Posts
6095
Joined
3/21/2014
Location
Saratoga Springs, NY
US
Edited Date/Time
12/14/2017 6:02pm
Picks this up this weekend. Complete with 82 465 forks & A pile of Oem spare parts. Been looking for an 81 for some time now, they don"t come up for sale often.
There is a guy on eBay trying to get 250.00 for a fender like this. If someone is looking for this fender pm me, I will sell it for a reasonable price. Not sure if this fender is tagged incorrectly or Partszilla is listing incorrectly, it states he fender fits 83-88 rm"s & should be yellow? Looks like early rm/ts/dr to me...
The Shop
Finally getting around to tearing into this thing. Removed head, .25 piston, Think that's first overbore, so plenty of meat on the cylinder, needs top end, some scuffs felt on cylinder walls, nothing too bad.
Filters completely rotted away, looks like P.O. Started bike a few times with rotted filters, of course sucking debris into engine, but was going to be full rebuild anyway.
Rotted original upper chain roller
Carb had some varnish at bottom but I wiped it out, looks like P.O. Did drain carb...already started collecting parts for restore, I have all Oem gaskets, all 3 shift forks & both nos 3rd gears, if anyone has any Nos gears they want to sell, let me know. It's a Suzuki, I don't even have to split the cases to know it will need gears! this will be a slow restore, likely to be finished up this time next year. Thinking this will be my last restore.... But I said that a few bikes ago...
I don't remember the 81 having a double leading brake, it was not until 83 when my
Suzuki came with the double leading drum. Am I correct?
Straight pull spokes, twice as many air filters to clean...OH YEAH!!!!
Any how, here are a couple pics. of me racing/enjoying my 1981 RM250X, back in the day...
Second, Dove Springs/Red Rock Canyon (Mojave Desert) 1981.
sandman768, how is the restore moving along? Did you have an "81" back in "81"? Or, before your time perhaps?
Pit Row
Blame today's release dates on Supercross homologation. Back then we still had works bikes and didn't care about homologation numbers.
There weren't many 81 RM250's because Suzuki knew that the 82 was going to be water-cooled and a huge step forward power wise. Consider it a place holder in the lineup. It was still a great bike and only the YZ250, the Husky, and the Maico were as competitive that year.
Tore it down today....came apart pretty easy...crank feels tight but judging by the amount of sand in the bottom end, me thinks full rebuild required. Amazingly the tranny gears & forks look pretty good, clutch components decent. I expected the main bearings to fall right out of the cases, but they are tight to the cases, just worn bearings. We do have some issues though, appears the reverse thread nut that holds crank gear on rt side is missing & that explains all the shrapnel in the bottom of engine, .... Always something on these old bikes....
Completed teardown.... As usual some surprises but Most chassis bearings are pretty tight, shock needs rebuild.wheel bearings tight.
Crank feels nice & tight....
Crushed bottom of frame.....normally this is enough to make me walk away but so few 81"s come up for sale, I figure my welder/ fab guy can handle this no problem....
Can anyone I.d. These forks? They are 43mm, trying to determine if they are 83 250 forks or 465 forks..they may even be 84 forks, but front wheel is not dls brake hub, I did get a dls hub with the bike but does not fit on the wheel...
Just have to get a matching brake cable to the year brake you choose
Post a reply to: 1981 rm 250 slow build thread...completed..