2021 Honda CR500AF Two Stroke & 1989 CR500 MEGA Build! - Dirt Bike Magazine

#motocross #twostroke #dirtbike
We had the opportunity to ride two beautiful two strokes at Glen Helen Raceway for the day with Nik Gubert . One was built to give viewers an idea of what a 2021 CR500 would look like in the modern era. The other was built for good measure and stayed much closer to its original concept in 1989. Editor Ron Lawson walks you through these two mega builds and the parts that were thrown on to make them sing. This is a story and a little bit less of the typical two stroke sound and music videos that you are accustomed to. We hope you find this as entertaining as we did on test day.



Some more about the builds.
One represented bikes of a bygone era and another was from a time that hasn’t yet come–and probably never will. Nic Gubert of NLAB Studios built them both. First, he teamed up with Italian fabricator Andrea Rapaccioli to create a hybrid with a 1996 Honda 500 motor in a modern aluminum Honda chassis. The bike is a work of fine art, as you might expect when a graphic artist teams up with an engineer. But in the past, we’ve seen beautiful 500AF Hondas that didn’t work as well as the originals. To see exactly how this one worked, Nic also built a more authentic 1999 CR500 with the original steel frame.We’ve seen some other attempts at mounting 500 motors in early aluminum frames that didn’t go well. The increased rigidity of those first aluminum frames made bikes that were even more difficult to ride. It turned out those flexy steel frames of 1986 were a good match for the brutish two-stroke powerbands. Now, advancements in suspension and chassis design are allowing 500s another chance. Gubert shipped a 2018 Honda chassis and a 1996 motor to Rapaccioli in Cortemaggiore, Italy to be pieced together, and then Covid 19 hit and the whole project went on the back burner.The steel-frame CR500R was assembled simply because Gubert had accumulated so many spare parts in the process of building his hybrid. At one point, he placed an ad for a spare motor because he wanted an electrical system. A more or less complete ‘89 model materialized and he jumped on it. The process of restoring an original 500 is in some ways more difficult than fabricating one with a modern chassis. It’s very difficult to find authentic parts. In vintage racing circles, there’s a big difference between a display bike and a race bike. If you find perfect original parts, you don’t want to wear them out. Gubert’s steel bike was intended to be a racer, which meant he would not concern himself with finding the period-correct stock parts. That’s how it ended up with a desert fuel tank and aftermarket fenders.Our first day with the 500s went as these projects often go. There were teething problems. The modern 500 hybrid astounded everyone by starting on the first kick. The other one was more stubborn. When they eventually ran, familiar issues began to emerge. We didn’t realize how drastically ergonomics have changed over time. Sitting on the hybrid felt normal. The bars were in the right place, the seat/tank junction was flat and the overall layout felt normal. The traditional 500 felt completely foreign. The seat seemed to drop you into a pocket. In order to shift your weight forward, you didn’t necessarily scoot forward as much as lean. In the seated position, it seemed like the bars were high. In the standing position, they felt droopy and low.Clearly, you could get used to all those things. David Bailey rode pretty well on a bike that was laid out just like that. The other 500 took less adjustment time, but it was still hard to ride them back to back. By the time we were done, we developed respect for both bikes, but found them very difficult to compare. The whole story will appear in the September 2021 print edition of Dirt Bike.



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