Deus "Malachi Crunch"
Deus "Malachi Crunch" | |
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"Malachi Crunch" by Deus
The Malachi Crunch
by
From its launch in 1978, Hondas
XL500 quickly marked its territory, even with its comically large 23
inch front wheel and far too much weight for serious competition,
the big XL won fans with its bulletproof engine, stump pulling grunt
and stability in the rough. Plus, if you squinted just right it
seemed only a hot cam away from its performance oriented XR
brethren.
Having been looking for a street
legal machine that they could rip around the streets of Tokyo on and
also campaign in local vintage moto cross and the Chirihama Sand
Flats race events, the XL500 was high on our list of candidates. So
when Deus Japans Director of Motorcycle Operations Matthew Roberts
got wind of a cleaner than usual example, he snapped it up.
Compared to the monster two strokes
of the era that demanded total attention and nerves of steel to
avoid a trip to the hospital, the Honda just makes you smile. Its
somewhat of Clydesdale easy to ride and delivering great bucket
loads of torque from idle, so the approach was to shed some weight
and give it capable suspension front and rear. Let the engine shine
and make the beast a force to be reckoned with, on-road or off,
something that could take the fight to the likes of the legendary
Yamaha HL500.
After hitting the VMX race
regulation books to decipher which elements they could go to town on
and still be eligible for entry, a course was chartered and the
search for suspension travel, handling and style began. We had to
keep the engine and main frame, drums at both ends and twin shocks,
but beyond that we could pretty much walk on the wild side.
Up front a set of late 80s XR600
forks have been grafted on, machining the stem and yokes to allow
the standard steering bearings and head stock to be retained. These
43mm stanchions now offer full adjustability while ridding the
equation of flex, very handy for when rider and machine meet
terraferma. Getting decent air was never much a problem on these
big singles, surviving the landing, however, was another matter
entirely laughs Roberts.
To curb unsprung mass, a KX 250
front hub was overhauled then laced to an alloy 21 inch rim for
improved handling and greater tire selection. A one off adaptor was
fabricated to enable the Kawasaki drum hub to make friends safely
with the disc spec fork lower. At the back an overhauled KLR hub and
alloy rim offers similar reduced mass but still offer a small cush
drive, to help soften the hefty pulses the 497cc single piston
pushes out.
Out the
back, most is bespoke. Rear suspension geometry has been completely
reworked and now more closely resembles a Suzuki RM than an Honda
XL, with almost 200mm of usable travel. The sub-frame was also
created with a mind to cleaner lines, wheel clearance and increased
peg to seat height, the original seat and frame had several odd
angles going on. A custom swing arm maintains close to standard
wheel base (important for road registration in Japan) while custom
specification Ikon alloy gas shocks and springs take care of road
holding. Radical suspension geometry changes can sometimes be a bit
of black art, especially when calculations are designed for maximum
travel plus a bit of extra anti-squat built in. Shake down sessions
pleasantly surprised though, with the team only mulling over
dropping the swing arm pivot shaft a few millimetres to get things
just the way they like it.
Retaining the XLs bullet proof
internals was always a priority, and race regulations precluded the
use of their go-to FCR carb set up. So nothing more than a quick
freshen up was deemed necessary. The standard carb, now fed through
a K&N pod filter, was rejetted to suit the one off exhaust which
features larger diameter headers mating up to a stainless megaphone
nestled neatly under the rear frame rail. Roberts confirms the pipe
has ticked all three boxes of looking good, sounding great and
riding hard.
Seat base and side covers are
one-offs in epoxy composite, shaped and created in-house, before the
saddle was given simple period proportions and upholstered in kind.
The XL frame is no custom builders friend when it comes to alternate
tank choice, its high headstock necessitating extensive reworking of
curves before having everything sitting right with matching lines.
Paint is a little more extravagant than your standard race bike,
with multiple layers of clear, vintage white, black and matte clear
setting off its compact curves. The extra effort was rewarded,
however, with a finished result sporting a healthy dose of early
motocross DNA in its aggressive lines. Black vintage race plastic
round out the package giving it a purposeful and slightly menacing
appearance in race trim.
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