The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Honda CR500R Resto Mod – One Niche at a Time

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Honda CR500R resto mod by Jason Meyer
Honda CR500R resto mod by Jason Meyer

Here’s one answer to the “anti-trend” segmentation of the motorcycle market, a 1991 Honda CR500R resto-mod by Jason Meyer. If you look at the photos, you see a spotless, better than new, off road bike built just the way the owner likes it. It’s almost 20 years old and he’s got something you can’t buy in any showroom. Jason has to build on a budget, but this bike looks great, runs great and is ready for endless hours of fun riding in several different off-road environments.

Honda CR500R resto mod by Jason Meyer
Honda CR500R resto mod by Jason Meyer

Jason, a motorcycle mechanic, wants to build, restore and modify bikes of all kinds and customize dirt bikes like this one, so he started a business, MSV Racing, and launched into the build. It’s based on a 1991 CR500R with parts from multiple years, bits from an 07 Kawasaki KX450F and pieces from a 2002 KTM SX. Everything on this bike is restored, customized or new.

My vision was a high power, low noise, “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” that would run on pump fuel and rock the custom bike industry with a fresh idea that is a true show and go piece. The bike is designed to easily switch from torquey off-road/single track riding to hill shooting dune predator in about an hour. A true “Jekyll and Hyde” transformation.

It has 73 horsepower at the crank on pump fuel which, at the light weight of a bike like this, should be sufficient for huge performance and wide smiles.

Jason sent me lots of photos and a very long and complete list of tech specs and, suffice to say, nothing was untouched. There are high quality components throughout and obvious attention to detail.

Jason’s skills look top notch and the bike is sweet. Of course, not everyone wants to ride a dirt bike like this, and that’s the whole point. Jason’s just the kind of guy who could serve that small niche of riders looking for a custom dirt bike, maybe rebuilding the one they already own and he doesn’t have to worry about Honda offering that same service. They have a business that demands they sell bikes and lots of ’em.

On the other hand, this is just the kind of niche focus one particular dealer might want to go after, not this one that Jason is working on, but any narrow niche. No one in the showroom? Start building bikes your customers can’t find anywhere else. Don’t just line up those used bikes and hope for a buyer, make it special and just like new, or better. The number of small specialized niche markets is huge, be the one guy or one shop that turns out something unique. You don’t have to sell ten thousand units, five or six restorations or rebuilds might be nice to get your name out there as the place to go for a certain type of bike and then see if the market responds. Not sure what your customers want and can’t find? Ask them!

Motorcycle companies and many dealers, as well, take a shotgun approach to customers, find any warm body, drag him into the showroom and sell him something. Instead, they might want to narrow down their focus, say, “this is what we do,” and then do it very well. Mass markets are fickle while niche markets tend to have passionate members who will go a great distance to get what they want. Become the place they want to go.

Jason rides, builds bikes and is involved in the business, in the meantime, the motorcycle industry is in the doldrums, listening to crickets in their showrooms. They may not be able to respond to the needs of a guy like Jason with a new model only a relatively small number of riders might want and serve all of their other potential customers, too, so Jason, like many others, simply does it himself, he’s a “doer.”

So, if you’re a builder or dealer, what’s your niche? Pick one, any one, then be the best.

And, Jason, very nice build! I like it.

Honda CR500R and Jason Meyer, the proud builder
Honda CR500R and Jason Meyer, the proud builder

Tech specs below:

ENGINE
Complete lower-end rebuild with Hinson Racing clutch basket
Piston, cylinder, head, intake boot, and exhaust manifold custom ported by Glen at GSS Race Porting
Custom reed cage is a very short-run series designed for hill climbing
Decompression valve by Larry Weishman
Keihin PWK carburetor, 39.5mm, bored to 41.5mm with two-way adjustable throttle
Cylinder and head thermal dispersant coated by NIC Industries
Piston crown and head dome thermal barrier coated by NIC Industries
Piston skirt dry film lubricant coated by NIC Industries
Magura hydraulic clutch with custom handle

FRONT SUSPENSION
2007 48mm inverted, Kayaba AOS with DLC coated fork sliders, 12.4” travel, revalved and sprung by Pro Action, .42kg spring, adjusted for 180-190lb rider
Lower fork tubes smoothed and armor coated
2007 Kawasaki triple clamps smoothed and armor coated
Custom steering stem

REAR SUSPENSION
1991 Showa with updated shock seal head, bottoming bumper, spring adjustor
Smoothed and armor coated

SWING ARM & LINKAGE
Fully welded and smoothed, armor coated

FRAME
1991 Honda CR500R race gusseting, fully welded and smoothed
Custom brackets
One-off custom blue paint

SUB-FRAME
Custom aluminum, 5-lbs lighter than stock

FRONT WHEELS
2007 Kawasaki hub smoothed and drilled for oversized 6 gauge spokes
21 X 1.60” front rim
One-off custom blue paint

REAR WHEELS
1989 Honda hub smoothed and drilled for oversized 5 gauge spokes
18 X 2.5” oversized rear rim
One-off custom blue paint

TIRES
Front 80/100/21 (3.25 X 21)
Rear massive 145/80/18 (5.60 X 18)

FRONT BRAKES
250mm (9.8”) wave rotor
2007 Nissin dual piston caliper and master cylinder with custom handle
Custom Hel stainless brake line

REAR BRAKES
222mm (8.75”) wave rotor
1991 Nissin single piston caliper and master cylinder with custom pedal
Custom Hel stainless brake line

COOLING
1991 Honda radiators with thermal dispersant coatings by NIC Industries
One-off white silicone radiator hoses
Water pump cover thermal dispersant coated
Redline SuperCool coolant
Euro-style silicone hose clamps

STEERING DAMPER
09 Honda HPSD Revalved for increased damping

EXHAUST
Custom “works” expansion chamber ceramic coated by JetHot and port matched to exhaust manifold
Custom muffler and spark arrestor, 96 DB
Custom o-ringed exhaust manifold port matched to cylinder

ELECTRONICS
Trail Tech data center – speed, tachometer, temperature, distance, shift light
Vortex CDI with 10-way adjustable mapping. Switch between max HP and broadest TQ on the fly
AM Racing Monster ignition coil, 34% more energy than stock
Dual source coils

Custom wiring on all of the above

HANDLE BARS
Pro Taper Evo

PLASTICS
2002 KTM SX front fender and front number plate
2007 Kawasaki fork guards
1991 Honda Fuel tank, radiator grilles, shrouds, air box, rear fender, and side number plates
All plastic modified for tighter fitment
Custom hand guards
Custom graphics

PROTECTION
Custom lower glide plate
Custom rear brake rotor guard
Custom rear chain guide and sprocket protector
Custom frame guards and case guard
Custom pipe guard
Custom rear caliper guard

SEAT
Custom pan and seat cover

FASTENERS
Stainless steel

Honda CR500R - it all starts with the frame
Honda CR500R - it all starts with the frame

Comments

  3. Very good work — shows you what can be done with some ingenuity, skill and boxes of parts.
    73 HP at the crank? That’s an honest number. A ring-dinger for the street with that motor would be a true stealth machine.

  4. Awesome looking bike. I can’t believe that 73hp. You can really only use that in dunes or on the street. A supermoto version would be sick.
    Is there a website for his business? I may be looking into a restoration of a ~2000 KTM 380EXC one day, complete with newer frame, plastics, and anything else. He would be a good source.

  5. That is just my cup of tea. I would have covered up the front sprocket so my boots lasted longer and maybe got a set of 17″ wheels as well for street fun but thats just my taste, what isn’t a matter of taste but just obvious is he has done a very tidy job.

  6. Ooh, so want… much. I always play with the idea of (somehow) registering one of these for the street. I know I can do that with an old DT400 but this would be just the ticket.

    -tod

  7. That’s a great looking bike, there’s no denying that. But not quite a new idea. Service honda has been building swapping cr500s into brand new crf250 and kx500s into kxf250 rolling chassis’. most recently they started doing the same with kx and cr 250s since neither brand sells them in the states anymore. I’d like to see this Jason give them a run for their money though. Good luck to him.

  8. “Jason has to build on a budget”… looking at the tech specs that must be one hell of a large budget! :O

    but you’ve gotta love the finished bike. better than new – that is right!

    I’ve gotta wondering how much a build like that would cost… Service Honda are the others that come to mind when talking about CR500… they also use a newer generation frame and some other updated goodies, all for $10,499…

  9. Great build. A CR 500 would make a cool street bike but……. It’s needs a heavier flywheel, rewound stator, dyno time to take the surge out/tuning the pipe, for decent street riding.
    Love to see one street legal in SM trim.

  11. This may be the new trend, Super clean resto/mods. The bikes we wanted/had years ago built/restored into the bikes they no longer make…or never made!!

    You can do it with any style, you cafe street track/cafe pretty much anything. We have seen dual purpose Sporties. Or just build up an old thumper into your go anywhere bike. Cores are cheap, if not free!!

  12. I see old DTs (always been a Yammie guy) all the time on Craigs. Might be time to grab a thumper, rebuild it with metal luggage and modern tires and hit the trails.

  13. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’s an awesome bike. the stats look pretty epic.

    But it looks like just about any other late model off-roader on the market, at least to the casual observer. Now i understand that off-road bikes are subject to a lot of practical design constraints that will never allow them to be the show queens that choppers and street fighters can be, but still. It would be nice if there were something about the bike that said “I’m a custom!” rather than being essentially a sleeper. I feel like even something as easy and tacky as painting the brake calipers red would do the trick, but maybe that’s just me.

    If I owned it, I’d want somebody who saw it on the trail or on a trailer to come up and ask “what is that and what did you do to it?” I personally wouldn’t pay the machine as-is a second glance if I saw it in the real world.

  14. Nicely done! I’ve owned 4 CR500s, all of them had fantastic performance.

    2 of them were street-legal. Believe it or not, you get tired and annoyed riding one of these things on the street. They’re great when accelerating, but surge when cruising. Added attention from The Man doesn’t help, either.

    To me, the real revelation was riding a more modern two-stroke (the CR500 was produced untl 2001, but the last update was 1997). Suspension as come a long way in 13 years. I notice Jason has updated the forks.

    KTM is releasing six-speed 250/300 EXCs and XCs for next year. I am counting my pennies.

  16. Whether an owner modifies a bike for looks, performance, or just to fit his body better, the result is a custom. This is one fine custom.

  17. Nicely done – not sure it qualifies as a “Showbike” in my mind, since most of it is still just off-the-shelf stock parts or aftermarket mixed and matched and pieced together in a different order. Then again, add a fancy paintjob and that pretty much describes 90% of the so-called “Custom” market these days, so what do I know.

    Sure would be a fun ride though, reminds me of the Service Honda conversions (old cr500s in new cr450r chassis and kx500s in kx45r chassis)

  19. 500cc two strokes just give me goosebumps. I would love to own one in SM trim. I’m surprised he gave it more of a Yamaha livery than Honda.

  20. Thanks for all the great comments!

    This bike is very custom. If you don’t know CR500s it’s hard to tell what’s different. You cannot tell the extreme attention to detail in the pictures. 98% of the bike has been customized. Everything has either been smoothed, lightened, strengthened, brushed, painted, drilled, and/or modified in some way.

    The bike can be changed from sand dunes riding to off-road in about an hour. Add weighted fly wheel,1 tooth smaller front sprocket, switch out paddle tire (the three come with bike when sold) and flip the handle bar mounted switch to broadest torque curve setting and you’re ready.

    Service Honda bikes are great. I owned a 2003 CR500AF that I loved. The problem is they build over 200 of these same exact bikes a year. Sure you can throw aftermarket parts at it, but all the other owners could duplicate. My bike is a true custom that is a one-of-a-kind.

    I am all about having something no one else will have. I want to offer people this same idea. Show me what bike you have, the look your after, pick some colors, decide what engine characteristics you want and I am off to create a one-of-a-kind bike for you following your budget. From mild to wild.

    This bike won first place in the Off-Road category at the 2010 Good Vibrations bike show in Salem, Oregon. Go check out MSV Racing Jason Meyer on Face Book for a lot more build and show pics.