XR500R 1983 WITH NEWER USD FORKS

[Sandblaster]

A local customer Nick has a 83 XR500R.
He want's to get a newer front end on his bike.
So we started looking at some CR125/CR250 front end to see what was easy to put on.
What we found is that the 89-91 CR250 triple clamps bolts right up and the bearings fit perfect.
That means you would need the triple clamps, forks, front wheel, front axle and at least the front brake caliper.
I would probably opt to replace the entire brake with a newer master cylinder as well.
I think you can use the CRF250R's and CRF450R's front master cylinder which gives a stronger more positive feel yet...

xr500r frame with 91 cr250 usd forks.JPG (59.56 KiB) Viewed 3429 times

Since those years of parts are inexpensive that would be a easy swap to do.
However, if you wanted something more modern I believe it would be possible.
However, anything beyond 91 requires having a custom stem made.
The newer triples use larger bearings.
If your good with a lathe, no problem.
If your not good with a lather you could probably have it done but I would guess it would cost 100 USD or a lot more depending on if you had a guy do a G job for you or if you paid a full service machine shop to do it.

[Sandblaster]

Nick came into the shop today and I discovered that you could use the stem from the 02 cr125/cr250 but, you would have to machine it down for the bearings and nuts to fit.
Since the 02 stem is hollow I figured that it would be too thin to turn down.
So, I measured the hole diameter in the stem for the xr500.
They were within .15mm or .006"
Seems good enough, just don't go hucking 100' gaps with your Mulisha buddies on your converted xr500r