerably shorter than your 600s.

IMHO you should lower the headlight, now it sticks out above the top yoke, I would keep it just in the center between the two yokes.

I'm curious about you're findings on the road.
keep it up!

[J6G1Z]

I had the headlight centered between the triple clamps until I mounted up my horn. Right now the headlight is a bit high & I plan to lower it about another 1.5 inch.

The shock was missing because it didn't fit any longer with the new brake caliper bracket. Fortunately the new shocks are smaller in diameter than the OEM shocks & everything clears now.

Thanks for the comments. I can't wait to ride it, but I still need new brake lines, brake pads & tires.

J.

[J6G1Z]

Here's a pic of the back end of the bike with the LED brake/tail/turn signal lighted license plate frame. I think it really cleans up the back end & I will no longer kick the right rear turn signal when getting on or off the bike. You will have to excuse the overly wide rear 160 series tire. That will go away soon.

Thanks
J.

[J6G1Z]

I've been searching for a welder to perform some fabrication/welding on my bike & finally found a good one today. G&S Welding out of Boring, Or. knocked out the welding of my battery box & the modification/welding of my foot-pegs & kickstand in an hour & a half. Some bike shops that I had visited quoted me a whole day of labor with a week or two to get the job done.

Anyway... Here is what I had done. I had purchased one of these battery box kits off of eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321194581917?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_1036wt_932
I had this box welded to the cross-bar right behind the engine so the battery would be lowered & centered in the frame as much as possible. This battery reduces the bikes weight & will help lower the bikes center of gravity.

[J6G1Z]

I also had the foot-pegs modified with some KTM off road pegs. This raised the pegs to provide more ground clearance for cornering. If the pegs still hit in the corners, I will adapt some GSXR600 rear-sets for more clearance.

[J6G1Z]

The other problem that I had, was the kickstand length. Now that the bike has been lowered a couple of inches the side stand was too long & had the bike standing almost vertical. I had the bracket that holds the rubber part removed & a half an inch sectioned out of the stand. Now when the side stand is down the bike leans to the left like it should.

...And that's about it for now. The Mail Man just dropped off my new brake pads & braided stainless steel brake lines. It will be nice to have brakes again.

Thanks
J.

[J6G1Z]

Well I had some time today along with some new parts to play with. My order of braided stainless steel brake lines & new brake pads came in. I had to order custom length lines to fit & they ended up being perfect. Spiegler really makes some nice brake lines. I went with a two line kit for the front & of course a single line for the back. I ordered 90 degree ends on the front lines so the lines would leave the master cylinder & follow along the handlebar.

I had to replace the front master cylinder due to crash damage. Instead of buying another Ascot master, I found a Brembo master cylinder off of a 2001 Ducati Monster 600 for sale on eBay. If you really want to treat yourself to a nice braking system, pick up a Brembo master cylinder. One or two fingers is all you need for a complete stop! Plus I paid less for the Ducati master than the few FT500 Ascot masters that were listed at the time.

[J6G1Z]

As I said earlier... The lines ended up fitting just right. I have one line running up the backside of each fork leg.

A new bottle of Dot 4 brake fluid, my vacuum brake bleeder, plus a little bit of time, had the lines filled & the brakes bled.

[J6G1Z]

Here are a few more pics of the center section & the new battery mounting location after a bit of paint. I still need to clean up the wiring some, plus figure out a spot to mount the starter solenoid. I was able to make use of one of the original airbox mounting tabs to mount my new crankcase breather. It fit like it was meant to be there.

[J6G1Z]

...And here are the newly modified foot-pegs finally mounted up after painting.

That's about it for now.

Thanks
J.

[thumperdh]

Couple of questions/requests.

1. How hard were those KTM footpegs to mount to the FT?

2. Can you provide a few more detailed shots of the modifications you did to the tail section of the bike?

3. Any way we can get a sound clip of that Emgo pipe?

[J6G1Z]

Couple of questions/requests.

1. How hard were those KTM footpegs to mount to the FT?

2. Can you provide a few more detailed shots of the modifications you did to the tail section of the bike?

3. Any way we can get a sound clip of that Emgo pipe?

1. The KTM pegs were welded onto the original pegs. I disassembled the original pegs unti I was down to the round steel peg part. That was cut until it was about 1.5" long, or just long enough to pivot up & down while leaving enough to stick out to weld to. The KTM pegs had a square mounting stub sticking out that we cut off & then set the peg up as high on the Ascot stub as possible & welded them together. You can use pretty much any dirt bike foot-peg. I just liked how big the KTM pegs were & they were cheap on eBay. I think that they were from a KTM380 if I recall correctly.

2. I didn't really do any modifications to the back end or tail section. I removed the end portion of the fender that also houses the tail light & turn signals. I then took some 1" steel strap that I bought from Home Depot & fashioned a flat U shaped extension that bolted to the end of the upper frame rails & extended back to the the end of the OEM Ascot tail piece. I then drilled two mounting holes on each end to bolt to the frame & two holes at the back to mount the LED lighted license plate frame. I'd post a picture of it, but it's at the powder coaters right now. I made a mistake when drilling the mounting to the frame holes. I should have tipped the bracket up at an angle, as it is somewhat visible from the side view.

3. I don't have the computer skills/technology to make & host a sound recording. I doubt that a microphone would like the volume level. Do yourself a favor & spend the extra $'s for the 2-piece megaphone if you plan to ride the bike on the street in public. I will most likely be replacing mine sometime on down the road.

Hope that helps
J.

[J6G1Z]

Well I figured I'm long past due on an update... The Christmas season has put a real damper on progress & the buying of additional parts. I removed the wheels & stripped them of the disks, sprocket & bearings. Then I had them media blasted & powder coated an Aluminum color followed by a 20% gloss clear coat. They turned out pretty nice. I probably should have spent some time smoothing them out with some light grinding & sanding. There are a couple of small dings & scratches here & there. Didn't really know they were even there until the wheels were done. Oh well, I'll know better next time. I picked up a complete set of All Balls wheel bearings off of eBay, along with a pair of Avon Roadrider tires from Amazon.com. I'll be running a 110/70/17 on the front & a 130/70/17 on the rear. My 520 sprockets & chain conversion finally showed up, but unfortunately they sent me a 17 tooth countershaft instead of the 16 tooth that I originally ordered. I went with a smaller 39 tooth rear sprocket, so I'm not real happy with the 17 tooth front sprocket. I am now waiting for the 16 tooth sprocket to arrive. The new 520 chain & sprockets look real nice! The chain is black with nickel plated side plates. It should look real nice on the bike. I plan to weigh the OEM chain & sprockets to compare with the weight of the 520 components. I can tell already that there is quite a bit of difference. I picked up an inexpensive digital thickness gauge from Harbor Freight to measure the wear on the brake disks to see if they were still within spec. The front disks have a minimum thickness of 3.5mm stamped onto the face of the disk. I have one that measured in the 3.9mm range & one that measures in the 3.7mm range. Still within spec, but not by much on one of them. The rear disk is stamped with the minimum thickness spec of 4mm & unfortunately measures in at the 3.5mm range, so it needs to be replaced. I'm not real happy that I have to buy at least one new disk & should probably replace all three. Just more money, right. I am glad that I checked it out though. I thought that all 3 disks looked good enough to use & they're still smooth when you drag a finger nail across the face. Oh well, I'd rather wait a bit longer & do it up right. So to recap... I'm almost ready for the final assembly, except for replacing the brake disks, plus mounting the tires & having them balanced. I'm also waiting for my new countershaft sprocket & I think that's about it. Time & money, that's all it takes, time & money. Below is a few pics of the freshly powder coated wheels & the new 520 chainset from Sidewinder.

Thanks
J.

[DonDDR]

Cool build J. About the rear wheel. I have a F2 rear, its 4.5 inches wide. Will that go in the FT swing arm? What tire size are you using?

Thanks

[thumperdh]

Cool build J. About the rear wheel. I have a F2 rear, its 4.5 inches wide. Will that go in the FT swing arm? What tire size are you using?

Thanks

4.5" rear should slide right in to the FT swingarm.

[J6G1Z]

Cool build J. About the rear wheel. I have a F2 rear, its 4.5 inches wide. Will that go in the FT swing arm? What tire size are you using?

Thanks

Thanks.

I don't know if the 4.5" wide rear tire will fit or not. I'm leaning towards the maybe not. Do you have the original spacers & brake caliper bracket? I can measure the Ascot swingarm width tomorrow if you'd like.

My rear wheel is the first generation CBR Hurricane wheel & is only 3.5" wide. I went with the original OEM recommended size tire for the '89 Hurricane which is a 130 wide. I didn't want a real wide tire on either end as it's just not needed & would slow down the cornering response.

I finally located some replacement brake disks that had more meat on them than the ones that I had. Now I can clean up the disks & begin assembling the wheels. I never thought that it would take me this long, but money is tight & parts are hard to find sometimes.

Good luck
J.

[DonDDR]

I have the wheel but not the spacers and such at the moment. Want to use F2 forks/wheel on the front and rear. Im not against using a Hurricane, but I have the F2 "in stock" now. And  thanks to the guys that race SV650's, good 160 race rubber is now available again. Same rear tire size on my F2 track bike.

[J6G1Z]

When I first mocked up my bike with the Hurricane suspension & wheels, my rear wheel had a 160 wide Harley Davidson tire on it. It would not fit into the swingarm without the tire hitting towards the front right side of the swingarm. I had to cock the axle to the left to make it fit so I could roll it around. I think I've heard that the red race FT500 in the pics in that other thread wears a 150 on the back.

You might be able to fit the rear wheel by narrowing the original spacer on the left & the brake caliper mounting bracket on the right. Just need to keep an eye on sprocket alignment. I've also heard of some wheel swaps having the cush drive machined down some to narrow up the center section. Then you have to be careful that the chain doesn't hit the tire.

The reason that I used the Hurricane front & rear is that it was a complete bolt in affair. The parts slid right in like they were designed for the bike. The only thing that I had to do, was to fabricate a very simple rear brake caliper stay that runs from the caliper down to the swingarm mount.

Good luck
J.

[DonDDR]

Bolt in is good. I am going to use the bike for flattrack so tire width is not a big deal. I just happen to have a F2 4.5 in the garage. From what the guys that road raced the bikes back in the day the XR/XL swing arm is a bolt in (dunno abot the shock mounts tho) due to the FT frame based off the 81 XL500.