Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

can anyone tell me what is the latest year i can go on the rear swingarm and shock setup on a 81 450.i want to go as late as possible and dont care about rules.i ride at my own track.also on the frontend can i go to 1988 for the forks and tree setup?on the rear i will probably be using a works performance shock setup.someone said that i could go to 84 for the rear but i wanted to go as late as possible,unless this is it.thanks great site.

I have a 1979, 1983 and 1987 Honda CRs and the headset bearings and races all look common. You may need to make a spacer if the later bikes have longer steerer stems, or you might be able to transplant your CR450R stem. I have seen 1986 or later disk-brake equipped forks transplanted to 1979 CR250Rs, so it can be done.

At the rear I would expect you to be in challenging territory as the suspension geometry was evolving constantly from 1981 onwards. Were you thinking of transplanting the whole back-end of the bike? You might be better have the existing shock set-up to make the best of the stock geometry...

Good luck.

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Michael Stiles
1979 Honda CR250R Elsinore | 2006 Husqvarna SM510R | 2007 Service Honda CR500R-AF