P500 "Bert" - 2018 P500 from SW Missouri

[TSJ]

Hello all. Thought I would go ahead and say Hello and start a build thread on my P500. Been lurking here for a few months looking at other builds and gathering info. Thought I would share what I've done so far to mine and everyone loves plenty of pictures. Wife decided to name him "Bert"

Took delivery on August 1st on a leftover but brand new 2018 with a decent discount. Added at time of purchase from the dealership the factory hardtop, rear upper frame cargo bag, and 26" Maxxis Bighorn 2.0's. They had the top in stock but had to order the bag and tires.

Maiden voyage was just to run up and down a few fire roads with a buddy from work. Here is his Talon in comparison to Bert.




The tires and bag came in the following week. Mounted the tires on the stock wheels. One of the main reasons we got the sxs was for the wife to learn to drive it as well. I've been riding motorycles both street and dirt for many years. I've taken her two up on my Yamaha TW200 many times, even on somewhat technical single track. Doable but not much fun especially when you have to stay seated the whole time. So this way we can both have more fun. Will be times when I'm riding solo on TW with her following in Bert. But for now, I'm having so much fun driving the P500 we are just taking turns. I also picked up a couple Craftsman tool boxes from Lowes and u-bolted them to the rack. One side for tools, straps, buck saw, and a come-a-long. The other side for a soft cooler, goggles, gloves, light jackets, snacks and sammiches. Secure and weather tight while bouncing down the trails.

 

[TSJ]

The next thing I wanted to add was a rear view mirror and some tunes. I'm cheap and resourceful on some things and spend lots on other things. I ordered the factory rear view mirror with the fancy Honda clamp. Loved everything about it except the position. Didn't like having to look up to see back. So I simply extended where the mirror attaches with some narrow metal plate. I also added a ram mount base for my phone clamp.

I am also an avid cyclist. Road, Mountain, and Gravel. I have a weatherproof bluetooth speaker meant for a secure fit in a water bottle cage that my wife got me a few years ago. So rather than a fancy new overhead speaker system, I just mounted a water bottle cage for my speaker to the overhead bar. Plenty loud enough for some tunes without being "that guy" on the trails.

 

[TSJ]

I knew I would be doing at least a little night wheeling so I added a small but very effective Rough Country light bar.

 

[TSJ]

So we are cruising around a local offroad park and the wife is driving and gaining her confidence. Maybe a little too much haha. We are on an off camber trail and she takes a sweeping left corner a little too fast with me in the passenger seat. Most of you have probably had the same feeling with our narrow machines and It's amazing how many things you can think of all at once when in that about to flop situation. "are my hands fully inside?" "I don't have a winch yet, but I should be able to upright this little dude with my come along?" "hmmmmm there is the spot we are going to land on" "this is gonna probably suck!!" "Here we gooooooo!!"... However the next thing I know, and to both our surprise, her reaction was to hammer down the accelerator, turn the wheel slightly back to the right, and we drove out of a for sure pending flop. I was so proud of her but she was a little rattled and was done driving for the day. Lol Came home and ordered the RB3 widetrack kit. What a difference a couple inches makes to the stability. Oh and before it gets mentioned, my rear sway bar was off as of day one.

 

[monaco]

Love it, and Bert is a great name! Does the mirror vibrate too much? I had one (a cheapo) that I ended up taking back off for that reason.

 

[monaco]

So we are cruising around a local offroad park and the wife is driving and gaining her confidence. Maybe a little too much haha. We are on an off camber trail and she takes a left a little to fast with me in the passenger seat. Most of you have probably had the same feeling with our narrow machines. It's amazing how many things you can think of all at once when in that situation. "are my hands fully inside?" "

That describes it perfectly, LOL.
I ended up buying the RB3 spacers (2" all around) and that fixed it for me. It took me a few years to talk myself into it, but it really was worth it.

 

[TSJ]

Love it, and Bert is a great name! Does the mirror vibrate too much? I had one (a cheapo) that I ended up taking back off for that reason.

Thanks and the mirror doesn't seem to vibrate much at all. I would recommend it.

 

[TSJ]

So SW Missouri and northern Arkansas where my local trails are is similar to east coast wheeling. Lots of technical rocky and rooty trails with some mud mixed in even during the dry season. I'm finding the limits of the P500 but I'm not one to shy away from at least trying some pretty gnarly stuff within reason. Especially since the guys I wheel with and follow around are all in bigger rigs with more stability and ground clearance. I, and they, have been really surprised by what I've made it up and through. But that's not always been without some collateral damage. The underside of Bert has already taken a pretty good beating. A few weeks back I slid off my intended line choice on a climb and a big rock secretly lurched from beneath the ground and punched Bert square in the nose with a pretty good upper cut to the lower front bumper/skid plate. Wasn't day ending damage, but made me a little more cautious of my lack of ground clearance.

Once I got home and things cleaned off to assess the damage a little closer, I saw that the center of the front skid was pushed back a few inches and slightly bent the front lower lip of the differential crossmember. Something needed to be done to not only fix things but also make it a little more durable and of course I needed to dig back into the wallet for some belly protection.

I straightened the front lip of the crossmember with a couple large crecent wrenches. You can see from the pic that the side rails are fully boxed but crossmember is not. It also has a slight arch cut into the lip for some "Honda" reason. I then cut and welded in some thicker angle to add strength. Beat the front skid back into shape and reassembled. Then convinced the wife and placed an order with forum sponsor SSS Offroad.

 

[TSJ]

Contacted SSS Offroad directly and got a sweet hondasxs forum discount as well as the free shipping they are giving right now. Received the skids last week and promptly went to work in my garage. I got most of it done one evening but decided using the lift at my work the following day would be much easier for the drilling and tapping of the 10-12 additional bolts. I figured as long as I was ordering parts and that the trails I wheel are not width restricted, I decided to order some 4+3 steel wheels while I was at it. Wife and I both decided that a little more mud slinging was an okay compromise for added stability. So that's it for now. This is how Bert now sits at about 55" wide. Overall I'm very please with no regrets. Plenty of power for what I'm using it for. A winch and new shocks are about all that's left on my short list.

 

[hallic]

*snip* her reaction was to hammer down the accelerator, turn the wheel slightly back to the right, and we drove out of a for sure pending flop. *snip*

She's a keeper for sure!

 

[BWAF]

Welcome from sw Missouri glad your liking it

 

[Smitty335]

Hello all. Thought I would go ahead and say Hello and start a build thread on my P500. Been lurking here for a few months looking at other builds and gathering info. Thought I would share what I've done so far to mine and everyone loves plenty of pictures. Wife decided to name him "Bert"

Took delivery on August 1st on a leftover but brand new 2018 with a decent discount. Added at time of purchase from the dealership the factory hardtop, rear upper frame cargo bag, and 26" Maxxis Bighorn 2.0's. They had the top in stock but had to order the bag and tires.

Maiden voyage was just to run up and down a few fire roads with a buddy from work. Here is his Talon in comparison to Bert.

View attachment 234266


The tires and bag came in the following week. Mounted the tires on the stock wheels. One of the main reasons we got the sxs was for the wife to learn to drive it as well. I've been riding motorycles both street and dirt for many years. I've taken her two up on my Yamaha TW200 many times, even on somewhat technical single track. Doable but not much fun especially when you have to stay seated the whole time. So this way we can both have more fun. Will be times when I'm riding solo on TW with her following in Bert. But for now, I'm having so much fun driving the P500 we are just taking turns. I also picked up a couple Craftsman tool boxes from Lowes and u-bolted them to the rack. One side for tools, straps, buck saw, and a come-a-long. The other side for a soft cooler, goggles, gloves, light jackets, snacks and sammiches. Secure and weather tight while bouncing down the trails.

View attachment 234267
View attachment 234268
View attachment 234269

WELCOME from NW Arkansas! Looks good!

 

[HUCK]

So we are cruising around a local offroad park and the wife is driving and gaining her confidence. Maybe a little too much haha. We are on an off camber trail and she takes a sweeping left corner a little too fast with me in the passenger seat. Most of you have probably had the same feeling with our narrow machines and It's amazing how many things you can think of all at once when in that about to flop situation. "are my hands fully inside?" "I don't have a winch yet, but I should be able to upright this little dude with my come along?" "hmmmmm there is the spot we are going to land on" "this is gonna probably suck!!" "Here we gooooooo!!"... However the next thing I know, and to both our surprise, her reaction was to hammer down the accelerator, turn the wheel slightly back to the right, and we drove out of a for sure pending flop. I was so proud of her but she was a little rattled and was done driving for the day. Lol Came home and ordered the RB3 widetrack kit. What a difference a couple inches makes to the stability. Oh and before it gets mentioned, my rear sway bar was off as of day one.

View attachment 234275

Welcome you guys ! I have TW in my heard too . Great bike , kinda like a Pioneer 500 with 2 less wheels .

 

[Todd627]

Welcome from The Great Lakes State 😎

#NTC

 

[HiFive]

Welcome from fl.nice set up. Add a glove box great for extra little stuff wife will enjoy it.

 

[HiFive]

Wife named my p5 Ollie. Just saying!

 

[SILVER_ALERT]

Howdy from Oklahoma! It sounds like "Bert" is having a lot of fun playing with his new owners.

 

[snakeriver]

Welcome!!!!

 

[CamoP500]

You'll love the SXS off road skid plates. I put them on mine right away. I have slid over a lot of rocks and stumps hard and not one bit of damage. They skid plates aren't cheap but they protect a lot of very expensive parts.

 

[TSJ]

Thanks for all the welcomes. Planning on another Arkansas trip this weekend. I'll report back on the added stability and slippery skid plates. I'm sure I will love the added protection.