1997 RM250 Retro Rebuild

Phase 1 - Get it running

There were some issues that I found right away. The swing arm was junk. The previous owner must have gone ice riding at some point and the screws chewed thru one side. The chain adjuster bolt had broken and someone drilled thru it for some reason. I was able to find one on Ebay in nice condition to replace it.





The kill switch was a hacked and replaced with a lawn mower rocker switch.



The engine needed a lot of work. The crank was seized up and the kick starter gears were stripped out. I split the case and had the crank rebuilt. The outer bearings and seals were all replaced and then I reassembled the lower end.











For now I painted the frame gloss black. Its not the factory Suzuki color, dark metalic grey, but it will have to do for now. In the future I would like to disassemble and have the frame powder coated.









I cleaned the carb and added new vent lines. These blue lines are supposed to be ethenol resistant. The bike had some Works Connection radiator braces.



The bike came with an Applied Racing billet top clamp with oversize bar mounts. I found a gold pair of Pro Tapers on Ebay.



Due to the budget I decided that I needed to get the bike running and ride able. I reassembled it with the plastics it had when I bought it. They cleaned up nice with a little simple green and elbow grease. I decided I would use the powder coated rims and rebuild the other set with gold excels rims.





I found my old number plates that I had on my 96 RM 125 and used them on the bike.







If you look just in front of the clutch cover you will see a schrader valve. It is from an intertube and has been glued into the case. If you know what this is for please explain. On the inside it lines up with the end of the crank shaft.



Phase 2 - work out the bugs

The first ride was a success! It did however uncover some issues with the bike. The left radiator had a leak, it was a fairly slow one. The stock rads had been discontinued so I found some on Ebay. They fit okay, but had some issues I would discover in Phase 3.







The brakes were in terrible condition. The rear brake would push all the way down and not work. I flushed it with new fluid and it worked a little better. The brake pedal end was so sloppy I could never find it. I learned that a drz400 rotor would fit my 97 hub. Then I retro fit a 2007 RMZ 250f rear brake assembly onto the bike. I had to relocate the track for the rotor bracket. I also had to modify the tab for the master cylinder on the frame.







I found this pedal end on Ebay and machined the pedal to fit.



The suspension needed to be revalved and sprung for my weight. I wanted to upgrade the rear shock to a modern shock with hi/lo speed clickers. I found an 03 RM shock on Ebay for the swap. The problem I found was the length of the shock was different.


97 left and 03 right

My local suspension guy is Greg Lynk former mechanic for Buddy Antenez on Factory Suzuki. He really liked the project and still had some parts in storage from back in the day. I scored some plastics and work connection parts. He also revalved my suspension and swapped the springs. We were able to use the lower billet piece of the 97 RM shock on the 03 to correct the length.

Phase 3 - Build the motor

So I ran the bike for the summer. I did a race here and there and then grenaded the engine. It was time to get some serious HP out this old RM.

The Athena piston off Ebay was not up to the challenge


I sent the cylinder and head to Eric Gorr. He does exceptional work! The cylinder was bored to a 295cc and he matched the ports. He also had to reshape the power valves to fit the larger cylinder. It was a big chunk of change to drop on a 20 year old bike, but it was worth it. The cylinder came back clean and ready to install. The kit included a beautiful Wiseco piston.









While I was into the engine it needed a clutch basket pretty bad. I found a nice Wiseco one on Ebay new in the box for a good deal.





I put a little Mother's on the aluminum rad and triples



I won a FMF silencer at the Stimlion MX challenge, finished 3rd in the "keepin it real" 2-stroke class. They have a class for retro bikes, the "Bring out your dead" class. Its a fun race that I try to attend every year and old RM brought home the bacon.



My buddy Gregg Lynk had a rear rim in his basement. I media blasted my hub and laced it up with new excel spokes. The old school gold rims are so sick!



I had a Works Connection hole shot device left over from one of my Honda's. It fit on the fork tube with a slightly longer clamp bolt. Its funny to see on the conventional fork setup.



I looked all over the place for the graphics without any luck. My buddy Chris at 139 Designs was able to put together a close copy of the original 96 Team Suzuki kit.



I put the graphics on the bike as soon as I got home that night! They came out looking great. Now I just needed to come up with a seat cover. I wish that I had punched holes in the tank graphics so they wouldn't bubble as bad. You get used to the modern bikes and forget about those details.







I finally got around to polishing my front hub and lacing the front wheel. I had to order a new rim and spokes from Lynk's Racing.

The number plate was one that I had from my old 96 RM125. I had it in a box for almost 20 years, lol. I've seen them used on Ebay every now and then. The only new ones I've seen are purple and white. Yeah Gregg wrenched for Buddy for a few seasons. He also worked with factory Suzuki Primal Impulse. The last rider he wrenched for was Brandon Jesemen. He has a small shop in Panton VT called Lynk's racing. He builds engines for a lot of Loretta Lynn Am bikes. He actually supported Eli Tomac during his 85cc days at Loretta's. Check out his website http://lynksracing.com/

Riding a 2-stroke again has brought a lot of fun back to riding for me. The RM turns on a dime and weighs 30 lbs less than my KX450F. It is a little down on power in comparison.

Here are some shots I took last Spring

Thanks everyone, this has been a really fun build! Being able to throw a leg over it and get it dirty made it all worth it.

Has anyone ever come across a set of 1997 Suzuki of Troy graphics like Mcgrath ran? I'm thinking it would be cool to have another set of plastics with these graphics. It would be cool to find the works forks and fork clamp too.

I agree, finding the seat cover would be the key. I remember having a one industries graphics kit back in 97 and those vinyl sides were such an ass ache! They wouldn't stretch at all. And then when you rode the bike there was no grip. Gotta love the 90's!

thanks Micahdogg! Bman's Mc RM build is sick!

Here are some pics from over the weekend. I raced Stimilon at Southwick and tested the fork brace.



The fork brace worked great!