Guy Cooper's Factory 91 RM250 sx bike resto

True, we all have our own differing personal standards.

My bikes get raced, and admittedly I therefore put far more love into the mechanicals than the cosmetics.

When they get retired, the rebuilds for storage indoors would be very different.

Some builders have OCD on their builds, I know dogger315 wouldnt let those wrinkles slide!

I just did my first seat recover and what a PITA, so glad I have a pneumatic stapler!

Firstly I want to pass on my thanks for you sharing this rebuild it's so cool.
I just scored a mountain of early 1990 mags and came across this photo of coops bike at the Pontiac supercross in 1991
Thought you might like it
Cheers

Thanks Suzu188,

For providing the above picture. I was having a hard time finding a blue Technseol gripper seat and had all but given up when I saw the above picture you sent. What jumped out at me was this particular seat cover and the fact that Guy Cooper's bike had an aluminum silencer. I did some research and it looks like his bikes had different seat covers on them at different times as well as the placement of his decals. The alloy silencer still remains a myth to me as this is the first time I say one on any of his bikes (he always had carbon fiber). I was able to replicate a carbon fiber silencer for my Cooper Tribute bike and I was also able to get the seat cover in your photo in a gripper. I then purchased some Navy blue suede, sent a photo of Guy's 1990 championship RM125, which had the same seat cover on it to a friend who stitched it in and it looks great (see below photos)., but thanks again for sharing that photo. Mike

I have no words to describe how awesome it would be to have something like this !

Could not agree more! not only is that a very cool era of bikes, but Cooper was and still is a total bad ass on a bike and appears to just be a really cool dude totally into moto. All these restores of older bikes are great to see, but a factory bike restore is the pinnacle of builds! I could not resist riding it a few times though...Any plans to have that bike at Mx rewind or Southwick Acr? I plan on attending both this year & would like to see it up close....well done

I used to have support from Suzuki back in the early 90's you are correct they used mostly stock engines, cranks were balanced and cylinders cut for spicific power ranges, heads were cc'd. the biggest change was advancing the timming 3degrees and cutting the silincer to i think 11inches or after market man it woke the engine up, Tony Berluti did this mod to mine at Binginghamton NY i think 92. Also got one of Jonny O'mara's engines had a two ring piston in it, beautiful port work, but honestly not much more powerful than a stocker with the 3degree timming setup.

Wolfy0067,

Thanks for this insight as the motors look stock (save the sand cast cases they used on Guy's 125s). Looking at the frames from 89 to present, it looks like Suzuki used stock frames and then modified them. Honda really surprised me when the production rule went into affect as their full on works bikes basically went away. Gone were the alloy tanks, one off frames, etc…but one thing Honda did differently then Suzuki based on your comments above Wolfy is that unlike Suzuki according to Ricky Johnson the internals were very exotic and one off (cranks and such). Thanks for sharing. Mike

I can't say for all riders, however the budgets were tight at Suzuki, i was able to get some good parts at times like the engine, they ran alot of preproduction parts that would make there way into production the following year.

Now I wonder how much of that motor in Guy's RM250 that sgthubbard#60 owns are actually one-off parts? If mostly production motor parts then he might be able to ride this bike a bit with no fear of breaking parts that cannot be replaced…I would sure be tempted!

Looking at the frame brings back memories we would flex them to the point the heads would leak from the stay pulling on the bolts, head area and the linkage areas had to be beefed up the drill the head where the bolt goes through over size to able it to move with out pulling the cylinder studs, still have a brand new exhaust on the shelf

Kinda bandwagoning here, but this project is SO cool. Bring back a lot of great memories. Thanks Sgt!

The seat hasn't arrived but I thought share a photo or two of the tank, it looks really good with that Works pipe...where do these parts keep coming from...all I got to say is keep them coming...Yeah!

Seat wrinkles. I want to chime in here. When I first saw those wrinkles in Sgthubbar#60's seat cover, they looked like wrinkles to me too (as if the seat had not been pulled tight enough when stapled). I was going to recommend he use a blow dryer or heat gun on low heat to smooth them out, but now that I have the same type of seat (Technosel), I can tell you that Sgthubbar#60 is correct, those are not wrinkles in his seat. My seat arrived in the mail today and ever since the guy who did the work for me sent photos (before the seat arrived), I was thinking they were wrinkles too, but they are not. Yes they look like it in a photo, but when you have the seat in front of you they are not, they are simply made into the cover itself. There is one tiny wrinkle do to the seat being installed on the bike and plus I chose a medium foam seat (and not the stiff stocker), but when the seat is off the bike, its perfect. Take a look. Mike

"beefy triple clamps"...

That's so rad Newmann! I mean she was VIP to start out with, but now she's looking super sharp. That pipe came out great!

That's Hubbards, not mine...LOL. Hubbard is all about Suzuki's.