We know Richard Pollock is a master of his craft?and we know he’s thorough. But we’re beginning to think he’s a little obsessive. This Yamaha SR500 went onto the Mule Motorcycles bench for some basic upgrades. But as Richard dug deeper, he found more and more issues. Things snowballed fast…
?The bike was an ex-road racer converted to a street tracker, that had a bad idle? he says. ?It fitted a very common profile: a race bike that had been to hell and back (maybe even making repeated trips), and was severely worn from end to end.?

Despite the state of the SR500, Richard really liked its basic theme?just not the execution. ?All the right intentions … but the puzzle was just assembled all wrong,? he tells us.
?The bars were a weird bend, the wheels had skinny tires, the XR750-style seat was mounted too far back and felt like it was made of steel, the pipe hung too low, and the rear shocks were two inches too short, putting the rear end way too low. And then there was the wiring!? ?It had that ‘midnight repair by the side of the road in Baja’ look to it. NOT sano.?

Richard decided to redo it, do it right. He stripped it down to the frame, repairing cracks, filling holes, and straightening or removing brackets until everything was perfect. Then he added a new rear loop and seat brackets.
Richard worked some magic further down too: ?A few years ago I had a small batch of rectangular swingarms made for the Yamaha XS650 frame?which h...