Another 1996 CR250 Build

Alright my phone is absolutely chock full of pictures so it’s hard to sort through them all, stay patient as I’m trying to keep these chronologically ordered. 

the bike has pegs off a later model YZ450F I snagged for a deal on eBay, they will eventually be swapped to a titanium peg.

frame is coated

OEM triples cleaned up and mounted. Don’t mind the shop, I have multiple projects running me out of space. Lol

So funny enough, I found this carbon skid plate on eBay, NOS in the plastic. Turns out it was for the Sarholz Racing Honda team back in the 90’s, and was meant for their MXGP CR250’s. I thought it might be a nice trick little addition to the bike. We will see.

I rebuilt the rear KYB shock with all KYB internals and put a new Race Tech spring on for my weight.

And I’ve spent a lot of time and elbow grease trying to clean up/refinish a myriad of aluminum parts with glass bead blasting and Pryme MX cleaning wheels.

this FMF silencer was in dire straits when I bought the bike, unfortunately I didn’t take as many before pictures as I should have to show the difference. But it’s turning out pretty solid.

So while I have the parts to rebuild the factory KYB forks, and they’re in great shape, I think I’m going to do something different with those. Instead, I bought a set of twin chamber Showas off a CRF450, along with a complete front brake system off a CRF as well. 
 

Cleaned up the swingarm and put fresh bearings in, new chain slider, guide/rub block, and rebuilt the rear braking system. Running a braided Galfer line.

move also decided to add some color to the engine, I’m coating the cases this week. I hope to have the engine built and in the frame in the next two weeks

@crc245 you're welcome! I love building bikes in my spare time. Probably as much as I enjoy riding them. 
 

the rear hub is what came with the bike and I just cleaned all the casting lines off and cleaned with a Pryme wheel. I’m still deciding on utilizing the factory hubs and lacing my wheels onto those, or having Dubya or someone else build me a set. I’d prefer to have a set built and then keep these as a spare set in case I’m at the track and blow a spoke out or get a flat. 

Alright so I started to mess with the seat yesterday, it’s original Honda foam and an original seat base. Unfortunately the last person to put a seat cover on was pretty happy with the stapler. And one of the mounting brackets has loose rivets. So I will be drilling those out and putting new washers/rivets on the brackets. The foam, while ugly and discolored, feels pretty firm and it’s not dry rotted out.

anyone have any experience with replacement seat foam from throttle jockey or elsewhere? And if so, was it any good?

So not a lot of progress in the past week or so because I was waiting on a sonic cleaner to make sure the cases are 100% clean before paint/assembly. Also ordered the wrong FMF silencer decal so I ended up cutting it to make it work. Looks better than I thought it would. 
 

here’s some sonic cleaned parts ready for assembly

Then a before and after of the clutch basket after a 30 minute dip in the sonic cleaner

Not a whole lot to update as I’ve been waiting on parts that are pretty critical to the next steps of building this thing. SPD factory developments (formerly Phil Denton Engineering) has shipped my swingarm pivot bolt so once I get that I can actually stuff the motor in. 
 

in the mean time, I finished coating the cases after getting them back from the welder (small pinhole on the back of the clutch arm boss)

Crank and transmission installed/buttoned up. When I find more time in the next couple weeks, I’ll finish the primary/clutch side as well as the top end.

Apologies for not updating. It’s been a busy month thus far. I’ve got the engine pretty much done, just waiting on dowels for the cylinder.
 

However, I was able to get the bottom end into the chassis and get the rear suspension/swingarm completely buttoned up.

also some nice stuff from SPD out of England showed up

That’s as far as I have been able to get lately. Family vacation slowed things down considerably, but hopefully I can order wheels in the next couple of months.

No updates, just cleaned up the shop a little and decided to take some more pics

So this is not the tank I will be using, this is purely for mock up purposes, or if I want to do some long trail rides. Also as you can see by the old rotors, I’m bleeding brakes and without wheels yet I just end up clamping the old rotor in the caliper and doing it that way.

Doesn’t look like a lot. But mounted up the radiator roost deflectors, bolted the kick starter on, put a new clutch in it, mounted the stator, and did final torque sequences on all the engine bolts.

Minor update. Installed head studs and finished the top end as well as torquing engine mounts and head stay brackets. 
 

also re-jetted the carb back to factory specs for a baseline to work from. Still waiting on more vent line to replace a couple hoses on the carb. (Yes I know I will have to re route the clutch cable and a couple other things, just waiting on little parts to make sure it’s done right)

also the motor makes between 185-190 PSI of compression. This reading is after letting it sit for a second and it bled pressure off. I think it should be pretty healthy.

yesterday I order some stuff from Claudio at Mastercross in Italy. An exhaust is on the way! As well as the seat cover. I’ll update more when the cone pipe comes and I have some more time to make headway on this thing.

That’s disappointing man, I literally ordered the parts the day that post was published. The communication back and forth through email wasn’t too bad, so I hope that they come through with the parts. I didn’t order anything that’s supposed to be off a works bike. Either way, I don’t know how they are still in business when they are screwing people over.

thanks for posting that up though because I was able to find another place that deals in those parts. I can’t stand a thief or scammers. He must not have dealt with someone on the other end of that transaction that has confronted him face to face over that.

Big update. I did not get scammed by Claudio at Mastercross and my parts showed up today. I am super stoked! The bike had to have a cone pipe, I just couldn’t put a platinum finish or even the raw stamped pipes just didn’t do it for me. 
 

Thanks man I appreciate it! I was definitely worried after reading through some forums about it. But everything showed up as expected. Part of me wanted to do a full OEM restore like what you’ve done with yours, but the other part of me just things ‘95 Honda of Troy bikes were really cool. So I’m somewhat going for that type of look.

I don’t care about maintenance, the looks outweigh the hassle!

Okay that’s definitely something I can get behind. Couple questions though, what size spray tip for the paint gun is best for that application? And what is needed for surface prep? I do not want to blast the pipe because it’ll remove all the clean weld discoloring. Wipe down with acetone?