SR500 Café Project Some assembly required.

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This project started out with the intention of going through a used 1978 SR500, both customizing it to my taste and reducing weight as much as possible. This was not a cost is no object project but rather one run on a limited budget so used parts and home fabrication were used whenever possible. I stuck my neck out and purchased this bike at an ebay auction and feel I came out all right on the deal. The bike came with a White Brothers 36 mm carb kit, SuperTrap exhaust system, braided stainless steel brake line, new tires, sprockets and chain. It had some piston slap so the engine came out for a top end rebuild I also installed new swing arm bushings, used vintage Fox gas shocks, used cafe seat, used plastic front fender and a new universal cafe fairing.

Here is a list of parts removed or changed to reduce weight: Used aluminum silencer (from ebay) built my own baffles the header is a SuperTrap -11.5. Seat, rear fender and tail light assembly were replaced with a used fiberglass cafe seat (from ebay), I made brackets out of T-6 aluminum strap for the new tail light and license plate which hangs off the bottom of the cafe seat -6.8. The tach, tach cable, ignition switch and right side kill switch were removed, the Speed-o was centered with aluminum brackets -2.7. I made my own drag bars from 7/8" T-6 aluminum tubing -2.1. The center stand, tool box, tool kit and skid plate were removed -6.5. The stock air box and clamps were removed -2.6. The battery box, battery and hardware + the front and rear turn signals were removed -10.8. The chain guard, side covers, passenger pegs were removed -3.5. Aluminum rear sprocket replace the steel one -1. All mounting tabs and brackets were removed including the left side passenger peg mount, center stand brackets and rear upper frame section (frame section was removed so cafe seat could be correctly mounted with aluminum strap) -3. I'm using an aluminum Road Gear bicycle mirror -.3. Bobbed plastic front fender from a Suzusiki 650 bolts right up -2.6.

Total weight reduction = 53.4 pounds.
Note: cafe fairing adds back 2.6 pounds.

Here are links to various projects:

• Light weight handle bars
• Cafe seat
• Home build rear sets
• Customized muffler
• Custom lacquer paint job in a can
• Cafe fairing
• Completed project photos

T.Messenger 1/16/03