1984 Honda XR200R Rebuild

Similar to pic

I actually started motorcycling as a kid.  My first bike was a 1976 Honda CR125 that I bought from a friend  in high school for $75.00.  I was 15 years old at the time and didn't even have a driver's license.  The bike wasn't running and I pushed it about 10 miles to my house.  Over the next year I took it apart,  honed the cylinder head,  put new rings on it,  gaskets,  plugs, wires,  and got it running.  We had a farm that I would run it around on but I would also run it on the streets.  Where we lived most of the streets were still dirt roads.  I didn't have a car license or motorcycle license or a proper helmet,  and the bike certainly wasn't certified for the street.  This would have been 1981 or 82.  That's just how we rolled back then.

Getting out of high school,  I worked on my father's car lot where we used to buy, sell, restore cars trucks bikes RVs snowmobiles Etc.  So we always had a few motorcycles around.  Back in those days none of the salesman on the lot had motorcycle licenses because we would never keep the bikes long enough and back then the plates used to be attached to the vehicle so you wouldn't have to register anything in your own name.  So we would just adopt a bike or car as a daily driver until we sold it.

Eventually the landlord that owned the lot where we had the car dealership sold it from under us and we moved all the vehicles on to our farm.  My father retired and I got out of the business.   It was during my car lot days that I met my wife (then girlfriend)  and later we had kids, so I was away from restoring cars and bikes for sometime.

Getting back into bikes,  I wanted something light enough for the kids to run around on but also large enough for the road. Insurance was another factor since insurance companies go by cc's.

Pickin up bike

Since you can't really take a "road bike" off road, I thought Dual Sport would best fit this application.

Another factor in the decision was it had to be a 4 stroke bike which means the oil and gas are separate. No need for trying to get the right mixture of oil and gas necessary on 2 stroke motors. The 4 strokes are smoother, quieter and more reliable.

Having owned several Hondas in past, I found a 1984 XR200R. This bike has the RFVC engine (Radial Four Valve Chamber). It's a great design. The spark plug sits in the middle of the valves like a hemi design engine allowing for a very even spark / explosion in the chamber.



By using two valves for intake and two for exhaust, they were able to use smaller valves and increased overall diameter, allowing for more air gas mixture to flow and exhaust to exit easier.

My son Alex on bike on trailer

Because you have more diameter in the valves, they also do not need to open as much to create the same air flow AND, since it has two intake and two exhaust valves, it also has Two Carbs and two Exhaust pipes, which lead back into one.

The Dual carb setup is great! The first carb opens until about 1/2 throttle, then the 2nd carb opens (mechanically) giving the best of both worlds, gas saving at low rpms and lots of flow when needed.

Restoration begins

The bike was running when I got it and had been previously licensed for the road. I restored it and added a Baja Lighting kit.

Lots of cold nights in our unheated garage over the winter. Some nights was as cold as -25C! Holding tools, even with gloves on at that temperature, pulls the heat from your hands. I used a Heat Gun to revive my fingers and toes every 45 min or so.

The tires were in good shape but I bought and installed TrailWings Dual Purpose tires. Smoother, better traction on the road and still good for trails.

Next I removed the wheels, unmounted the tires, cleaned up the rims, installed new rim tape, new rim lock on the back (front was ok)

thats me

before

after

thenI installed the new Trail wings. Pretty kewl huh?

Don't forget this piece. It stops the rear axle bolt from loosening up.

 Then I had the stator rewrapped. This seems like a fairly simple straight forward task but it has to be done right. Same amount of wraps no each pole. They used thicker gauge wire to provide more amps but left two poles open (as stock) because wrapping more poles would add watts which could burn things out, wires, fuses etc. After rewrapping, they seal it with some sort of glue which has to cure.

The specifications for the Baja Lighting kit said that this bike does NOT need a stator re-wrap but I found it did. The options was buying a rebuilt stator from the US but the dollar difference and shipping ended up the same cost as having it re-wrapped here in Canada.

The engine had recently been rebuilt and the size of the head is over stock 68mm vs 64. I don't think you can bore a cylinder that much so I assume that the head is a "BigBore kit"

I took everything apart, cleaned it all up, installed new main gasket.. This valve cover gasket was steel so nothing wrong with it. I cleaned it up and reused it.

 still cold!

Here you can see the piston and cylinder are practically new.

 new main gasket

68mm diameter of new cylinder 

before

Cleaned up the head ready for new gasket..

Here's the valve chamber after clean up. You can see the unique design of the Radial Four Valve Chamber (RFVC) engine...

after

Stator and valve head.. actually tried it with the original stator, found it wasn't enough power, then had it re-wrapped.

 dual carbs clean up..

Replaced the main drive oil seal
(it's 20x36x7mm as I found out the hard way after ordering one for XR200.. it came and was 34mm in diameter)

Took the carbs apart....

 cleaned every hole in the atomizers... 

 put WD40 in the jets and blew them out with the air hose.

Bought and installed new seals for the float bowls.

below is the Baja Design lighting kit as it comes packaged. You can see how well the reflectors work.. that looks like the tail light is on but there is no power there, just reflection.

Also lubricated the cables and installed new grips, and touched up some painted areas for cosmetics. So now it looks and runs well. Starts 1st or 2nd kick!

Below is finished product May 2015

oh wait I forgot to mention I bought and installed a new Trailtech bike computer too! reads in KM/H and MPH, records overall distance, two trip meters, clock etc and the numbers are large so you can check your speed at a glance! AND mirrors!

Questions? Leave comments below.

best, Phil