Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

I am new to this site and I am looking for info on a 1979 CR250 Elsinore. Long story short is that a guy wants to trade me this bike along with a 1989 YZ250 (hasn't been run in 3 yrs-decent shape) for a tractor and equipment worth about $2500. He is the original owner of the CR, and it hasn't been run in about 15 years. It still has the orginal tires, grips, chains, brakes, and clutch. It looks great, although it sat in the Texas sun for a bit and the plastic is a little faded, other than that, it looks perfect. The problem with it is he took it to a dealer about 15 yrs ago and had them do a little work and while they were at it, put in a fresh top end. He got it back and it ran for about 30 minutes and then quit. For whatever reason he never got around to taking it back to the dealer, and 15 yrs later, it's still in his garage. He thinks that it burned a hole in the piston. It was buried in his garage, but I was able to get my hand on the kickstarter and I can say there was no compression. What would cause this after a fresh topend rebuild? Do you guys think this is a good deal? I have had ATVs for over 20 years so I can work on the bikes although I've never owned a 2stroke. What would this bike be worth when it is up and running? Sorry for the long post, let me know your thoughts.

I'm no expert yet, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once.

I bought my 1988 CR250 in FANTASTIC shape from the original owner for $850 and my 1978 CR250 which is tired, but running and complete (with new tires and new plastic) for $1,100. So unless the YZ is in showroom condition and the CR has many trick parts I would say you are getting the short end of this deal.

I love all my bikes, but realize you are buying two money pits. Parts are hard to find and some can be very expensive. Remember it starts with one or two and before you know it you've got four and some parts bikes. LOL

J

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#829 The "Factory Novice"

1988 Honda CR250RJ
1983 Honda CR480
1981 Can-Am 250 MX6-B
1979 Honda CR250RZ
1979 Kawasaki KX250 A5
1978 Husky 250CR
1978 Honda CR250R
1977 Yamaha YZ400D
1977 Suzuki RM125B

I decided to take a look at eBay before I replied.

There were three 1979 CR250s that sold there in the last month. Prices were $1,500, $2,025, $4,951. These happened to be pristine and custom models ready for AHMRA.

A stock, running, 1983 CR250 went for $610.

Did the same thing for 1989 YZ250s. Prices ranged from $306 to $1,100 on 4 motorcyles, all running.

For non running stock motorcycles his price is high. If both bikes ran the deal would be worth about $1,800, but they don't. Just me and my tightwad opinion: I wouldn't pay more then $600 and that is only because I think I could fix them for ~$500 scrounging parts.

If you don't know about motorcycle dealership service departments, they are just there to make estimates so high they convince you to buy a new bike instead of fixing the old one. Common to charge ~$80/hour and 5-6 hours for what should be a 1 hour job.

Other stuff you may want to know.
Honda only stocks parts for 15 years. I don't know about Yamaha but the federal reg is they only have to support models with parts for 10 years.

There is an active vintage racing scene. This causes odd prices of older bikes. For instance a 1974 model may sell for double the cost of a 1975. This is because the cut off year for a class is 1974 which means it is the most modern bike in its class while the 1975 has to run against bikes ~5 years newer.

No compression is never good news and many possible causes. If it did burn a hole through the piston, it could mean it came back from the shop jetted so lean it literally melted the piston. It could also mean they put it back together with a huge air leak causing the lean condition.

I'm not sure that is why it has low compression. It could be the guy didn't use mix in it and it siezed the rings. When this happens they frequently shatter and blow out the exhaust port.

Broken bits of metal bouncing inside an engine is never a good thing. They get shoved through the bottom of the engine case and then you are really looking at expensive repairs. That is why I lowball the deal quite a bit.

Check out the Swap Meet on this site. There is a RUNNING, stock 1979 CR250 that has been in storage for $1,200.

J

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#829 The "Factory Novice"

1988 Honda CR250RJ
1983 Honda CR480
1981 Can-Am 250 MX6-B
1979 Honda CR250RZ
1979 Kawasaki KX250 A5
1978 Husky 250CR
1978 Honda CR250R
1977 Yamaha YZ400D
1977 Suzuki RM125B

The market for these bikes is pretty much a crap shoot. You can only be sure that bikes ready to race or fully restored are going to be top dollar. The most significant factors for you are going to be the time and money you have to get the bike fixed up and what level you want to take it to. These factors will completely overwhelm any "deal" you may get from this guy. In general terms a 1989 model runs say $1,200-$2,000 and the Honda from $500-$1,200 for running bikes that are scruffy. So I would pass on the package right away unless these happen to be the exact bikes of your dreams. Depending on the state of the Honda's motor you could be looking at new rings ($50) through a complete top-end re-build ($350). If the piston melted and screwed the bottom-end...(another $350). So have him pull the top-end and if he won't, politely head in the direction of "far away"....Good luck.

No wish to turn this into an advert, but I do know someone selling a very very clean Honda CR250R 1979...

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

Thanks everyone that replied, I never really got a good feeling about the deal, I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't regret it later.

It's a shame about that CR250, though. I hate to see any sort of classic neglected like that. By the way, I already have 4 ATVs in the garage, so I know how they tend to multiply.

Jeff