The Super Scrambler

When I was in college back in the late 80's and early 90's I would buy one or two motorcycles each winter and turn them into cafe racers.  Winter is the best time to get a good deal on a mechanically sound bike that is just sitting in someone's garage.  If it runs great and has a title all the better.  I like to buy bikes that are super ugly and rework them to look and perform better.

This Honda xr600r was is great mechanical condition, but the decals and colors looked terrible!

Here is a project I did in the summer of 2015.  I was looking for a mid seventies dirt bike to restore and then started seeing the Honda xr bikes for sale.  I liked the idea of having an older bike, but the new bikes are more reliable and parts are cheaper and more easily found.

Big ugly rear view mirrors and headlight assembly.

New Super Moto Rims and Pirelli Corsa Tires

The first step in the rebuild was to strip off all of the plastic.  My daughter and I then went to Steeles Motorcycle in Denver to find a different tank, speedo, and headlight.  When I first saw this bike I immediately thought it would look cool as a mid-seventies Scrambler on Steroids.

The Super Scrambler - This is a one cylinder bike.  It is pretty loud and has a ton of torque!  

The headlight and speedo came from mid-seventies bikes.  they were found at Steeles Motorcycle in Denver, not sure what they came off of - we dug around for hours looking for them.  Fitting the tank and seat took a bit of time in order to get the lines right.  I took the original seat and cut it down a bit to get the shape I wanted then I covered it with grey vinyl.  I was originally think of a darker grey or black, but the light grey looked pretty good.

The tank is from a mid-seventies cl350.  It was painted gold, I was planning to sand off all of the paint and just clear coat the metal. When I started sanding off the gold I found the original red paint and orange primer, it looked cool so I only partially sanded off the paint on the sides of the tank.

The SUPER SCRAMBLER is one of the best looking, funnest bikes I've ever owned. It is a Thumper Extreme dirt bike that is street legal and is set up for the road!!  With the super moto set up with Sun Rims and Pirelli Corsa tires you bomb up the canyons and get your heart racing, or rip around town.  It is exhilarating to ride, and there is a lot of staring because this one of a kind bike looks like a mid-seventies scrambler on steroids!  

The bike is reliable because the XR is one of the most dependable bikes ever built by Honda.  I was the second owner and the bike came to me with super low hours for twenty year old bike, I put about 800 miles after turning it into a scrambler.

Here are the specs:
1996 xr600r
600 cc single cylinder
Scott Steering Stabilizer
Sun Rims with Pirelli Corsa Tires
New custom seat vinyl
FMF Mega Max Pipe - With spark arrest