Ok doke.
Poler Outdoor Stuff and See See Motorcycles teamed up to create a Classic 500 RE into a colorful Adventuremobile just in time for this years The One Motorcycle show See See puts on annually.... Tori George with Poler Outdoor Stuff was lead designer of the bike with inspiration from freestyle BMX bikes from the eighties, Thor Drake of See See Motorcycles would be the lead builder. They'd point to a part on the stock Classic 500 RE and ask "should we keep it?", if she didn't like it, it got taken off. Both agreed it needed to be an off-roader with design cues from 1987. Off road bikes are tricky because they get roughed up on a regular bases. The start of the project was to get some of the bulk off the bike.
Fist thing that happened was Thor accidentally destroyed the stock headlight top triple combo trying to figure out how to push the handlebar mount forward. This mistake led them to use the only single cylinder front end they had readily available... The SR 500. Some Bearing graphs and serious hammering they were able to use a complete 1978 Yamaha SR 500 front end. One look at the 19" mag and the path was as clear as a summer day. They would need to figure out how to run front and rear mags. The rear mag gave them a little more heck. Being that Royal Enfields are of British descent they have a right side drive. Flipping the tire reverse was easy but they needed a miracle to get the rest to work. Prayers (with beers) where answered when they measured the space in the frame where the swing arm mounts. Turns out it's 8" the same as the SR 500. Boring into the swing arm axle to a 5/8" and flip the disk brake stay ... A small spacer to line up the chain and they were on their way to a full set of new legs. Moving the bottom rear shock mounts 2" back gave just enough space for the really nice Fox shocks they had in mind to clear the frame.
The stock rear brake on RE is a drum, it was a little bit of a process to convert it to a disk but a couple hours of brake bleeding and a few swear words later they had it working like a dream. The seat was designed to hold one big butt or two small ones. Ginger from New Church Customs makes the best covers so they had her whip up a nice cowhide cover with arch pattern to match some of the design cues and paint on the bike. The snake tung shape of the seat make it easier to pull the removable luggage rack closer to the front of the bike. They both agreed they didnt like luggage racks that hung way off the back so they worked those off and with the help of Cooper Smithing Co. Out of Washington, some custom hand made fenders popped out. The fenders are built to fit a 19" front and 18" rear. A skid plate was fashioned to keep the power plant safe from the potential hard hits. The front heal light is an old spot light fitted with high and low beams. The rear lights are two small bullet style lights tucked nice and tidy inside the frame. The paint and powder coat was a tribute to the ol' PK Ripper bmx bikes they both loved as teenagers. They wanted to make something flashy and bright to contrast the heaps of black bikes. What else... Aggressive tires. Removed all plastic, slip on cone exhaust. Removed storage boxes and modified air box to hold all the electrical stuff. Some metal #campvibes plates to cover the sides and give it a vintage mx feel and create the See See x Poler AdventureMobike now on display at the Poler Laguna Flagship store in Laguna Beach...swing by if you're in the area and check it out!
Cheers!
-Thor & Tori
Don't forget that RE will be celebrating their Grand Opening of their very first Flagship Royal Enfield store in North America on Sept 10th! For more info and to RSVP to the event, here over HERE!!