Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

I just found a piece of my youth and it's in better shape than the one I had in 1982 or so. It's an unmolested 73 CR250, every nut and bolt is there, and I believe the tires are original. It had the fuel drained and has been on display for the last 15 years. On one hand I want to ride and enjoy it and on the other hand I want to restore and enjoy it. The seller reminded me of extremely true statement, "they are only original once." Anyway, I have lots of questions, which I will tap into the knowledge base here for, thanks ahead of time. Here is a couple for starters:
Are the original tires reproduced? If not what is a suitable substitute?
Can the exhaust pipes and fuel tanks be repaired and restored? If so, who do you recommend?

Thanks again and I will post some pictures soon. Tim C

Welcome to the site. What a great find! Unmolested Green stripers in good shape are indeed rare.

You are experiencing the same conflict we all have when deciding what to do with the iconic models.
I restored a 73 a while back. The donor was a beater that had been used and abused so I didn't have
to make the decision to restore or not. You'll just have to sit down and weigh the pros and conns and
make a choice.

I have not seen anybody offering reproductions of the original tires. NOS tires show up from time to time,
but they are very expensive and obviously only suited for display bikes. My Elsie has a set of Dunlop 756s.

Many times, the pipes and silencer can be restored back to pristine condition. My pipe was bashed pretty
bad. I sent it to Pacific Crest Pipe Repair and they brought it back to good shape. I used a stud gun to
remove some of the remaining small dimples, and a TIG welder to fill weld any other imperfections. Then
I spent some quality time with a belt sander down to Grey Scotchbrite pads to prep the surface for paint.
It was a lot of work, but now my pipe looks and performs like new.

The fuel tanks are polished Aluminum, so dents will have to be removed, not bondoed. This is definitely
not a job for the average DIYer. The paint, decals and striping is covered in detail on this website. If you
want the name of somebody that does this kind of work, PM me. If you have deep enough pockets, he can
deliver a brand new looking tank.

My bike has never been back on a MX track, but I do fire it up and ride it up and down the street on a weekly
basis. Just the sound is worth the price of admission.

dogger

lets see some pics tjcin!

Here are a couple pictures I took tonight.

suhweet!

really nice bike there!

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(2) 1968 DT1 1970 RT1M,1970 DT1C 1971 RT1B Enduro 1974 MT250 1974 DT250A (2) 1975 DT400B 1974 DT100,1978 DT175
1975 CR250M1 1979 CR250R 1979 Kawasaki KZ400H1 Jesus is Lord!!

What a great find- so amazingly stock and original. As we all know, most of them had the snot kicked out of them and were trashed and abandoned. The word "survivor" definitely applies here!

Thanks guys, I've been picking up some OEM pieces I need. Parts are expensive for this old girl. Still looking for an OEM front brake lever, if anyone has one available let me know. Thanks.

It looks like a lot of the control parts are still available from Honda:

http://www.powersedge.com/pages/OemParts?aribrand=HOM#/Honda/CR250M_A__MOTORCYCLE%2c_JPN%2c_VIN%23_CR250M-1000216_TO_CR250M-1025537/HANDLE_GRIP_%2b_CABLE/CR250M-JPN-A/2Y133811F13381101C

Ray

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'74 CR125M (175cc), '75 MR175, '82 RM250Z, '08 YZ250F, '14 Zero FX electric, '14 Zero MX electric, '18 Alta MXR electric

Thanks for the info guys. I found some NOS levers with old original part numbers on the sealed bags.