People of the Vintage Motocross world, we have an injustice on our hands tonight. Hours ago, in broad daylight, my cross-country beast was stolen from the street outside my studio where I hone my crafts. The things I make can be seen at www.agogodesigns.etsy.com, and purchases will go to THE NEXT XL600 I BUILD INTO AN XR600. Here's the full report, as seen on http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=701273
Stolen: 1983 Honda XL600R with XR600 suspension upgrades. Yeah, that one, THE one.
A couple days prior, in the same exact spot it was last seen:
I had moved it from this spot and back and worked on it again in that spot within a handful of hours of it's theft. As I sit inside my studio working, it was hoisted. Here it is after the suspension mods, just as it was last configured:
Taken between 1pm and 7pm, Saturday, June 25th, 2011 in broad daylight at The Watershed Industrial Arts Center, 5040 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR, 97266. Parked at a new telephone pole located north of the bridge over Mc Loughlin Blvd. Telephone Camera pointed parallel to the building, but away from the site of theft, we are waiting.
PPD Case #1153115
Washington plate: 3A184
VIN:JH2PD0300DM001380 <="">
ENGINE VIN: This bike has a 1998 xr600 engine with a kickstart side cover, 1985 cylinder, 1983 head. Very distinctive combination!
It is leaking oil from the head bolts which I had modified in a last-ditch effort to use the only head bolts I had at the time. (WASINGTON STATE RECORDED THIS INFO AT TIME OF TITLING, WORKING ON RETRIEVEING THIS)
Distinctive features:
-Kite string tied to choke lever in stead of the plastic one I'd repaired makeshift twice prior. Hose clamp on left handlebar weight. These were my choke lever replacement means I'd arranged on the afternoon it was 'liberated', I'd just perfected it. Was about to design and cast aluminum ones, but now I can't do that. I spent an intense hour kicking it over with improperly metered choke, impetus to make a few cast aluminum ones. Hopefully the thief will try to start it and break his ankle by opening the throttle (kickback)
.-XR/ XR650L suspension from a 1989 (correct) XR600, front and rear. Swingarm has AFAM, Bel-Ray, RK Racing Chain, and other MX brand name stickers.
-Marlboro-esque V pattern flat-black painted on tip of front fender with bright red number '5' in the middle.
-custom-made steel rack on the back, red and exposed steel from somewhat recent modifications. Rack rides high and level with seat, with crossbar. I made it.
-FMF Megamax exhaust pipe and header, aluminum on silencer is cross-hatch hand-polished and lacking the badge. More distinctive information on this pipe available upon request, should a badgeless FMF turn up. The profile on the can is a true oval with a custom shield of steel.
-Engine is a mix of various years, at it's core it is a 1998 XR600 engine, evident by the stator cover being silver the cylinder is 1985 with gray primer overspray and oil weeping from bolt holes near bottom fins. Head is 1983.
-Kite string tied to choke lever in stead of the plastic one I'd repaired makeshift twice prior. Hose clamp on left handlebar weight. These were my choke lever replacement means I'd arranged on the afternoon it was 'liberated', I'd just perfected it. Was about to design and cast aluminum ones, but now I can't do that. I spent an intense hour kicking it over with improperly metered choke, impetus to make a few cast aluminum ones. Hopefully the thief will try to start it and break his ankle by opening the throttle (kickback)
$100 reward PLUS $250 custom work in my shop, for any information leading to the return of this trans-american vehicle. Some of my goods and services are for sale on www.a-go-go-designs.com and www.agogodesigns.etsy.com or PM, E-mail, or cOME TO the Watershed and knock on the window with the flyer for the stolen bike, along the path on the North side of the building.
I just want the bike returned. But if you see it anywhere, please dial 911. Kinda like that old sticker, "if you see my bike on a trailer, dial 911."
I've also got a foamcore board with a map of portland drymounted (all 'dumpstered' material used in it's production down to the last squizzle of spray adhesive) for physical referrence. I'll be driving a pin in each of the informed parties' locations and, if I'm lucky, daily/weekly commute "b" points.
If any of these go near or through the meth-villes of Portland and it's surrounding areas. If some of you chance to drive through potential scrap yard or potential chop-shop havens, please have me drive a pin there too, and on your occasional curious moment, take a side street. Metal workers: be aware of red scraps and Honda cast aluminum, and alert employees if something distinctively familiar from my photos shows up, for paper trail and camera/employee interactions with scrappers.
The owner of the studio business in my building once had a huge panel truck, from where, I don't know, theft-towed and, we're pretty sure, scrapped out. This is one of many possible 'fences'.
The rear fender has distinctive marks from angle grinder sparks. Wherever that fender ends up is so trackable by this marking.
The front fender was so distinctive. It will be hard to get the flat black rattle can paint off that fender, even if the red number 5 is peeled cleanly. The fender was a 1985 XR350 fender, so had the brighter red, but totally oxidized and painted flat black at the tip in a Marlboro logo valley. A deep gouge at the apex of the arch in the fender makes it stand out even further. That fender gets spotted, and traced, bingo. One of the side covers had a sticker unlike any other. It was made on here by a fellow XL600 enthusiast on the vinyl plotter/cutter at his work, and was not perfect lines. I re-cut the flawed areas, I think after I stuck it down, so even if they remove it, distinctive logo markings show through. So unless they stuff all the rare 80's plastics in the dumpster, we have parts with markings more distinctive than any serial number. The other distinguishing feature of that sticker is, Honda's stickers were a rectangle of white vinyl with red screenprinting. This one was an imprefect vinyl plotter cut, and there are like 6 of us, tops, with a set. And we're all mutually respecting online-friends. The FMF can had a tiny amount of Ultra Blue RTV silicone in the two rivet holes where the logo had been removed for hand finishing. It was packed with Roxul fire wool from a powdercoating oven project. Connected to a fat header pipe with custom work that still wasn't right, and it had a bad exhaust leak and really funny looking grinding near the mount. There had been some TRX 4-wheeler swappings going on prior to my purchase of the complete but non streetable XR600 I had bought at the last minute before my voyage west which I harvested many a part from, including the renthal bars. There was a lot of custom work in my bar ends too, including threaded and tapped holes for a custom-made bar end mirror from one of those generic vent-window-clip, old-car replacement mirrors available at any auto parts store... I could go on, but I think that's enough identity information to track it with. I'm going to go on a long walk until I get very tired, with a flashlight, looking for stash zones.
I also have another bit of information available upon PM.
