02 450 conversion: Bought It!

[NightBiker07]

Well, I bought the bike. Brought her home for 2800. Motor is tight, Clutch/trans are almost butery. The conversion work is so-so.

the front cradle is cracked where the frame was joined together. No big deal, I can fix that. It got me $400 off of the original price. After seeing that, I went over it with a fine tooth comb.

The fabricators didnt even bother with the stock air boot....they used a POD filter to escape that. I plan on rectifying that ASAP. If anyone can point me in the right direction for dealing with this, I would appreciate it.

only one pipe mount and one silencer mount was used. I need to weld a new mount to the silencer so the OEM mount on the frame will work. No big deal either. The rearmost mount on the pipe was also not used. Should be a simple fix as well.

One thing i didnt understand is the let side lower radiator mount.....it doesnt exist. Someone got LAZY, should be simple to rectify as well.

Pipe is a little tight on the right radiator. the pipe actually touches the radiator hose. Thats a BIG no-no, I plan on dealing with that when i deal with the pipe mounts.

I also think the head stay is a little worthless. Does anyone know where some good pictures of that area can be found here on the forum?


Tank was modded properly. The sprockets are lined up proper, so the work isnt too bad, and all the problems I have found so far are easily fixed.

A good donor bike around here would have cost me 2K, and this one is nearly done for 2800, so I cant complain.

Wouldnt you know it, the kickstarter snapped TODAY when I went to go check out the bike.The aluminum lever broke away from the steel part. the engine itself is not damaged. (if anyone has one for sale, give me a holler PLEASE)


Thing is retarded powerful. I love it...wheelie monster in every gear.

[2strokeforever]

anything I should be mindful of

pull the airfilter off too look for dirt or dust in the boot, the 02 were famous for letting dirt by where the boot joins to the airbox
if he lets you pull the reeds you can measure big end sideplay, and get a good idea how new the "new" top end really is

a few easy things to check
wheel bearings
suspension bearings, just go to a dealer and push down on the seat to feel how much stiction it should have
rims and spokes

[NightBiker07]

anything I should be mindful of

pull the airfilter off too look for dirt or dust in the boot, the 02 were famous for letting dirt by where the boot joins to the airbox
if he lets you pull the reeds you can measure big end sidepl
ay, and get a good idea how new the "new" top end really is

a few easy things to check
wheel bearings
suspension bearings, just go to a dealer and push down on the seat to feel how much stiction it should have
rims and spokes

The airboot thing is the exact stuff I was looking for

Im not too keen on pulling the reeds out. If the motor doesnt make abnormal noises and runs strong, it should be a safe bet that she isnt on death's doorstep wouldnt it?

The bike appears to be in amazing shape. Im just hoping its as nice underneath as it looks. if it is, it'll be an amazing buy.

[NightBiker07]

Bought the bike. Modified the first post.

[100hp honda]

what method did they use ?

[NightBiker07]

what method did they use ?

not sure what you mean. the guy I bought the bike from paid to have the bike built, he wasntvery familiar with fabrication so he couldnt tell me much about the process followed.



So far, everything I have read says to use a 99 CR250 air box boot with the 450 air box to get the carb hooked up to the air box. Is this correct or did I miss something?

[hoofarted]

Looks good from pics. Should be a good runner when you're done fixing the problems. Is that a 2WD Excursion I spy in the background?

[NightBiker07]

Looks good from pics. Should be a good runner when you're done fixing the problems. Is that a 2WD Excursion I spy in the background?

Nope. 4WD, 7.3 powerstroke

The bike is pretty clean. someone just seemed to get lazy on some of the details. And obviously didnt know grinding the welds flat would create an issue.

Still looking for a definite Airboot solution, not having any luck. The "completed conversion" sticky doesnt have any definite answers.

Can any gen3 guys chime in?

Thanks!

[100hp honda]

replace the whole cradle, algava style or jacked the frame. couldnt tell from the pics which method they did. might give insight why it cracked

[NightBiker07]

replace the whole cradle, algava style or jacked the frame. couldnt tell from the pics which method they did. might give insight why it cracked

it looks like they put a piece of tubing in to make up for the difference from moving the Y up.....then ground the welds flush and polished the frame \


Didnt waste any time! torn down. the motor comes out of the frame without taking the head or the jug off. Have some plates made to weld to the inside of the frame to reinforce the added in pieces. Have the front mount cut off the silencer, ready to relocate and weld on once the bike is back together.
Also have the new radiator mount made up. It wont be as nice as others, but something was done funny on this side of the bike, and i cant figure it out. but this mount will be strong, and be 100% better than none at all.

[Gmbond]

Personally what I would want to do now would be buy a gen4 frame super cheap off eBay just to rob the Y from it. Then new rails and mounts, and last but not least, weld an offset block on the shock mount tower and fab a pair of bent plate headstays supports. (look at your gen2 250 for the perfect design).

If you contact the seller on eBay and tell them you only want the Y and ask if they'll cut it out and only ship that part to you it could save on shipping cost, even tell them they are welcome to try to sell off the rest. You might get lucky and get someone good who will do it.

[gregrobo]

the tank on those 450s souldnt need modding

[NightBiker07]

Welding is done. Not the prettiest, but I havent touched a TIG torch in a year, and my experience with aluminum before that is marginal. But the welds have great penetration, just not the smoothest things in the world. And if they crack, oh well. Its all a learning experience, and next time I'll practice it for a day before welding on the frame. (The mounts were not welded by me. Just the plates/cracked areas)

Its all back together, except for the chain. The swingarm slider is gone on the underside and the swinger got sawed into real bad in one area. Gonna have to get a new one when it becomes an issue, but for now its still safe to run.

Radiator mount is taken care of, Have the mount on the silencer neatly cut off to re-position it at the next available opportunity. I am still displeased with some of the small details, but the air boot is the next thing on the list to deal with. Still looking for solid answers, it seems like there are many routes to get to the destination with this one.

Personally what I would want to do now would be buy a gen4 frame super cheap off eBay just to rob the Y from it. Then new rails and mounts, and last but not least, weld an offset block on the shock mount tower and fab a pair of bent plate headstays supports. (look at your gen2 250 for the perfect design).

If you contact the seller on eBay and tell them you only want the Y and ask if they'll cut it out and only ship that part to you it could save on shipping cost, even tell them they are welcome to try to sell off the rest. You might get lucky and get someone good who will do it.

If I have any more problems up in this area, I'll either do that, or put the motor in my Gen 2 chassis. Depends on how much I like how this bike handles. Its a totally different feel than my Gen 2, and Im not sure if I like it better or worse yet.

[hoofarted]

Nope. 4WD, 7.3 powerstroke

off topic but...

What do you have done to it so far? I have an 03 7.3 4x4 as well.

[NightBiker07]

Nope. 4WD, 7.3 powerstroke

off topic but...

What do you have done to it so far? I have an 03 7.3 4x4 as well.

I havent done anything to it, its not mine. (dads)

It HAD a complete banks kit on it, and holy SHIT was it fast. but in the cold months, the fuel mileage was terrible because the motor never came up to temperature. so most of the stuff came back off and was sold.

it has a EDGE evolution programmer and a custom (not banks) straight pipe, I think it is 4" all the way back. It moves out VERY well, and the pipe really makes the turbo loud. Have the electronic trailer brake module, and the torsion bar setup, the truck will pull just about anything.

HWY, it gets about 20MPG loaded down. Before they switched to this ultra low sulfur shit, it pushed 30MPG HWY. Many people have called bullshit, but Believe what you want.

Honestly, the best thing you can do is get a massive pipe and a programmer. We have used several programmers, and the EDGE Evolution has been the best by far. Superchips was So-So, the Banks was decent. havent tried the bully-dog, but a friend said it was similar to the superchips.



back on topic, I still am looking for solid info for the Gen3 air boot.
I am also displeased with the washer swingarm spacers, I noticed there is a thread stickied for Gen3 swingarm spacers, I'm assuming everyhting i need to know is in there, correct? I have been reading so much on these lately that I am getting information overload!