XR600 Street Tracker Update

Since I sold the street tracker, the new owner's been busy. He stripped the bike down, got stuff powdercoated black, added the fork gators, added a euro baja light. Fortunately he kept the tank and my seat work original. Hoping he will send me some more pics, but here's a preview.

Street Tracker Part 13 - Almost Done

I've spend quite a bit of time lately just getting all the small things done. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but I finished the exhaust, made a brake light and license plate bracket, finished the wiring with the exception of the brake light switch and finished the seat cover. It's a bit louder that I would have liked and it sounds like a helicopter but it was good to hear it run. Just need to throw a chain on it, add a fuel filter and fork oil and she'll be ready to roll.

Street Tracker Part 12 - Seat Pan and Fender

Worked on the seat pan for the past 2 days. I don't have any sheet metal forming tools like an english wheel or even a shot bag, so trying to shape metal is pretty difficult. Turned out ok though. Now I need to figure out how to mount it to the frame. I hate making little brackets but it's 1 step closer to getting done.

Street Tracker Part 11 - Seat Frame and Tank Mounts

Well I finally got the tank all mounted. Ordered some bungs from my favorite bung dealer. Couple bungs, little flat bar and some bolts and there you go. The sub frame is just tacked in there. Is it perfect? Not at all. Do I care? Not a bit. I just want to ride. I could spend a few day just on getting the frame perfect but I just don't have the motivation. Anyway, it doesn't look too bad.

Street Tracker Part 10 - Another Frame and More Tires

Well I ran into some problems. After looking and looking for an 18" rear wheel that actually fit, I went back to Cycle Salvage and looked around. Ended up walking out the door with a 1987 XR600R roller in really good condition for $75. So got it home and chopped up. I ended up buying a 17x5.10 tire for the rear so I could use the stock wheel. I also picked up a 18x4.60 for the front because I was still getting rub even after I shaved the forks.

Also spent several hours today cutting the gas tank apart and making a new bottom and tunnel. It's a ton of work and I'm not great at it. Stitching the sheet metal together with a MIG is another huge challenge. Now I need to make my mounts and seal the tank. It's progress.

Here's a pic of my growing bone yard. Maybe I should sell some of the parts?

Street Tracker Part 9 - Tires and Wheels Done!

Picture speaks for itself.

Street Tracker Part 8 - Choppin the Tank - Lacing the Wheel

Got the tank to sit how I want it to today. Only problem is that I had to cut out the tunnel to get it that way. Just need to go buy some sheet so I can bend up a new one and get that baby welded in there.

Also got my spokes today. Laced up the wheel in a couple hours. Would have been a lot faster but because the rim is for a rear hub, the nipple holes are at a different angle so on one side you get a little bowing which in turn makes it tough to get the spokes threaded on to the nipples. Once I got the wheel all laced up, I just wasn't comfortable with 9 of the spokes not seating nicely because of the angle of the front hub. Tomorrow I'm just going to loosen all the spokes again, take out those 9 and drill the holes so the angle is less extreme. Never too early to get your son started building wheels.

Street Tracker Part 7 - Lowered the Forks

Pulled the forks apart today. PO had a fork kit in it with new springs and 4" preload spacers. I added in 4" lowering spacers and assembled the forks without the putting the preload spacers back in. It's a little squishy so I might put them back in. I can't tell if it's the height I was going for. Don't want it to look stupid low. Afterall it still has dirt bike suspension. After mulling over the height for a while, I went back out and added another 1.5" spacer to each fork. The height looks much better now plus a rode the tubes up in the triple tree a bit as well. I'll post an updated picture of it tomorrow.

Street Tracker Part 6 - Lowrider

Spent today grinding off the leftovers from the frame. Removed the swingarm first to give me easier access.  Also picked up another rear shock because my XR250 rear shock ended up being the same length. Couple shots of the progress. The new shock lowered the rear nicely and I threw a ratchet strap on the front to see how much I'll need to lower it. Looks to be about 3.5".

Street Tracker Part 5 - Progress

I started tearing into the bike today. Interesting thing happened though. Once I took off the headlight, I checked the neck and guess what it said?... Not 1986 XR600R but 1983 XR500R! Yeah that kind of pisses me off. The guy who sold it to me said that it has the XR600R motor. I don't think he was being dishonest when he sold me the bike. I think that he's just had it for so long that he thought it was the 86 cause that's the motor it has. Would I still have bought it knowing that it's a 1983 frankenbike? Probably. Would I have paid $950 for it still? Probably not. So easy to get duped on craigslist.

There were two big changes between 1983 and 1986 other than just 3 years. First, the 500cc motor was replaced with the 600cc. The other big change was they added an aluminum swingarm. I would much rather have the aluminum swingarm just for the weight. Should have been able to get this bike for at least  $100 less.

Oh well. My bad for not double checking the title before I left. On with the destruction

Street Tracker Part 4 - Got the Foundation for my Tracker

So I just bought the 1985 XR600R. Got if from a real nice guy on craigslist. This is one fast bike. I understand now why it's the king of Baja. Let the deconstruction begin!

Street Tracker Part 3 - Collecting Parts

So I ordered my tires today. Picked up tubes, a spoke wrench, the rear wheel for my front. Also of course have my tank and light. Man, I'm just tearing through the list.

Street Tracker Part 2 - Cost Breakdown

Sat down today and started working the overall cost to build my street tracker. The list below pretty much gets most of it. Things it doesn't cover: registration, insurance, tubes, small parts, tune up items. But it serves to show how cheap this can actually be.

Some more details about the front wheel. I wanted to go with an 18" front and rear wheel and mount 5.10x18 tires. It's really freakin hard to find an 18" front wheel. So from Vintage Cycles I bought a rear wheel from an XR and I ordered spokes from Buchanan Spokes. Once they get here, I'll lace my front hub up to the rear rim. Should be pretty sweet. I'll make sure to document the whole process. I can lace up a bicycle wheel so I don't imagine a motorcycle should be any harder...guess I should add a spoke wrench to the list.

Street Tracker Part 1 - The XR600 Street Tracker Project

Ever since I sold the bike, I've been thinking about riding this summer. I must ride! But what could I do that's cheap. I set up some criteria:

1. Must be cheap
2. Minimal amount of fabrication
3. Reliable
4. Readily available cheap parts

Then after stopping in at Pro Power Performance to catch up with Todd and Adam, Todd said that he thought it would be cool to have a Street Tracker style bike. My first thought was, "what the hell's a Street Tracker". So I googled it and sure enough, it's pretty bad ass. In addition, the whole concept meets my criteria. One of the first bikes I ran across online was a 1985 XL600R. The picture above is the Roc Street Tracker found at http://street-tracker.blogspot.com/. It started life as a 1985 XL600R.

Pretty cool huh? Well just so happens a 1985 XR600 is for sale here and I'm gonna buy it! He wants $1100 but $900 is in my budget. Hoping he comes down. That's a pretty cheap start. I even picked up a tank to use. It's from a early 70's Harley Aeramacchi.