1986 Honda TLR 200
While talking with Scott Burghart at our Wellsville, PA event about his Honda Reflex TLR 200, he mentioned that it was far from stock. I asked him if he would do a write up about his bike for MAVT.org visitors and he agreed. Scott is doing very well on the Reflex and is one of our best two line riders. Below is what Scott has written about his bike for those of you who might be interested in making the TLR 200 more competitive.
"I always wanted to take a Reflex and make it into a good trials bike. Some of my friends thought I was nuts as they regarded the Reflex as basically a road bike designed to look like a trials bike. One of them who once owned one told me "Don't do it! It is a piece of ...!
Well after looking for a year or so I found one on the MAVT classifed page, about 3 hours from my home in NJ and with only 413 miles on it. It was in great condition but was not running due to what I suspected was a gunked up carburetor. I bought it and had the late great Gale Petro get it up to snuff in the engine department and replace the seals and wipers. He put an 11 tooth countershaft sprocket on it. I think at this point it weighed 221 lbs with most of the weight very high on the bike, but at least it had very little midrange and top end power. Gale and Brian Carpenter thought I was nuts.
On to the changes: BJ Racing Fiberglass tank/seat, Renthal 6" rise bars that I bought from our fearless leader Roger Annable, IRC tires, WES aluminum muffler from BJ again, Falcon shocks (started with steel ones but had a good payday and a weak moment and went for the aluminum alloy ones), removed the battery, the headlight/taillight and blinkers, cut off all of the tabs, helmet lock etc... from the frame, removed excess wiring harness garbage, replaced the rear fender with a polycarbonate one made for the RTL 250 HRC Honda, Sprocket Specialists lightened and hardened 46 tooth sprocket, 9 tooth Talon front, and nylon screws for the front fender and I bought a super light DID ERSII chain, specially made for trials and 250cc road racers (had to get it from Canada). I sand blasted the frame and painted it with Rustoleum Professional paint, and Dan Horengic made me a chrome moly swing arm (stock dimensions). Dan also moved the footpegs down and back which helps the handling tremendously. He also put some spacers in the front forks to stiffen them for my 200 lb weight.
I had another friend make me a stainless head pipe with tubing I got from Bassani. I added a clutch arm extender (from Ebay UK) which makes the clutch pull almost as easy as my Beta. I removed the stock shifter linkage because it is heavy and a little clunky in use and replaced it with a drilled for lightness unit from a TL 250 and it fits nicely behind the engine cover bulge. I also replaced the front brake arm with an alloy one from another Honda model.
The tank and muffler alone knocked off about 9 or 10 lbs, the Falcon shocks a full 3 lbs lighter than stock, and all of the other bits add up to a surprising weight reduction. The cool looking RTL fender I did just for looks but it weighs 7 oz. less than the stock one. You start adding up the 6 and 7 oz. savings and pretty soon you have a 1986 4 stroke that weighs just a bit over 180 lbs dry, which I think is pretty impressive. And you know it is light when you ride it.
I bought a custom alloy skid plate on Ebay and just mounted that today. It is almost 1 lb heavier than the stock tin pie plate but offers some serious protection and the weight is very low on the chassis so not really relevent. I read once that a pound up high is equal to 4 lbs down low. I also have some DID alloy rims to replace the standard steel hoops and I will use some lighter guage stainless spokes when I get around to it. And I have some aluminum footpegs to add after I get them modified to my liking. Lastly, I just picked up, off of Ebay UK, a set of fork yokes from the European TLR 200, as the lower is cast aluminum vs. the cast steel that we got here in the U.S. More high up weight!
As far as power is concerned the 200 has a pretty serious problem in stock form, but some guys seem to do okay with them anyway. In my case the WES muffler opened up the power band nicely and made a noticable improvement at all throttle openings. I have an XR 200 cam that will go in one of these days when I have time and can figure out how to do it. Probably the last thing I will do is go to a different carb. as the stock 22 mm is somewhat limited in top end power. I think a 24 mm will help on long hill climbs. I have an XR 100 carb to try now which has the advantage of jets being available for it while with the TLR you are stuck with what it comes with...
All in all I would say the bike is excellent, much better than I expected. It is light, fun to ride, has adequate power for our vintage sections, and is as reliables as a Honda, and it looks good! My worst problem has been the 3 sets of mice born in the air box. I think I have finished in the top three in every event, usually just missing first (Editor's note: Scott won first place at Farrandsville.) , and even got first in the SR 35 class in a modern trial at Jersey Shore.
As you can tell I have a fair amount of money into this bike but since I did it a little at a time it was not as painful. I have not totaled it up (because I do not want to know!) but Dave Carl likes to tease me and tell me I could have bought a modern bike for the price of this one. He is incorrect of course. It is not THAT expensive. I do have a 2005 Beta 270 and I love it but the TLR was fun to do because it is unique and it is improved so much from stock. And it is simply fun to ride.
If anyone out there has questions about any of the mods I can be reached at Burghart@embarqmail.com "
