There is joy, enthusiasm and maybe even a hint of passion behind putting a bike back together, especially when it started as a Basket Case. A large number of hours have been spent in research, taking components apart to their last element, cleaning, painting, fixing, adjusting every bit before laying them down on a shelf, ready for action. The parts look nice and, for some, even close to new (beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ha!). They also look impatient to be put back together!
So now, one by one, I’m mounting everything back to the frame. While at first things seem to proceed with ease and speed, the reality is that the devil is in the details. Small problems will become challenges which will take a lot of time to resolve. I know this, and am ready for it. Makes me enjoy even more the moments when parts just snap together!
The first step in putting the XR500 Super Motard together: mounting the engine in the frame. I like the black and red color combination.
Bolting on the swing arm (with new needle bearings), then assembling and mounting the shock absorber linkage, shock unit, air box, and carburetor.
It’s starting to look like a motorcycle. I’m now waiting for the new steering column bearings to arrive and I’ll assemble the fork to the frame. Moving forward we’ll have a series of small steps, each leading to the creation of the XR500 Super Motard.
More pictures to come as the project progresses…
Mike's Basket Case 
This is like a really good book.You stay up all night and keep going and going, then realize it’s 3am Damn I got to get some sleep! But wait , I can slip the motor in real quick so it looks like a bike. Damn 4am, I wonder how it would look with the rear shock in place? Damn!
This is exactly the way Mike works. He gets going and can’t stop!
at least, the end results(so far) are superbe and I can’t wait to test that beast at my next trip to CO.
Roland
Thanks guys — getting plenty of satisfaction working on this project. Things are coming together but there are also a few hiccups which I haven’t mentioned yet. One is related to how the carburetor is mounted and how it doesn’t align properly with the air box — a side effect of not having an ’82 motor in the ’82 frame (the ’81 and on motors had a reed valve system on the intake side which positioned the carburetor quite differently). I have an idea on how to modify the intake though to make it work and will post once I have the machining done and hopefully the carburetor pointing in the appropriate direction!
The red-black-silver combination sera parfaite. Ca va être un vrai petit bijou. Nous nous posons la question: quand as-tu fait tout ce travail? Pendant la nuit? C’est absolument excitant de voir la tranformation de ce tat de ferraille rouillé en une moto. Je dois dire que nous sommes très fier de toi!
http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/xr/48864-xr500r-restoration-1982-a.html