what's the best 80's two stroke?

My guess is that your '87 CR125 had an air leak in the cases or the ignition side main seal and that's why you were seizing top ends. Did you ever do a leak down test on the engine?


A buddy of mine bought Terry Tinney's '87 CR125. I think he was national number 73 that year. Anyhoo, the bike had a million hard hours on it when my friend bought it, then he put more hard hours on it without doing anything to it except filling it with gas and changing oil and filters every once in a while.

87 CR250 Hands Down!

3 completely new engines, most of the work done on this bike was done by Ron Dunfee's(85 AMA 500cc Rookie of the Year) mechanic, who also worked for Zabor's in Austin and a few trips to the mechanic's at Woods Honda in Austin. Those engine's were built right and run on 32:1 Bel Ray MC-1+ and when the bike wasn't getting worked on for a seizure, the piston and rings were only run for about 2 hours.

This same scenario was posed in a question to Eric Gorr a few years ago concerning this same bike and he said that the iron bore 87 and 88 CR125's did have cooling issues due to the water jacket being too close. His main fix was a nickasil(sp) cylinder from an 89 (not that this answer would have done me any good in 87). I wasn't the only rider having this issue back then amongst the locals around Austin and San Antonio. I did have a chance to run a Mugen cylinder on it for a few weeks to get by till my new cylinder came in once and I didn't seize that one up. Damn did that thing give some hard to ride rocket top end, but the owner wanted it back ASAP, and getting one of those for myself was damn near impossible, plus I didn't really know that that was the problem then.

Like I said though, that bike was excellent when it ran, with the White Brothers re-valved shock it was the best suspended and best handling bike I've ever been on. My 08 RMZ 450 turns about as tight as a bulldozer in comarison.

It's hindsight now, but more oil may have helped your engines last. I always ran 125's at 24:1 and I currently run my '82 RM250 at that ratio too. With a high reving 125, the oil doesn't stay in the engine very long. Team Suzuki was running Motul 800 at 28:1 before the switch to 250F's and the motul 800 is a lot better than any oil we had back in the 80's.

I don't know what Terry ran in his '87. For some reason, that bike worked flawlessly.

CamP You looked way better on them yellow bikes on your bio page. Just sayin you know.

Depends on if you ride like RC, or grandma.

125 Shifter karts run 16:1 becasue they are WFO all the time.

A put putter would be better off at 50:1 but if he blasts down a 2 mile road WFO, that would be a bit lean on oil.

This would have been a nice one for the 80"s

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/mcy/1555920585.html

My personal picks....125cc - 1982 Suzuki Rm125
250cc - 1987 Honda Cr250
500cc - 1981 Maico 490

I think that the KX's look super trick out of the box but personally. I really like my 1980 CR 125.

'81 Maico 490
'81 KTM495 ( gotta be a place for the fastest mx bike ever produced )
'81 Suzuki RM125
'82 Suzuki RM250
'83 Honda CR250
'83 Honda CR480
'86 Honda CR250
'87 Honda CR250
'87 Honda CR500
'89 Kawasaki KX500

That's my picks

Me and my friend drag raced my 1989 cr125 against my 2005 cr125 and we were both in 5th gear and he was barely ahead of me, but when he hit 6th it was like fast and the furious when they hit the nitrous, that thing just took off and there was no chatching up. My 88 cr125 is pretty fast too so im gonna say either 88 or 89.

1988 kx125...when it ran right
1986 CR250!

Agreed.

I always hear about the 490 Maico and since I have never ridden one, was it better than the CR or KX of it's day?

I'd have to say the 87 CR250 although my Husky 250WR was pretty nice in the woods.

Picking one bike from the eighties is tough because there were really 3 periods during the eighties that can be represented.

Many early-eighties bikes were air cooled, had drum brakes and twin or non-linkage shocks.
Mid-eighties bikes were water-cooled, had disc-brakes up front, linkage rear suspension, and conventional forks.
Late-eighties bikes had front and rear discs, improved rear suspension, and upside down forks.

These groups could be broken down into 125, 250, and 500 as well, resulting in 9 "best of" bikes for the eighties.

Of course, all of this is subjective depending on whether you rode desert, moto, woods, etc...

Of course I'm biased and have to vote for the 1986 Honda CR250 But I do have a1986 CR125 as well !



Sorry :-)

(now I still can't load a photo, damn!).

HELP !

Any Honda...

81 RM125
83 CR250
84-85 KX125
87 YZ125

Had the 85 KX125 leaned out so the plug ran white hot.........thing was crisp from the get go. Dad always saying I was gonna seize it..........never did, just ran like a rocket ship. Thing had every DMC mod on it & PC pipe. Trickest bike I ever built, pulled 3rd gear out of turns instead of 2nd.

87 YZ125 best stock overall balanced bike I had..........great tunable stock suspension, fast, no pipe or mods needed to win the Intermediate class & holeshot over 500's.