Mullennix '02 CR250

Put in some more time on the triple clamps, buffing the casting lines smooth:

Got the lower to a point that I was finally happy with for  blasting. 

 Before:

The bolts are completely reusable, and look fresh after a quick blast (left).

After blast:

Ready for install.

Next up was installing the fresh steering stem races. I had to get a little creative to get a level driving angle:

I bought this kit off Amazon for $27, and it was on my doorstep in something like 4 or 5 hours. Insane world we live in boys. 

Ziploc'd the greased races to prevent moisture, and put them in the freezer for a few hours.

 I heated the neck up to 200F with a torch, which didn't affect the finish of the blasting like i was worried about. 

Tool worked great.

Now for the other side.

A view of the new upper race installed from the underside:

Had to use the case the kit came in, in addition to a tool case, and a box stand to get the neck at a flat and flush angle 😂

Bottom race installed.

Had Brent over at FasterUSA repress the steering stem back in with the new bearing for me:

I still need to finish buffing some spots on the upper clamp, and then blast it to match the lower, but you get the idea of what I'm going for here:

More work on the upper clamp. This was actually very wavy/rippled. It took me a couple nights after work to get it smooth. Consistency with each pass, blending the sections in long passes and remembering to not put too much pressure are all keys here.

More time in the blast cabinet this week.

Spent so much time on the clamps, I almost forgot to blast the rest of the hardware. I was reminded of this when I went to put everything together late at night, well past blasting hours.

Ready to install after blast the following night:

Top bearing ready to do it's thing.

You know how I always have bad luck with Motion Pro tools and am honest about my experience and will probably never receive any support from them on builds in the future? Well, this one worked great:

My dad just had this sitting in his toolbox. Pretty sure we got it for him for Father's day many years ago.

Forgot what these looked like for a bit 😂

Forks finally installed years after being built by Ride JBI:

Thank you! 

I'm meeting with Andrew after work today, and I should have a plan for the motor tonight. I will update you guys when I know more!

Thanks man! 

It would be a tough choice between Supa Scoop and 100⁰. But the whole album kicks ass, and makes me want to blast my Harley down a desert highway at triple digit speeds.

Went by Andrew's last week to discuss initial plans for everything with the engine. He had it all pulled apart for me, and although there was definitely some pieces that are old and need replaced, things looked to be in pretty good shape for the most part. 

Clutch seems to be in great shape. I took photos, but the lighting made the wear on the basket look way worse than it was in person. I even went back the next night to verify, and it was completely fine. Barely even cosmetic wear where the plates would normally notch out the basket. 

The biggest concern (aside from a stuck cylinder stud), was the third gear looking a bit worn/starting to wear. Andrew has a sweet magnifying glass and light setup where we were able to really see the wear and tear up close. I'll have to get photos when I'm over there next to better show you guys what I'm talking about. It is honestly minor, Andrew thinks I'd easily get 50+ hours out of it. I'd really like to just get everything solid right now, but I cruised Ebay and MXLocker and everything I've found is in way worse shape than what mine looks like while being astronomically priced. 

Any of you guys out there got a decent shape 3rd gear replacement setup? Let me know before this thing goes back together, otherwise we're running it. 

Crank is getting rebuilt, Andrew already got me a new rod kit from Pro X, which I have verified directly with an employee over there that all bottom end bearings and parts are still OEM and not made in China (yet). 

Everything else Pro X offers being oem quality or equivalent is all made in China now (same as all balls, pivot works, etc.).

Got the cases and covers along with a couple other pieces to blast, and even one to dust off the HVLP gun and hit with some Cerakote soon...

Just nasty. 

I wanted to give the inside of the cases a bit of a scrub before blast. Obviously not too much, I don't want to mess with tolerances but I used a finer Pryme MX pad and took my time with it.

Taped, plugged and ready for blast.

Just blastin'...

Here's the left side case all blasted:

You can really see the contrast between blasted/unblasted.

Fresh out of the blaster.

Threads cleaned up sweet.

I wanted to see what my ignition cover looked like mocked up to help decide if I was keeping the grey cerakote I did years ago. 

I like the way it looks. Almost like the plastic YZ ignition covers, but better.

Going over parts to take to Andrew's.

This Nickel Würks Specbolt kit should top things off nicely. I was very against putting nickel plated hardware on this bike because I've seen so many builds where it just looks too busy. But I think with the finish I have on all the parts that they're fastening together, it should be more of a cherry on top. 

Also only $50. Not bad, and saves me time on blasting all the stock hardware only for them to potentially corrode down the road.

Off to Andrew's.

Andrew got the remaining bearings needed for me.

New rod from Pro X came in.

Andrew working his magic.

Got my cylinder back from Andrew to clean up. We wanted to do all new dowels, as well as cylinder head studs, but one of the old studs snapped during removal and had to get extracted. The guy that did the work went ahead and vapor blasted the cylinder which is a nice gesture, but doesn't match what I'm going for. Plus, there's still glue from the temperature sticker that was there previously.

Vapor blast doesn't look bad, it just doesn't look as nice in my opinion. It makes whatever imperfection is there shiny and shimmery, kind of highlighting it in a way. Whereas dry blast seems to clean and smooth everything more uniformly. Your results may vary.

You can see the slightest difference between the head (dry blasted) and cylinder (vapor blasted) in this photo:

After matching in the blaster.

Back to Andrew's the following morning to drop off the cylinder and head, and he was already doing a second round of heating the cases to drop any remaining media out.

I'll update you guys this week on how the rebuild went when I know more.

A few shots Andrew snapped of the bottom end getting rebuilt. 

We started mocking up the cerakoted covers along with the cylinder and head, just getting an idea of what it will all look like when finished. 

Andrew text me mentioning how bothersome the stator wires were having such a gap with the sleeve, and how we should clean it up. I appreciate his mutual level of OCD on small things like this, and it reassured me that he understands the direction I'm going with this bike. He put me to the task, and I picked it up and went to work a few days later on a Sunday (yesterday).

A single Grip Clean Hand & Tool Wipe helping make the rubber look like new with ease.

Shout out to Andrew for supplying about 40 different depinning keys 😂 

I eventually found one or two that worked for this style of connector.

So you can see said gap we're trying to address. Stupid, I know, but I don't care. Let's see what we can do with this. 

I found some 15/32" fabric heat shrink sleeve that actually looked pretty trick over the existing cable diameter at even it's biggest width. Me thinking I'm smart, pre-measuring the wires at 9" and cutting the SHRINK sleeve to the same length as the wires. Measure twice, cut once, right? 

This would end up literally shrinking to the same exact length as the existing wrap 😂

So I cut that attempt off carefully, sliced off another longer piece of sleeve, and here's where I was at prior to heat with the length that worked for me:

Even considered redoing this again, to try to choke it up even more, but why? No one will ever notice this, and the way life is coming at me, I'll probably forget about it by end of this week. 

I think it looks a lot better than before, and the material looks like a trick little upgrade over stock or some of the cheaper harbor freight heat shrink sleeves I saw with the white printed letters on it. I feel like this was a good option for the price, and likely available at your local auto parts store.

Stator ready for install:

We decided to replace the clutch basket for good measure, and we are just waiting on some pricing and I should hopefully have that by end of this week if all is in stock and goes smoothly. Other than that, I can't think of anything else the engine needs parts-wise.

Will update as we go.

Battleship Grey. I tried to push it hard a few years ago when I was still cerakoting all the time. Very clean color, just didn't really take off with the moto guys. 

Looks really trick on parts like brake calipers, like this KTM65 setup shown here:

Absolutely, thanks for your input. I appreciate comments like this, and any suggestions from you guys. 

I thought you were nuts until a simple Google search revealed exactly what you're referring to on the frames cracking in those exact spots. I had no idea. 15 years closely involved with many customers rebuilding CR's, I don't recall this being a common issue whatsoever. But there are plenty of threads, right here on Vital even, that pop right up. I will look more into this. 

The sleeve was mainly just for looks to be honest, I highly doubt it's waterproof in anyway, but it does shrink tight enough to where I'm not worried about dirt and debris accumulation or cleaning. 

I'll double check on a 3rd gear.

Yup, totally get that, as I am concerned about boot rub with my coated ignition cover and soon to be clutch cover. The grey is an standard H-series Cerakote, whereas my outer clutch cover will be Elite series Cerakote, which is supposed to be more durable in friction scenarios. So in theory, the clutch cover should hold up better than my ignition cover. But we shall see, won't we?

(Boot rub from previous owners):

No major updates this week. Got my order started with Hinson and we are just waiting on the final machining on the clutch basket before that all gets sent out. Doesn't get much fresher than that!

I did get a decent little haul in from Works Connection:

Got some Twinwalls in silver showing up this week that I'm thinking should pair nicely with the bronze clutch perch. Also couldn't help myself when I saw the axle blocks. It was between that and the raw silver they have, but I don't think I could've gone wrong either way. 

Bars came in. RC High is my go to.

We love some shiny new parts. I really appreciate Works Connection's branding effort.

I don't know how, but I forgot the levers are actually CNC'd. Even tricker than I anticipated! Goes to show you the level of attention I paid when clicking "order"...

Greased and ready for install:

I think the silver (or 'titanium' color as Renthal calls it) was the right move. I've always just gone straight for the black on all of my previous bikes. I'm not sure if this color bar pad is staying, we'll have to see how the rest of the bike turns out, and decide from there.

Now onto addressing the outer clutch cover. I set aside a Saturday morning, and walked out to the garage only to realize a lot of my cerakote equipment was absolutely hammered. Multiple layers of dirt and dust coating everything, graduated cylinders illegible from the outside from the countless times they had been used for mixing, hardener catalyst syringes completely solidified. I had to freshen up my setup basically, aside from replacing my spray gun, which was nice because I thought that would be destroyed too and not cheap to replace. Amazon Prime salvaged my weekend, it was all here by Sunday morning.

Prior to cleaning:

Grip Clean wipes after acetone made this a breeze.

Here is the color I'm going with. Earth, it's called, and it's actually a very fitting name:

Chemicals!

This gives you an idea of the color we should end up with:

I laid down 2 coats, and a couple of pieces of debris landed on the coating,which you can probably see here. It takes every fiber of my being to not try to sit there and attempt to pick it off somehow without wiping the coating. From my experience, most things will burn in the oven. Leave it alone, pick it off after. Especially if you already have a coat or two down, and two coats would actually be fine per Cerakote's recommendations.

But dammit, I wanted that 3rd coat...

So I sent it, tried to be mindful of not burying the top dot.

Tack free, ready for 300⁰ F for 1 hour.

Fresh out of the oven, but cooled down obviously, with the worriesome debris picked clean and no evidence left behind:

Got some Hinson stuff showing up, thanks to Rick over there for getting me what I need. This is fresh off the production line. Also thanks to my buddy Robbie Luce over at Techical Touch for guiding me this way, could/would not have done it without him.

Got some springs and some plates on the way, and although I didn't get the cool laser etched cover from them (felt like i'd be a poser not having the full setup and slapping one of those on there 😂), I think this coated stock cover should look just fine with what im going for:

Ended up ordering some clutch plates and some new springs. Fiber plates came in, but the steels will be another couple weeks. But I think we're just going to reuse the stock steel plates for now, I think I'll get some time on these fibers, and have the steels for next rebuild. Huge thank you to Hinson, awesome and easy company to order from. 

Off to Langston Performance we go, with all clutch parts and cleaned up stator to drop off what I believe should be the last delivery of parts before picking up a fully rebuilt motor. 

If the good lord is willing, and the creek don't rise, we might have something worthy enough to slap in that frame finally 🙏🏻

Alright, so i may have changed my mind on something else...

The more this bike comes together, I started to look at the wheels more and more. After a lot of thought, I decided the stock hubs were just not going to cut it.

Ended up making a debatably irresponsible financial decision, and I regret absolutely nothing. Took a trip over to see the boys at FasterUSA. 

The following photos are not the greatest, I will get some natural light photos soon to really show off the hubs.

My favorite thing about this purchase (aside from just being in a position to do it in the first place), is that not a damn thing has changed on the hub design from when I worked there, when it was originally designed. 

I still have vivid memories of the long road of failures and struggles Colin went through to get these same designs you see here today from a design to a finished, tested and sellable product. I was there for it all. Just a young naive teenager, but absorbing skills and knowledge like a sponge. I got real firsthand experience into what it takes to manufacture niche aftermarket dirt parts in America, and i have the utmost of respect for anyone that's done it and is still doing it .

It's like a cool blast from the past, but still very modern at the same time. It's definitely an upgrade over stock, on the rear specifically. Beefed up twice the thickness of material on the sprocket side, and also on the brake rotor tabs (known spot for cracking after excessive hours), while also switching to a threaded bolt for even more strength.

I love seeing the familiar machining lines. Here's what the rear Honda hubs look like fresh off the mill: 

I went with the anodized silver. Other than some of the deeper bronzes they put out when I was still there, or their current "kashima bronze" (which matches my Works Connection stuff by the way...) this color is hard to beat in my opinion, and stays looking fresh for a very long time. Here they are prior to bearing install:

Rear wheel disassembled, ready for the hub swap:

Also got some spacer color choices, since I bought some un-anodized ones years ago to use with the stock hubs. Will also decide on final hub sticker color once assembled. 

What's up boys, been a few months. Had to bail on my shipping job to get this project moving again. Took a job as a painter full time, which led to higher pay, a lot of overtime and health insurance/benefits for the first time in my life. I can actually justify throwing money at shit like this again...

New phone as well, so I'm posting updates from the past few months before I switch over to the better quality phone/camera.

So I started looking at things on the motor after Andrew rebuilt it. The exhaust flange, among other things like the faded aftermarket fill/drain plugs the previous owner graciously threw in there for us had to go. I started by blasting the OEM exhaust flange:

Ended up ordering a PC exhaust flange. I heard the OEM is prone to cracking, not that I've ran into that personally yet, but just cheap insurance and I always have the blasted OEM as backup. Plus, I love any excuse to buy Pro Circuit products...

Comparison between the OEM and PC exhaust flange:

Aftermarket drain plug that i replaced with brand new OEM Honda, you can see what I'm saying when I say it had to go at this point:

Aside from the faded anodize plugs, the VForce 3 Reed Block needed some addressing too 

The VForce emblems needed some elbow grease to look uniform, and all it took was a single Grip Clean Hand & Tool Wipe. I then put a small strip of Gorilla Glue and reapplied each.

Reed pedals looked solid still. I think the all silver VForce emblem looks trick.

Bead Blasted, ready for install:

Here she is with the refinished reed block, Pro Circuit exhaust flange, Specbolt bolt kit, ready to rock:

OEM pegs were pretty hammered...

Spoke to Willy at Lightspeed, and found one of the only sets of brand new stainless pegs for a CR left in existence! I didn't want titanium, so this is one of those picky things I didn't expect to find, especially since it's not listed anywhere online.

Also got some tires in from Mike at Hoosier Tires West. Excited to get reacclimated on their IMX25S front, and IMX30 rear (last tires I rode moto on), and comparing the 30 to their new HMX rear tire. 

I sold the shit out of these tires (pre HMX) when I worked at FasterUSA, and it was cool dealing with the same guy that got us setup over there as a dealer back in the day. 

Will update when mounted, along with the sprocket and rotors.