2004 CR 250 McGrath Tribute

The bike ran decent enough when I bought it. Kinda fat on the bottom and wouldn’t stay running without blipping the throttle. But it has great compression, shifts smooth, and from what I can tell it has low hours on it. I am basing that off of the minimal wear on the clutch cover and fact it has good compression.

I got the bike home and got it idling better but it still ran really fat. I washed it, twice actually. Once with Simple Green and once with Super Clean. After two washes the bike was still sticky. I figured out that the previous owner used Tire Shine to shine it. The tire shine was EVERYWHERE and would not come off! So, out with the plastic!

After getting the plastic off it was evident at how much of the bike was coated in tire shine. The last owner may as well have dunked the bike in the stuff after every ride. So, I decided to tear the whole bike down and do rebuild it from the engine up. This was going to be a simple clean up and add some extras to make it a McGrath tribute but I decided to go for it and clean it up right and freshen everything up!

Frame before:

Frame after:

I cleaned up the engine with aluminum wheel cleaner, scotch brite, and brillo pads.

Romain524 I completely agree! That’s why I decided to jump on it and stop waiting for a 95-96.

I finished up the engine and during the process I decided to paint the ignition cover, clutch cover, and RC valve cover black. My original plan was to have these items as well as the hubs powder coated black but I stumbled on a product called Steel It. I saw a few reviews about it on You Tube and was pretty impressed so I decided to give it a try. I obviously haven’t ridden the bike yet but so far I am happy with the finished product! It goes on really smooth and covers really well. I’ll keep an update on how well it wears once I start riding the bike.

When I took the bike apart I also found the right radiator was bent. It was bent up from the bottom and in toward the engine. This made fixing it pretty challenging. It wasn’t leaking so I could have continued using it but since I already tore it down and because I decided to do a more in depth build I decided to replace it. The stock radiators are way too much money IMO. My options for radiators that were actually available were pretty limited so I took the chance on a set of GPI radiators. They are a bit bigger than the stock ones so the fit is a bit tight. They do look pretty so I’m hoping that the rest of the fit goes well with them!

I cleaned up the triple clamps, greased the bearing and got them installed. I have the forks cleaned up and on the bike but they will get fully serviced before I do anything further on the front end. I also forgot to post the pics of the linkage. I got it polished up, replaced all of the bearings, and then installed it. I have yet to install the shock because it is going to get fully serviced too. All electronics have been installed as well.

Yesterday I made a ton of progress! Replaced the stock reed cage with a Boyesen Rad Valve. I was going to have to replace at least the reeds as one of them was broken so I just decided to go for the whole thing. I also got the carburetor cleaned inside and out. I forgot to mention that when I bought the bike it had a Keihin PWK carb already installed. When I took it off and inspected it, I found that it was a pre built carb from JD Jetting and it had their jet kit installed as well. The rest of the kit came with the bike as did the original Mikuni. The bike also came with a Pro Circuit pipe and spark arrestor. The spark arrestor was taken off and thrown away. They are way too long and it was pretty dinged up anyway. I cleaned up the pipe and upgraded the silencer to a Pro Circuit R304 shorty. I’m hoping this helps a little with the bottom end. I also cleaned up the subframe and air box. I also resealed it before installing it again.

Suspension has all been completely rebuilt and installed. The wheel bearings were shot so I replaced them with ceramic bearings. The hubs were coated black like the other parts. The calipers have been rebuilt and I replaced the stock brake lines with steel braided lines.

Next step is to bleed the brake lines and get tires! Then I’ll be ready for plastic and graphics, then a thorough once over to make sure I didn’t miss anything! I should be done in the next couple weeks!

The bike is virtually done! Just waiting for my number plate prints to be done. I am really happy with how the bike turned out. She seems to run really well too but I’ll find out more next weekend when I take her out on her maiden voyage!