BannedCR500Riders.com

*****I bought this bike*****

Not sure which forum this should be in, so someone move it if necessary.

Going to go look at this 98 you see below. One owner bike, new wipers and seals on the forks. Top end in 2002, but appears to be clean and well maintained from the photos.

What is the max you would give? Owner is asking $1800.00

I would offer him $1500 cash, seems like its worth the asking tho.

You'll get $550 or so for the motor, making it a $1200 or so roller.

Check things like the radiator, brake discs, and swingarm / linkage bearings.

Those are the Big Ticket items that need to be cherry..

brake rotors easy.......radiator, yep I know what to look for.

As far as the linkage and swingarm bearings.......sit on it and feel if the action of the suspension is smooth? Listen for squeaks or dry bearing noise? Side play?

I agree. I wouldn't go any more than $1500 cash. Being that it is a 1998, it is already 10 years old. Be sure to check all the usual stuff.

DPinDet

Exnav wrote: As far as the linkage and swingarm bearings.......sit on it and feel if the action of the suspension is smooth? Listen for squeaks or dry bearing noise? Side play?

yup,yup,yup

Hotcams stickers on a 2 stroke...

AlisoBob wrote:

Exnav wrote: As far as the linkage and swingarm bearings.......sit on it and feel if the action of the suspension is smooth? Listen for squeaks or dry bearing noise? Side play?

yup,yup,yup

Hotcams stickers on a 2 stroke...

Well that confirms it......I haven't completely forgotten the basics!

The Hotcams decals have me baffled as well.

I'd say besides needing a freash top end (since 2002) and a cracked frame go for it.

iggys-amsoil wrote:I'd say besides needing a freash top end (since 2002) and a cracked frame go for it.

I gotta ask since I am just a sheep and don't know.......but are the Gen1 frames prone to cracking and if so where should I look

Or

are you just giving me a little s*it?

Exnav wrote:

iggys-amsoil wrote:I'd say besides needing a freash top end (since 2002) and a cracked frame go for it.

I gotta ask since I am just a sheep and don't know.......but are the Gen1 frames prone to cracking and if so where should I look

Or

are you just giving me a little s*it?

My brother's '98 developed a small crack in the stem in front of the tank. I don't think that that's common at all though and, yes, I think Iggy is givin' you some shit.

$1,500.00 sounds like a fair price to me and it looks well worth it.

Best of luck.

Probably better deals out there, but I am the guy that never gets those deals.

I'm going to give it a good look over and see if we can arrive at a deal, barring anything that would be too expensive to replace/repair. That could be a negotiating point too I guess.

Exnav wrote: I gotta ask since I am just a sheep and don't know.......but are the Gen1 frames prone to cracking and if so where should I look

Like brakes pedal wear on a car, pullback the plastic were it overlaps the upper extrusion. There will be a groove where the plastic has actually worn into the aluminum. This will give you some indication of how much, and how hard the bike was used.

I got $700 for my '97 cr250 motor, electronics, carb and pipe. 1 sale on ebay. Factor that in. if its a good running bike, then you should be able to get $$$ for the motor, be sure to get vid of it running to help the sale. I wouldn't pay more than $1500. I'd offer $1200 and gauge his reaction. Hes gonna ask high, but the question is how bad does he want to get rid of it.

gen1s are notorious for bad steering stem bearings, see how they feel. try to mave the swing arm side to side, that will tell you if the swingarm bearings are in good order. watch out for any signs of rust on the swingarm bolt, if you can see rust on the outside, that means the inside will be worse and you could end up with an impossible to remove swingarm bolt. this is also a sign of niglect.

dannygraves wrote:I got $700 for my '97 cr250 motor, electronics, carb and pipe. 1 sale on ebay. Factor that in. if its a good running bike, then you should be able to get $$$ for the motor, be sure to get vid of it running to help the sale. I wouldn't pay more than $1500. I'd offer $1200 and gauge his reaction. Hes gonna ask high, but the question is how bad does he want to get rid of it.

Hey man, thanks for all the help.

There is a 250 engine on Ebay right now, http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HONDA-CR ... enameZWDVW
that if it sells will bring in excess of 1,300.00

I doubt that anything that I get out of a donor bike will bring that amount, but I did kind of use your 700.00 as a marker for value of the 250 engine to be sold, when putting together my budget for the build. Why reinvent the wheel, when you made a pretty convincing case in your build.

dannygraves wrote:gen1s are notorious for bad steering stem bearings, see how they feel. try to mave the swing arm side to side, that will tell you if the swingarm bearings are in good order. watch out for any signs of rust on the swingarm bolt, if you can see rust on the outside, that means the inside will be worse and you could end up with an impossible to remove swingarm bolt. this is also a sign of niglect.

So the swingarm bolt is rusted in place. Something that a can of freon, big punch and a BFH can't resolve? Ha Ha....jk!

my '86 was soooo bad that I had to cut the swing arm and the bolt, then part of the frame, 10lb sledge couldn't touch it...
one thing to remember is that the gen-1 and 2 motors are desireable for custom stuff (like karts, gp bikes, etc.) because they put out more power than the gen3 motors and don't have all the extra wiring and rc crap. That electronic servo and linkage crap is a PITA if you want to put it in a kart. Just don't be shy about what you ask. I set a reserve of $700 for everything and got exactly that.
Everyone wants a '97 or '98 motor because of the electronic powerjet on the carb, makes it a lot safer to run WFO for extended periods while maintaining a good (not too rich) mixture. those years were also the most powerful, they detuned in '99, then brought back the bang in '01, then lost it again in '02. The '01cr250 is still a very desireable bike.

I'm not givin ya crap. With all the conversions going on thats the first place I would look at check. Most can be easily fixed. See if you can figure out if the guy jumps the thing a lot. "How many times have you/him cased a jump?"

Don't ask how I know.

To me it still looks like a good buy. Hope ya get it.

I'm going to look at an unknown quality (not that any are truly known by a potential buyer) 97 250 tomorrow mid day and then off to see the bike I posted the picture of. So maybe tomorrow is the day I can get this build off the ground. We shall see!!

While the 97 to 99 are all Gen 1's, they are very different. The 97 has solid mount bars, different fork's and shock, and other small changes...

I'd stick to that '98... or look at 99's

the '97 frame has the wishbone bearings in teh frame, the '98-'99 have it in the wishbone peice and big tabs coming off the frame. the '97 subframe is different too because of different shock placement. the bar mounts are an easy fix with some different upper clamps. The rest of the tripple clamp can swap all the way to 2007 on the 2 smokes. '97 is a good bike and almost everything interchanges '97-'99 except what I have listed. use your best judgement iof you find a really nice super clean '97 thats a good deal, go for it. if its a toss up between a '97 and '99, go with the '99 not only because of the few different parts, but it will be worth more completed because its 2 years newer.

the '97s were stiff, but the only functional difference in suspension between '99 and '97 is valving, and most people want to do a revalve anyway. my forks were revalved by PC by the previous owner and after changing the turkey gravy and getting the clickers set right the thing rides great.

Well fellas, this thread can be closed. I am the happy (so far) owner of the 98' in this thread. I moved him off the price and got an aluminum stand thrown in to boot.

nice! just curious, what did you end up paying?

dannygraves wrote:nice! just curious, what did you end up paying?

+1