Dieter's CR250 Projekt
Posted: December 1st, 2012, 7:52 pm
Lemme get this outta the way. I am a 500 rider, nothing thrills like the pipe of a CR500. I did have other 500's, a pristine 2001 sold to Lewisclan. My 89, she is gorgeous to me. I built it from roach to almost brand new. I want to preserve that. I will still ride my 89'er but only on special rides and I dont have to heart to hack it up into a conversion...time and pride.
I learned from Scott/Mojoscojo that the tight woods of Washington will wear you out. Four hours to do 12 miles!?!?!?! That was Reiter. Singletrack in the desert is either loamy, rocky, hardpack or all. Scott took me on true single track that was heavily rutted 6 plus inches deep in rottin vegetation and your boots weight a ton...so does the bike.
I began to think....might be a good time to put the 500 to slumber and step down to a 250 smoker. I surfed Craigslist and found a bunch but all were 60% more than blue book at roached out.
I saw a few, one was a 2006 YZ250, they wanted $3K. It had a blown fork seal, pukin oil out of the exhaust valves, the owner wadded it up and busted the rear fender in half...lol. His fix was to drill numerous holes and safety wire it back on...looked horrid. I walked away...with no offer made.
I was also looking at a 2007 YZ250, original owner rode it a few times ate pucky once and parked it...less than 10 hours. He wanted $1K over blue book...I laughed and walked away.
All hope is lost...over caffeinated and lack of vitamin D has melted the common sense out of some brain here. I want to ride my 500....but want to save it also.
A year ago I found a 2004 CR250 for my buddy...very little wear on clutch cover and had other signs that were quite positive. I wanted someone close to ride with. We looked at the bike...I rode it and love how it hit the pipe...like asking or more. He bought it.!
That weekend I did a abbreviated Rob inspection ready to ride deal-o. We took it to Ft Lewis and he ripped around on it fine. The next step he took it to Tahuya....easy trails...fun stuff. That poor guy ate it.......a lot! I rode sweep. He was hurting when we got back to the truck......he never rode it again. I know he was sore a few days after. Not sure what happened....I was day-dreaming on my 500 and we were on a quad trail...I came around the corner...he was in fetal position in mid air flying off to the right of the trail and the bike was riding itself off to the left???
The bike sat......which it has for most of its life. I bought it....and we start here:
@ Tahuya:
First day in my garage:
1) Bought Honda Service Manual
2) Ripped bike in half....every pivot, bearing and hinge cleaned and lubed with MolyB.
3) Airbox was growing dirt stalactites....hose out...and wiped box and snorkle spotless
4) Came with a brand new Uni...cleaned...dried, doused with FFS...wring....dry...install
5) Sealed Snorkle.AirBox junction....noted achilles heel for leaks. beaded clear silicone around circ.
6) Pulled Carb, yeah I know the TMX is crap...and PWK is way to go...lemme work with it. Fuel bowl had never been off. Completely disassembled sprayed with Chem-Tool and blew out with compressed air.
7) Pulled reed block off.....skeet skeet skeet...brand new Boyeson carbon fibers...yeah buddy. Eyeballed the piston...cant really see nothing....looked ok tho. Put new gasket and torqued
New plastic, front fender, number plated (cracked) shrouds with oem "like" graphics and side panels. I left the rear fender alone...it had a sticker on it...that can be glossed over from boot marks (throwing a leg over).
Dumped tranny fluid....threw some royal purple 10-40 in...so far it likes it....expensive.
9) Flushed coolant system, drained and added engine ice
10) Has devol rad guards!!! But they are dorito chipped up??? Bent and out of conformance. My guess, origial owner bought off e-bay as the rads are perfect. I cold worked them with ball-peen into shape...fabbed another side bracket....ball peened the hell out oa strip of alum and drilled...werx and looks better
11) Did a comp check and she blew 180 PSI..ok...not so hot. Gonna get a few rides in and then change the slug.
12) Flushed brakes, burped added fresh Dot 4.
13) Set controls to me
14) Pulled thottle apart, cleaned...lubed with lithium grease. Let go of throttle and instantaneous aural verification its slammed to off.
As she sits in the garage now:
A couple of points and current way ahead:
1) Need larger tank!
2) New top end to establish baseline and learn PV
3) Searching for unmolested stock pipe 02-04
4) Test run at Army base tomorrow....want to see where jetting is at...pipe is working...but jetting can be cleaned up
I dont want to throw every piece of bling at this. Seems to be the common things these days. Lets see....$800 plus of bolt ons. Will it improve my riding versus bling? Or can I use a stock CR250 to its full extent? I just want a solid bike.....where is the bling when its coated with a few mm of mud?
**in-Progress**
I learned from Scott/Mojoscojo that the tight woods of Washington will wear you out. Four hours to do 12 miles!?!?!?! That was Reiter. Singletrack in the desert is either loamy, rocky, hardpack or all. Scott took me on true single track that was heavily rutted 6 plus inches deep in rottin vegetation and your boots weight a ton...so does the bike.
I began to think....might be a good time to put the 500 to slumber and step down to a 250 smoker. I surfed Craigslist and found a bunch but all were 60% more than blue book at roached out.
I saw a few, one was a 2006 YZ250, they wanted $3K. It had a blown fork seal, pukin oil out of the exhaust valves, the owner wadded it up and busted the rear fender in half...lol. His fix was to drill numerous holes and safety wire it back on...looked horrid. I walked away...with no offer made.
I was also looking at a 2007 YZ250, original owner rode it a few times ate pucky once and parked it...less than 10 hours. He wanted $1K over blue book...I laughed and walked away.
All hope is lost...over caffeinated and lack of vitamin D has melted the common sense out of some brain here. I want to ride my 500....but want to save it also.
A year ago I found a 2004 CR250 for my buddy...very little wear on clutch cover and had other signs that were quite positive. I wanted someone close to ride with. We looked at the bike...I rode it and love how it hit the pipe...like asking or more. He bought it.!
That weekend I did a abbreviated Rob inspection ready to ride deal-o. We took it to Ft Lewis and he ripped around on it fine. The next step he took it to Tahuya....easy trails...fun stuff. That poor guy ate it.......a lot! I rode sweep. He was hurting when we got back to the truck......he never rode it again. I know he was sore a few days after. Not sure what happened....I was day-dreaming on my 500 and we were on a quad trail...I came around the corner...he was in fetal position in mid air flying off to the right of the trail and the bike was riding itself off to the left???
The bike sat......which it has for most of its life. I bought it....and we start here:
@ Tahuya:
First day in my garage:
1) Bought Honda Service Manual
2) Ripped bike in half....every pivot, bearing and hinge cleaned and lubed with MolyB.
3) Airbox was growing dirt stalactites....hose out...and wiped box and snorkle spotless
4) Came with a brand new Uni...cleaned...dried, doused with FFS...wring....dry...install
5) Sealed Snorkle.AirBox junction....noted achilles heel for leaks. beaded clear silicone around circ.
6) Pulled Carb, yeah I know the TMX is crap...and PWK is way to go...lemme work with it. Fuel bowl had never been off. Completely disassembled sprayed with Chem-Tool and blew out with compressed air.
7) Pulled reed block off.....skeet skeet skeet...brand new Boyeson carbon fibers...yeah buddy. Eyeballed the piston...cant really see nothing....looked ok tho. Put new gasket and torqued
New plastic, front fender, number plated (cracked) shrouds with oem "like" graphics and side panels. I left the rear fender alone...it had a sticker on it...that can be glossed over from boot marks (throwing a leg over).
Dumped tranny fluid....threw some royal purple 10-40 in...so far it likes it....expensive.
9) Flushed coolant system, drained and added engine ice
10) Has devol rad guards!!! But they are dorito chipped up??? Bent and out of conformance. My guess, origial owner bought off e-bay as the rads are perfect. I cold worked them with ball-peen into shape...fabbed another side bracket....ball peened the hell out oa strip of alum and drilled...werx and looks better
11) Did a comp check and she blew 180 PSI..ok...not so hot. Gonna get a few rides in and then change the slug.
12) Flushed brakes, burped added fresh Dot 4.
13) Set controls to me
14) Pulled thottle apart, cleaned...lubed with lithium grease. Let go of throttle and instantaneous aural verification its slammed to off.
As she sits in the garage now:
A couple of points and current way ahead:
1) Need larger tank!
2) New top end to establish baseline and learn PV
3) Searching for unmolested stock pipe 02-04
4) Test run at Army base tomorrow....want to see where jetting is at...pipe is working...but jetting can be cleaned up
I dont want to throw every piece of bling at this. Seems to be the common things these days. Lets see....$800 plus of bolt ons. Will it improve my riding versus bling? Or can I use a stock CR250 to its full extent? I just want a solid bike.....where is the bling when its coated with a few mm of mud?
**in-Progress**