HVA 1983 WR 300 Special Build

Hi Folks

As next season looms over it's time to put together the HVA Factory 300 that I have been planning with HVA Andy for over a year now.

It has got to be said to get to this stage has taken myself and Andy Elliot many, many hours, a uncapped budget lots of research and development, searching for parts, making parts, testing parts, breaking parts, calling in favours, meeting new suppliers and making new friends along the way :-)

I will not take you through every nut and bolt but rather give you the edited highlights for your browsing pleasure!

So here is a quick run down on the donor motor and frame.

I picked up a seized CR 250 bottom end, not clutch no ignition, no nothing really just cases full of dried sand - at the same time I managed to get my hands on a WR 250 frame and some front and rear brakes, triple clamps and some odd's and sods all covered in mud and oil etc…. when I arrived home with said parts my wife looked at them and thought I was on the way to the scrap yard with some junk….. this junk we of course know as "treasure"

Over time I managed to get a complete gearbox, clutch side gears, basket, kick start assembly, air box, forks, head and barrel, reed block… each part has a story as you all know, some good, some bad, some ugly...

I had wheels, swinging arm and various other parts left over from other projects and bits I had collected along the way, so things were coming together….

Over the coming days/weeks I will update this thread with the story of the assembly and test rides planned before the end of the year!

Cheers

Stuart

One of my favorite bikes you have there ... I want to do one of that year also after my 79 wr tho. You know we all like pics ,please post the pics. You to Andy...

Hi Folks

So lets look at the frame

The frame as mentioned is the correct WO05xxx for the 1983 WR 250 which was just plain lucky when I was after a frame - hadn't see one before or after and they certainly don't come up that often in the UK….

I had already decided that the frame would be painted as opposed to powder coat - I know there are pro's and con's to paint vs powder coat…. my main reasons were; I got fed up with having to spend hours grinding away at areas of the frame to remove unwanted material i.e. motor mounts, earth points, steering lock holes, swing arm contact points etc..etc… and plus powder coat has a nasty habit of chipping and cannot be touched up as easily as paint!


Before painting it was time to "fettle" the frame and swing arm and refresh and renew some parts.
So the swing arm had the following...
New side stand lug welded after the old one was ground off
New lug for rear axle retaining bolt - these usually come on the WR 500's but they are a good idea all round so Andy put one on!
New chain tensioner bracket welded after the old one was ground off
New side stand and spring
New chain slipper
New chain tensioner assembly
New rollers for the bottom guide
New bushes and seal kit - I followed a hint from Andy I used 3 bearings per side of the swing arm rather than the normal 2. Andy also supplied me with a swing arm bearing removal tool that he had made up and I can say it was almost a pleasure to drift the bearing in and out with the tool as having done a few of these before it can be a real pain in the ar*e.

So here is the finished and assembled swing arm, note the new lug for rear axle retaining bolt… I will wrestle the side stand spring on once the swing arm is in the frame with the motor!

Ok so the frame - a few mods here...

Applied some "pressure" with a hammer to make groove…. ok big dent so that that the throttle and kill switch wire will pass in-between tank and frame without snagging…. two holes were drilled to put a plastic tie through to retain the said cables.


I later removed paint from the bracket that would hold the new ignition coil so I could get a good earth connection ;-)

The foot peg hangers were built back up with weld and then ground back…. then the brackets were machined out and wear sleeves inserted ready to accept wide foot rests….this upgrade will help over time as the foot peg holes will not "oval" out in the frame, the wear sleeves will take the punishment and these can be drifted out and replaced instead.

Frame mod was to grind out some material from the frame… this was all to allow the throttle cable to sit nicely in the carb and stop it rubbing on the frame that can damage the cable and also affect the cable operation….. the frame has already been painted but you can see the nice cut out….

I also had some areas of wear and tear re-welded and the exhaust side front side panel mount was ground off and a nut was welded in, in it's place as this is another little practical upgrade!

All that was left to do was to remove paint from the usual areas as mentioned in previous post which was a simple job with paint rather than with powder coat!

Looking good, I am liking the upgrades too...

yes, tasteful upgrades to these old horse is always nice...

Right then folks - FORKS!!!

I know that there are many threads and opinions around this area and Andy (HVA) and I have spent many hours discussing and researching this together - the solution I have used is conventional forks albeit the last Husky enduro forks from circa 1988. The reason for this is that they are husky forks and with the correct mod's they do actually work really well and look right for the bike.

I have also not gone down the emulator route - I had a lot of discussions around these and I came to the conclusion that they were not for me… too much drilling, fitting and general faffing about put me off initially and after putting together my package I was really happy with it so left it there ;-)

So….I used a very lightly modified set on my 1983 WR430 for the 2013 season and they worked really well - there is of course no comparison to later USD forks and some of the superdooper conventional forks that were available in the late 80's early 90's…. but they worked well for me and some of the other riders that checked the action on them were really impressed - so job done!

I have now 2 pairs that are slightly different in setup...

My original pair used standard springs that arrived in the forks that were shipped over from USA all in for £120 - I had the sliders re-chromed, the lower legs had their lugs ground off and re-welded to build up the rear ridge and bolt holes filled… they were then powder coated and rebuilt by Darren @Tillets suspension using Marzocchi 40mm Oil Seal Kit for all Monster T Forks… these seals are actually used on mountain bikes as well as Aprillia road race bikes, they are expensive…. £22.00 but based on a seasons racing they performed brilliantly ...

The newest set I have built again from USA for £130 have 4.0 springs that Andy had made up and I managed to tease a pair out of him ;-)
The fork sliders were in very good condition so no re chrome - this set is slightly firmer due to the springs, I will be testing these in a couple of weeks and will let you know how they handle… but if they are anything like my original pair they should be the business ;-)

Just to give you a bit of feedback I had great results adding the gold valve to this forks. In the states these forks came on the 87s
They work fantastic. Good news is not much drilling at all. Damping holes are already drilled
out to the larger dim. I just drilled out the top oil all the way through. Took out the odd internal
small damping valve and spring inside the bottom of the damping rod.
Humm- the holes seem standard size in your pic above - like 81 size etc, must be just the photo.

Found that there is a odd beveled AL damping washer in that middle section at bottom . just thought it was odd.
its installed.

Using the blue spring - three turns out. 6 inches from top of 15 wt oil and I have new modern feeling forks.

How do they work. Fantastic. Had the KTM ride day the next day after riding this modified forks. I had arm pump,
hand cramps and too much compression damping on the new 2014 KTMs. They felt harsh.

My 430 feel plush, cushion off jumps great, the installed standard top out springs works great too. I did go to maybe to hard on the race tech springs may try one set less stiff for even more feel.

I did not know I much I liked them until I compared them the new KTMs

I give thanks to Cafe Husky guys here and some feedback from Matt Wiley @ race tech

the 80s were definitely very comfortable with just about any husky..cool to see you having the 87-88 style working well...

Thanks very much for the feedback - I know folks have had really good results using the emulators - it is something that I will definitely revisit over time - I need to source some more donor forks internals first as tbh I didn't want to wreak a pair fiddling about with them and the ones that I have are working well, so didn't need to go the extra mile on this occasion.

Thanks again!

Yes I am happy with them - and tbh most of the events I are forestry events so don't involve big motocross type jumps… just jumping ditches and hitting stuff a little too hard sometimes ;-)

Cheers!

Final frame piece, nothing earth shattering I'm afraid…. I like to ride standing up…. well when not paddling of course… again there has been many threads about handle bars… I have looked at all sort of solutions but decided to go low tech and not introduce new clamps, risers, fat bars etc… I did put some original upright bar clamps on rather than the swept back type, added new rubbers and sleeves

and simply packed out the bars with a couple of washers and added Rental high bars… again I ran with these in the 2013 season and they seemed to work out ok although I do know that I am making bending the bars on the clamps a bigger possibility, but hey worked out so far ;-)
As you will have probably guessed by now the ethos is to try to improve what I can without losing sight of the original bike ….. when I get on the the motor yes there are some "upgrades" but these are more to do with reliability and introducing complimentary innovation which any "back in the day" factory team would always strive to do...

those forks look the goods, its something I need to do...