1992 through 1996 Honda CR 250s Done. The last 5 years of the Honda 250 steel frames.

Hopefully when I go to sell all of these some heavy hitter will want all five. I enjoyed your tribute to 94.

Hahahaha…You’re the first person to comment on that. It’s much harder to get the paint to stick on those than any other part. I dislike doing it, but if I do not to me they look less original. Thanks for commenting on those.

More onward.. 1993 is next.

Another one I purchased not running. This one is actually what lead me to the WR and the 96 CR that I have already completed. No real rhyme or reason why I did these in the order that I did. Looking back I would have still completed them in the same order. The Yamaha may have been done just to take a break from the Honda's. I really thought I was going to use the Yamaha. I read so many comments about the strength of these on the low end. I guess I could fire it up and ride it, But the power of letting the new owner do that over my interest prevails.

All I knew about this motor is that compression still felt strong. Always a good thing. Definitely the worse appearance of the power valve assembly possibly out of all of them.

I would imagine it still functioned as it should have. Hard for me to offer an opinion on the importance of keeping these routinely maintained. Does the volume of carbon buildup translate in decreased throttle response? As in the ease of movement and or speed? Since I received a whole bunch of Yamalube from the seller I imagine this residue may be as a result of its use. The 86 Honda was apart completely when purchased. I did not cover much of the engine restore on that Yamaha for some reason.

The oddest issue with the tear down was the left side crank seal. Somehow it had become displaced. I have no idea what could have caused this. It may have been still sealing as I saw no signs of of a massive air leak.

Anyone breaking a motor apart knows this image...

Scaping out carbon residue.

The mag will need to be re-shot. If I left this without cerakote over it  rust would quickly reform. 

Clean up of the clutch cover. Air powered abrasive discs used initially. Will next throw it on the bench grinder with a less abrasive wheel. Finally bead blast and paint.

Next will be upping my game on the cylinder and head..

Looks like I grabbed some before pictures and after. I got lazy and just selected this bunch. 

These appear to be after I have removed casting lines on the cylinder and prior to smoothing/polishing. There are images of the smoothing work that I did. Since this was the last motor of the four I managed to really smooth as much as I could. Various wheels on a Dremel is what I used.

My method for cleaning out circular passageways. I wonder how many who build their own motors go to this effort.

Cylinder is ready for tape off and spraying.

The rest of the parts taped off and ready for bead blasting. Keep in mind this is after at least 2 other days getting them to this point. 

After bead blast is another clean. Simple green, high temp hot water, all orifices blown out (especially threaded holes for screws). This is another day after this part just to get them ready for spraying the day after.

I had a spare clutch cover so I prepped it and shot it too. I will use this on my first 95 CR 250.

Another couple shots of the VMX tanks. Having just updated my 1995 CR 250 I had a chance to get a closer look at the Clarke tank. Night and day. I do not have an image of it here. But super impressive how they mold those tanks. The finish on them is outstanding. I will say the VMX tanks use the 6mm inserts for the shrouds vs 4mm ones on the Clarke. But the finish on the tank demands polishing. I would still polish it even if the bike its going on is a rider.

Before

After at least an hour.

Built up the lower. New crank seals and other various seals. Rebuilt the water pump with seals also. New fiber plates for the clutch and bead blasted the aluminum plates. Polished the actuating rod for the clutch and smoothed the engagement of the arm itself where it contacts the rod. Made sure to smooth the ends of the rod with a polish also.

Reshot the mag, retaining nut, and the retaining nuts for the backing plate. I did not want to shoot the backing plate and cook it to dry it. Just did not want to subject it to the heat. Made sure to clean up the wires leading down to the case and shrink wrap some heavy duty material to seal out the junction to the cover.

Transparency. I am holding a piece of the case that broke out and must have been crudely glued in. Odd place to bust out as it was deeper in the threaded portion. So I coated a bolt with an agent to keep it from sticking in the epoxy and inserted/screwed in. Cleaned up the excess material and sprayed. The position of the held piece is relative to where it had broken loose from.

I grabbed the frame and started preparing it for the motor install.

Lower motor in the frame with a ProX piston original bore size. The original piston was in great shape. But I had to give it a freshie.

With that in I threw the jug on. Made sure to coat all the metal against metal with some synthetic 2 stroke oil. Crank bearings were lubed with this same oil. All other bearings received  the Maxima assembly lube.

This image shows the grey darken than it actually is. I kept tinting the center case color with black for this outside cover. All four of these bikes will show a color progression on this cover.

The power valve assembly waiting for that first rip. This should sound very nice and crispy. It will not hurt the pipe is cleaned of carbon and there is new packing in the silencer. All the bikes received this similar treatment. I also used anti seize grease on the many of the surfaces within here. Not on the power valve parts themselves.

Electrical installed. Checking spark. This in-expensive tool I used on all of them. Super simple to use. I continue to believe just going through these parts and connections will resolve overwhelmingly most who think they have problems. So easy to overlook and assume that if it looks all complete and doesn't work there must be a problem that requires replacement. Take it ALL apart and go through each component.

That brush shot? I used that to just clean the area around the sparkplug cap meets the wire. A little bit of soil/debris there. Just a shot of attention to details that all these bikes received in one form or another.

All very used and 30 year old components. Just take your time. These items clean up to look near new again.

Bottom roller for the chain. Could have easily used the old bearings. This doesn't get seen. Yes the roller is not new. But it has new bearings. These smaller OD rollers are harder to find than one may realize.

Thanks Inferno I enjoy your comments.

Those 125 louvers bow a little bit. I have to remove plastic material on all four of the keepers in order to get them to fit. But at $30 or so a side they are priced right for new.

Yes, a tiny little work space I have. Just enough to build one bike thankfully. The big reason why putting all four together at the same time was not practical. Plus doing one at a time resulted in sole focus on that one.  The other upside was greater anticipation of what to expect when building out. None of these just bolted together. Just the nature of dealing with so many restored parts.

Forks. I was going to run the 94 forks. But since this was coming out so well I decided to go with these KYB B-kit forks 43mm. The B series was a smaller diameter at 43mm, and had cast axle holders vs machined ones on the A series. I have had these for at least 3 years or so just sitting. I was going to try and build a replica bike but felt the effort and expense would be senseless. Additionally the appeal of such an offering would only limit potential buyers. So on the 93 they went. 

This was no small task. It meant having to lace up a newer hub since the axle was larger than 93. Change out the caliper hanger and fit some 95 triples to the 93 steering stem. This change which I never anticipated for resulted in one delay/problem after another. The difference in the steering head length just demands you press out the 93 and press into the 95. I have no idea how All Balls corrects for this when trying to fit later model triples on the 92-93. 

The axle holders are more a gun metal color vs being just black. I did re-coat them but used rattle can vs cerakote. I wasn't going to disassemble them just to do that. The seller of these to me did state that Factory Connection had serviced them. 

The mag cover may look like it has a finish issue, but that is a restored one by me with a clear coat over it. The reflection causes it to appear unfinished.

Thanks guys..I have been distracted with my trailer restore since finishing the 93-96. I updated the 92 a little more right after being done with the 93. 
The roller will become a complete since I found and will purchase a used motor. I’m going 93 on that.

The trailer is a behemoth… Just about 22 feet interior. Taller than I wanted but it was relatively local to me and I purchased for $5500. It will be challenging to get nine bikes into it. 
I already dropped about $1100. additionally and there will be more as I tailor it for my needs. Had to put in a couple vents, seal the roof, paint the interior, and also plan the bike securing. No simple task as I want the bikes held by the footpegs mainly. 

I know all too well the importance of self promotion. The only way to have a hope at performing restores for others is getting eyes on my work.

Pictures only convey so much.

I'm honestly not necessarily looking forward to travelling to moto or other events to display. I did so much of that when I went to races to promote my helmet painting. It will be even more work now and expense. 

But attempting to find business close to my area makes great sense. I would love to display down south at like a vintage race or 2 stroke national. 

Was able to get eight of them loaded with room to spare. Looks like I can readily haul ten.

I needed a securing method that would do so without having to use tie downs nor anything attaching to the bars. But what I would use needed to lock the bikes in place and not allow for any of them to hit each other.

Oh, and it needed to be cheap as possible… 10 after all.

This required a little thought.

So, turnbuckles was the answer. The key is using a bike stand in the down position tp anchor the bike down. That and tire chalks purchased through Rocky Mountain. $20 apiece. Bought the hooks/fasteners and welded the tire chalks into those. This way I can readily remove them. 

Thanks brother.. 

Had to re-do the forks on the 93. I just had some misery with alignment issues trying to use the B-kit forks. Super duper frustrating as I tried a variety of changes to make them work. None of it easy since I have to restore the triples if I make a change.

The 93 is special to me since it was the last complete done. This allowed just slightly a little more time and patience. Not that I rushed any of these. I did consider just putting a more original set of forks back on. But this would have meant a third time rebuilding the the front wheel.

Fortunately I had another set of twin Showa's from a 98' or later. 

So I pulled those out and took them apart.

There was some funky debris over the lower portion of the cartridge. I have zero idea how this entered the system. The oil wasn't horrible as most of the components were pretty clean. So both of these were carefully cleaned. 

Next cleaned up the adjusters.

Just showing the progression of the restorative efforts. Hit that screw with a jewelers file to rid it of the moved up metal. 

Best I can do given the soft material. I avoided heavy abrasive pad on top of the caps.

Silly polishing of other parts...

Makes a difference? It does for me in my mind from a restorative effort. Shinier = Faster/smoother/better... Yeah!

Every bike I have done has had the similar treatment to the forks. Sure I could just change seals and throw it all back together. But by showing my form of efforts with this small stuff will demonstrate my approach with the entire bike. Hopefully a future owner will appreciate these types of details. 

Cleaned up the lugs and shot them a custom mixed color like the B-kit fork lugs.

Since these are 47mm forks I would have to pony up for some more triples. $70 bought some with bolts, and even included two broken off fender mounting screws. Yes, I made the ebay seller aware of it since he had not disclosed this. Since he offered to do something for me I let it past. I just appreciated the offer. Plus I had started clean up of them and no way was I going to return.

Not the most difficult threaded portions to remove. But I found all those threaded portions undersized. Little surprise they broke off when removing the fender. I re-threaded them to 6mm.

In 97 Honda changed the stops for the fork travel. This is always a pain in the rear end to adapt to the earlier style. If I had just pressed out the stem and than dealt with them it would have been easier. But I did not want to make two trips to a friend's shop. Used a DA with a cutting bit, along with ample Dremel action. It took awhile but I got it.

This provided ample clearance without the forks hitting anything. Hopefully that will hold. If not its pretty easy to put some stops in. Okay, maybe not easy but I have done it.

Not as bright gold as the KYB's, but a considerable upgrade regardless. I am pleased I just went ahead with the 47mm forks. Not original, but my efforts with all of these was to make them riders vs display bikes.

So I had enough parts left over to build a roller. 

Since the used bike market is absolutely dead for selling, I may have to buy a 98 or newer complete, and pull the motor, restore it, and figure a year I want to turn this one into. Probably a 1994. 

Finish the roller with the appropriate touches for 1994, and sell it down the road.

Thanks guys. I’m pleased that my images appear to impart a sense of what I have done. 
I loved the crate motor. I have never seen that toy. Hardcore Honda collector would hav to possess that. So sweet.

Looks like I’m doing another full restore. Bought a 1992 complete Honda CR250 running from a very good friend. I might do another 96 since I just love that year. 
Am I on my way to having two complete original appearing runs, of 92-96 steel frames? What a sickness….