After several weeks into this project I realised that so many parts were either incorrect, missing or needed replacing through damage or corrosion. As I looked online for these parts I came across a donor bike, a 1983 XT500 1U6 for sale in Rome. It arrived by courier in July 2020. It was in a mess, without documents but cheap (€1000 plus €280 shipping) considering the prices they fetch these days. It was missing the clocks and bracket, kick start, […]
Rear Foot Pegs While I still waited for some tools to arrive, I continued with removing parts and cleaning them as much as possible ready for painting or plating. I took off the rear foot pegs and discovered a bodge, a quick fix that I made years ago which never got repaired properly. Jamming a bolt in prevented the peg folding downwards when hitting a pothole. Annoying for any passenger, so a weld needed adding to the inside end of […]
I used the OEM rear shock absorbers and springs from the 1U6 doner bike as the ones I had were Hagon. They were rusty as hell but serviceable so the first thing was to dismantle them. One of the tools I don’t have and didn’t buy is a spring compressor. So I used a home made option. First you need to make sure the shocks are adjusted to the lower position. It was much easier dismantling them this way than […]
