Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Gave my bike a winter overhaul and as usual I got carried away, so now I've fitted my spare motor which has had a full rebuild, new mains, rod kit, gearbox bearings including the needle bearing and clutch needle bearings, Billet clutch, new nicosil and ported cylinder, wossner piston.
CircleF pipe and silencer, new YSS shocks, 43mm forks.

Still fitted from before Mugen swing arm, Mugen kickstart, aluminium airbox.

Nice bike. How do you like the Circle F pipe over stock?

Why did you go with YSS over the Ohlins you had on before?

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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 haven't had time to try it yet but I'll let you know once I'll had a few run's on it, build quality and fit is excellent and it sounds great

It turned out my Ohlin's were originally for a Maico and to long, I had to have them shortened to suit, I was never really happy with this and when I got offered a great deal part exchanging them against some new YSS I jumped at the chance, I haven't tried them yet but all the top Ex GP Dutch twin shock riders seem to run them plus they are fully adjustable on both compression and rebound.

Talk to me about the 43mm forks, I am interested in doing that on my 79 CR250R. What parts, modifications?

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Kristi J
1979 CR250 with 43mm forks, Race Tech springs and Gold Valve emulators, Works Performance shocks

Not that straight forward, first the lower leg had to be modified from disc brake to drum brake (I had a block welded on), I use CR500 forks but the handle bar mountings are to far back for my liking so I used 89 CR125 tripple clamps, I had to machine up spacers for the steerer tube as its a little longer than the 79 CR250 one, I had to use 2 spacers of the same depth,one at the top and one below the lower bearing, this ensure the bearings stayed on the steerer tubes machined area, if you did one large spacer one of the bearings would sit off the machined area and slop about, hope this helps.

If you are willing to do the mod to convert from disk brakes to drum brakes, get the 1987 cartridge forks, much superior to earlier versions.

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