Monday 28 December 2020

QR50 - Frame: can't see the wood for the trees

Something has bugged me about this bike for a while, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It started with a Honda publicity picture showing an exciting red dirt bike, typical of their 80's dirt bikes, and a dirty old relic in an ebay picture which strangely gave no hint of Honda's magic.


One day, fitting the silencer and trying to determine the right position relative to the frame and engine I saw what I had been missing. Take a look:



I had been using this picture to scale the size of the silencer:


Seeing it for the first time, I realised why the seat didn't fit properly and how the rear wheel had come to wear a hole in the mudguard. It took half an hour to get the bike off the bench, lift the frame off the engine and remove the forks. 

I put the frame in the vice, holding the rear frame loop on one side and applied some heat - the frame soon moved, and I flipped it over to bend the other side. I made the bends gradually, turning the frame each time so that I could be sure that the bends were going in the right place and that I did not overdo it. 


The seat now fits properly, with the rear bolt holes aligned with the frame lug. 



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