Mullennix '02 CR250

Nice thanks for following along! Hoping to keep this thing rolling.

For some reason, I was dead set convinced I was going to hand scrub the entire frame by hand using scotch brite pads. Like actually stubborn about not blasting it, even though I own a blast cabinet plenty big enough.

I think I was just burnt out from working on other people's frames at the time. 

After a few fairly dedicated weekends of scrubbing by hand, I kept getting side tracked with fixing things breaking/wearing out on my Harley (still my only vehicle and my daily), and putting out relationship fires. 

After about a week or two of down time, my frame started looking like it took a chance with a risky lady from the bar down the street. Makes sense, considering I left off with the coarse grit pads, and never was able to seal up the exposed pores with a finer grit pad. Just surprised me how quick it happened with aluminum. 

I realized very quickly there was no way I was going to realistically keep up with this with my life at the time.

Much time passed, we let the corrosion get away from us a bit.

At this point I'm back home and have access to my blaster along with all of my equipment whenever I'm not working the full time job. The first day I had, I spent a solid probably 9-10 hours blasting everything clean

Got another 8 or 9 hours of blasting in, and got it where I want it:

Getting the subframe to match:

The great thing about having a blast cabinet is being able to clean up hardware on the fly. Even though I may replace some of these bolts due to the heads being mashed in at some point during previous ownership. Still looks good enough to mock up in the mean time.

A while back I had a change of heart on cerakoting the hubs. I loved how the frame parts were turning out, so I blasted the hubs to match. I think this will be a cleaner look overall.

Got some work in on the rear wheel:

Crazy how months can fly by. Since my last post I ended up working a couple side jobs to help fund this build, and even worked for a local cerakote shop briefly. I worked on this build when I had the energy and time. 

The swingarm had some scratches that weren't really worth the time and effort trying to get out, but this gouge on the underside was bothering me. I snipped it, and cleaned it up a little. I really didn't want to go through getting it welded, ground smooth etc. Got it smooth enough (not pictured here) for me to forget about once mounted on the bike.

The long parts of the swingarm on these bikes were anodized originally. After speaking with a couple people I trust, I was pretty convinced I'd need to chemically dip it to strip the anodize prior to blasting to achieve the finish I was looking for. I see what they're saying with how long it takes to knock the anodize off uniformly (comes out patchy/blotchy during blasting), but as long as you keep the blast profile consistent and are mindful of blending the sections you're working on as you go, you can actually achieve a nice finish just dry glass bead blasting the thing. 

Left side is blasted, right is unblasted:

So away I went putting in chunks of hours blasting when I was off work. Very tedious stuff. 

After around 24 hours total in blasting from start to finish, I really don't think this method is worth the time unless you have a lot of attention to detail and spare time on your hands. That being said, I like the result and this will be easy to touch up and clean with a scotch brite pad or Grip Clean wipe on the fly.

Went all OEM for bearings and seals for the swingarm and linkage, as well as the steering stem because I am really pushing to get a rolling chassis going. Although I saved a lot of money by planning to cleanup and reuse spacers/collars, it still ran me about $330 after tax. But I shopped around and don't feel I overpaid. Plus, the confidence I won't be pulling this apart anytime soon as opposed to cheaping out and going Chinese with the All Balls/Pivot Works and now Pro X rebuild kits was all I needed to feel better about the purchase. No Chinese made bearing will ever touch this bike.

Brent Myron over at FasterUSA loaned me his Motion Pro suspension bearing tool kit to make removal and reinstallation easier on the swingarm and linkage. I haven't had the best luck with Motion Pro tools over the years, but this kit did make things easier than the age old socket route. I did still need a socket used in conjunction with a bench vise for the singular knuckle bearing during install, as well as the link arm bearings because the threaded rod provided was not long enough. So the kit wasn't quite a *do it all*, for those trying to justify the price tag. It is pretty damn useful and convenient to have though. 

A quick cleanup after removal with some fresh grease ready for install.

I didn't need to use any heat or penetrant on the parts to remove the bearings, and install went even smoother after greasing the bearings and popping them in the freezer for a few hours.  

Same goes for the linkage, which was blasted raw like the rest of the chassis rather than Cerakoted like originally planned:

All fresh, with bearing depth verified:

The knuckle internals are in much worse shape than the link arm's. They are rusty and crusty. I don't think I'm blasting these, I want them smooth as possible. Getting a 2nd opinion on that tomorrow.

For the corrosion and grime built up, I had a two step method. Grip Clean wipe, then scotch brite scrubbed, then wiped clean again before ever reaching the blast cabinet.

Ready for blast:

Swingarm bolt looking straight nasty.

All linkage and swingarm hardware prior to blast:

After blast:

Skat Blast 976 Pro Detailer Extra High, shooting 170-325 mesh glass bead 

Here's a look at how clean these linkage bolts came out:

Linkage and swingarm hardware cleaned up. Also, thought it was interesting that majority of the OEM Honda seals were "Made in China" (seals on the right side of this photo):

I didn't blast the pivot collars, and decided to clean them by hand to keep them as smooth as possible using a combo of scotch brite pads and degreaser. All cleaned up nicely but one.

After more than two hours of trying to smooth these ridges out by hand, I finally decided to look up what a new OEM one costs. A whole seven f***in' dollars 😂

I got a new one on order that day through the local dealership, and it should be here tomorrow. At least I learned my lesson on checking price of new before I go and waste time on stupid things like that in the future. 

Linkage assembly waiting on the new pivot collar, hoping to finish assembling this tomorrow night if it comes in:

Swingarm waiting for the linkage, that's waiting on a pivot collar, so I can finally mount both, and get my shock on, and so on, and so forth:

Pivot collar came in, but boy did this one seal give me hell with not staying put during install into the shock:

I ended up having to use the bolt and nut in combination with a bunch of washers to squeeze it in place. Even that took a couple tries. 

Once the seal was in (and straightened back out from deformation), I recleaned the shock to make sure that wasn't contributing to the seal popping out constantly:

Got everything on, used the lift to help raise/lower things into lining up easier. I didn't torque anything down yet, but here's how it all went together with the linkage, shock and swingarm installed:

Thank you very much, I appreciate that.

Realized I never showed the linkage on the bike since rebuild. Not to worry, I sandwiched a towel between the stand and linkage/shock after these photos:

I ran into a very minor snag right before I punched out the steering stem races on the frame. The bottom of the neck had evidence of someone previously changing out the steering stem bearings, I found the faintest gouge from someone driving the bottom race in, but enough to where i wanted to deal with it prior to punching the race out:

Probably could've just drove the race right through it, but I didn't want to take chances as I was using a punch. So very carefully, I took a Dremel to it:

Smoothed it with a scotch brite, and you'd never know a dremel touched it. I'll get more photos of the surface before new bearing install, because the above was fresh after the dremel.

I started off with a borrowed motion pro punch with a flat tip end, but found that flat tip of the tool was deteriorating with each hit of the hammer. It needs grinding in between hits to reshape it after about 1-2 revelutions I made with the punch (front-back, one side to the other and repeat). 

Again, not the best luck with their tools outside of their dedicated kits. I ended up using a piece of round aluminum stock my dad had lying around and it turned an hour job into maybe 5 minutes punching the steering races out total? And I'm talking both top and bottom. Took longer to flip over and set the frame up for punching the top race out:

Thanks for the kind words! 

What's up Troy! I'm hoping to be riding by the tail end of spring if all goes well. But I'm pretty sure I said the same thing 4 years ago haha

That's a bad ass first priority though. I may be in the wrong state for it, but I love building and working on guns in general. Very satisfying. 

Do you have an Instagram or somewhere you showcase your work? I'd love to check it out.

Next focus is refinishing the triple clamps. I kind of forgot I never fully finished removing the casting line off the lower clamp years back. I got the stem pressed out by China over at FasterUSA so it would be easier to work on. 

You can also see a spot where I must have used a dirty scotch brite wheel, and gouged it pretty good. There was two spots like this. I was probably drinkin' that night...

Off to the buffer we go:

Love to hear it as a probably fellow undiagnosed. Hopefully my cluttered work benches don't change your mind haha

I'd really like if I could enjoy the tail end of the spring riding season here in So Cal before the summer cooks us. I'm trying to focus on one part of the bike at a time, but decided it would be wise to just outsource the motor rebuild while I focus on wrapping up the chassis.

A lot of friends that really want to see me back riding were egging me on to just rebuild the top end and run the bottom end as is. I appreciate their excitement, but I had to explain to them that this whole thing needs to be gone through because it's just been sitting out in the open behind my blast cabinet completely exposed. 

You can see what I'm talking about here:

Dusty and crusty, boys. A mix of aluminum oxide, glass dust, probably years old cerakote overspray plus whatever organic dust and debris from wind all just accumulating over time. 

I planned on tearing this whole thing down myself to learn and save money simultaneously. But like the old Honda commercials in the 2000's, "I wanna ride" at this point.

I decided to hit the easy button and contact an old acquaintance. I've known Andrew Langston (Grant's uncle and mechanic) since I first started in the moto industry when he was at Factory KTM. Even helped him move into his current place years ago, which was a trip going by there again the other night. He only lives 10 minutes from me, but it's been years since we've seen each other. 

I want to say I was 15 ½ or 16 years old at the time of him moving in there, and I'll be 33 this year. 

Andrew is currently tearing it down for me, letting me know what I need, and if my standard top end kit will even work because I bought it years ago without even inspecting the cylinder bore first. He posted this the morning after I dropped it off, and he may have also convinced me to enter this bike in the Langston Motrosports bike show that I attend every year anyway as just a spectator. 

Problem is, it's not going to look anywhere near as pretty come October if all goes to plan. This bike is going to be a rider, not just a show piece, and I intend on riding the hell out of it. May need to get some proper photos of it taken before the first ride.