1979 Yamaha HL500 Snow Moto

I know it's not a snowcat... but it IS vintage! Maybe of interest to someone in the group. Its a 1979 HL500 replica, frame built by Framecrafters, bike built by HL500 specialist Husky Restorations in New York.

We built this bike as a marketing vehicle for our sunglasses brand. Wrapping up the campaign, now the bike is for sale.

This is a very functional snow moto bike, loads of fun to ride.

Motor is 4 stroke 500, it has ridiculous torque. It sounds insane on the snow with the straight pipe exhaust. Somewhere between a MX bike and a harley. They call them "Thumpers" for a reason. The sound is on another level with snow under the pipe! It echoes through the mountains... pure evil.

Snow moto kit is a 2012 Timbersled short track, with a custom fit kit to work on the 79 Yamaha.

$15,000 USD obo.

Bike is currently located in Munich Germany, but we can ship it over to the US.

Pics:

more pics

The bike was featured on the world authority of cafe racers website Bike Exif. For some reason this link won't work. So below is the text from the story if you're interested:


http://www.bikeexif.com/snow-motorcycle-2

Snow Go: Northern Lights’ Yamaha HL500


Snow bikes are a great recipe for unbridled hooliganism. Take a dirt bike, fit it with a ski and a track, and hold on tight. But most are built using modern motocross machinery—and that doesn’t appeal to Orion Anthony.
Orion lives just north of Whistler in the alpine region of British Columbia, Canada—and spends a great deal of his time exploring the area by snowmobile. He’s also just launched Northern Lights Optics, a luxury eyewear collection that takes cues from early-days mountaineering and motorcycling.


“For this new brand,” says Orion, “I wanted to create something to provoke a sense of adventure and freedom, with a vintage twist.”
“I love touring the alpine on my snowmobile, but my sled is very modern; it has little relationship to the vintage feel of the collection. And while classic snowmobiles look cool, they are not effective for alpine touring in deep snow.”
“With several companies making snow bike kits, I thought maybe I could fit one onto an old MX bike!”


After some deliberation, Orion settled on the iconic Yamaha HL500: the bike famed for being the last four-stroke to win a Grand Prix before the reign of the two-stroke began. A little research led him to Rob Phillips of Husky Restorations in New York—a renowned bike builder with a number of HL replicas under his belt. One phone call later, and Rob was on board.
For the chassis, Rob ordered a custom-built frame from FrameCrafters in Illinois. The engine is a 1979 Yamaha XT500 mill, with a Megacycle cam and heavy duty valve springs installed “to give it a little punch.”
He also added his own steel-braided oil lines and modified the engine case for a shorter, steel-braided oil pickup line. The carb is a 36mm Mikuni item, kitted with a K&N filter, and the exhaust is a stainless steel, HL500-style unit with a built-in silencer.
With the HL having to run at altitudes ranging from sea level to 8,000 feet above, Rob had concerns over jetting. So he contacted Tom White at White Brothers for advice: “Tom’s the ultimate expert on these engines,” says Rob. “He gave me a carb recipe that worked perfectly, only needing a slight change in needle position for different altitudes.”


Moving to the bodywork, Rob fitted the tank and seat from the equally legendary 1976 YZ125. The fenders are generic MX parts, while the side covers were made from fiberglass. “Orion got a little creative,” says Rob, “and we changed the side panel numbers to NL500—as in Northern Lights 500.”
The original HL500 has 35mm YZ400 forks, but Rob thought it’d be best to go for something beefier—so he fitted 43mm YZ forks instead. Small modifications had to be made to the frame and forks to fit the Timbersled track and ski kit—but with the help of Arctic Cat specialists Route 99 Motorsports, the conversion went off without a hitch.


Rob’s work wasn’t done though: he also built up a swing arm, wheels, rear shocks, and everything else Orion would need if he ever decided to convert the ‘NL500’ for dirt use.
When all was said and done, Orion dragged the NL500 along to Milan for the MIDO Eyewear Show, and his first visit to the Italian Alps.
“Riding into the Alps on a throaty sounding HL500 beast of a snow bike was over the top. But the highlight of the day was pulling up in front of Ristoro Pasini, the alpine restaurant and bar. The reaction from the people sunning themselves on the patio was priceless.”

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You might have better luck selling this bike at a snowmobile forum. Many of us snow cat guys graduated from such machines some time ago.... Kind of a natural progression....

Regards, Kirk

That air cooled engine will be in its glory.

Ill be the first to say it looks like 5k to me . but hey what do I know....

I thought this was a Sno Cat forum, I see the snow, but wheres the cat?

I seen two tracks that went on my christini AWD 450.

What do I know? Not much about posting on forums as I always seem to mess that up, but it looks like it follows the rules to me, since there is a not necessarily snowcats section, and no specific classified section for those. I could see how a snowcat person might be into this or anything that goes on snow. Probably a blast to ride!
http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?t=32316

It's always fun to see more stuff (loosely related at least) in the classifieds. Northern lights posted some really cool pics of the thiokol he has for sale, that should cut him a little slack

Except it doesn't have WTS as a prefix. See, I always mess up posting!