The venerable Honda XR80
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:25 pm
I've got an XR80 that had been sitting around for a few years before we picked it up for one of my kids to play around on. She didn't take to riding it (there are bugs in the woods) so it sat around for another few years until yesterday when I finally pulled it out to clean it up. It was having some carb issues when I first got it and it was just a loaner at that time so I cleaned out the pilot jet and called it good enough. Well, it wasn't good enough and the contents of the float bowl leaked all over the floor. The float assembly was kind of twisted and I figured I might as well rebuild the thing so I hit ebay for a kit. It turns out that you can get an entire Chinese made replacement carb for about $15. Even if that didn't work out I figured it was cheap so I bought it.
The carb seems to be a pretty good copy of the original keihin. I mounted it up, threw in a new air filter, put some of the gas for my beta into it, and the thing started up on the 2nd kick. There's something to be said for the old XRs and similar air-cooled bikes. So simple and hard to screw up. I started on a 78 XR75 myself and thought it was a great bike (way better than the briggs and stratton powered minibike that preceded it). Even after taking the top end apart and putting it back together it still ran (I was curious what it looked like inside).
Later on I got an XR350. The guy I bought it from had done the valves himself, switching the intake and exhaust valves. He must have run it until it stopped making noise and then sold it to the first sucker who came along. In spite of the valves being wrong the bike just kept running and I put a lot of hours on it. I didn't know there was anything wrong with the motor until I gave the bike away and the next guy rebuilt the motor. There had been some contact that you could see but, like I said, the bike still ran strong (comparable to my brother's xt350).
Anyway, now I've got this 2003 XR80 and no little kids to ride it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it... It does still need an oil change.
The carb seems to be a pretty good copy of the original keihin. I mounted it up, threw in a new air filter, put some of the gas for my beta into it, and the thing started up on the 2nd kick. There's something to be said for the old XRs and similar air-cooled bikes. So simple and hard to screw up. I started on a 78 XR75 myself and thought it was a great bike (way better than the briggs and stratton powered minibike that preceded it). Even after taking the top end apart and putting it back together it still ran (I was curious what it looked like inside).
Later on I got an XR350. The guy I bought it from had done the valves himself, switching the intake and exhaust valves. He must have run it until it stopped making noise and then sold it to the first sucker who came along. In spite of the valves being wrong the bike just kept running and I put a lot of hours on it. I didn't know there was anything wrong with the motor until I gave the bike away and the next guy rebuilt the motor. There had been some contact that you could see but, like I said, the bike still ran strong (comparable to my brother's xt350).
Anyway, now I've got this 2003 XR80 and no little kids to ride it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it... It does still need an oil change.