Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

I just got this bike and it 90% original. I want to get it race ready. Please tell me what you would do to this bike if it was yours. The bike sit for a long time and has been bore 1st over, the suspension is soft and needs to be rebuilt. I need to know what to do to make this a good race bike. Am 55 years old and will race the Intermediate class. My 21 year old son may race it a few times and he is a B class rider. Thank you for any help I can get, am new to vintage races.

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AHRMA #13k
SEVMX #13k
1982 Honda CR480
1983 Honda CR480
1978 Suzuki RM50
2006 Honda CR250R
1973 Yamaha MX250

http://cr480r.blogspot.com/ It's "work in progress" but check this out. I would start with checking the fork and shock springs to see if they are in the ball-park for you weight, riding style and skill-level.

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

Thats a nice looking CR480 redrocket. Thanks for giving the website to your bike. Am going to call TRU for suspension work. Did they get the Eibach shock spring for you and did TRU anodized the shock body for you. I will be asking alot more about the CR480. Most of the top RACE shop where in GA want even talk about doing work on a vintage motorcycle. I think I will need to ship the motor to have it rebuilt, do you have any names of Shop that knows about a CR480 to rebuild it to be race ready. Thanks for all your help.

Jerry Murphy

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AHRMA #13k
SEVMX #13k
1982 Honda CR480
1983 Honda CR480
1978 Suzuki RM50
2006 Honda CR250R
1973 Yamaha MX250

If I remember correctly you can go to http://www.eibach.com direct or they distribute to your local dealer via White Brothers. Now I am making a huge assumption that the shock body on the '82 (KYB) is the same as the '83 (Showa). The 883 spring is a little tight so you might want to get the dimensions of the existing KYB spring and compare the 883 dimensions from the Eibach web site. The part # is 883-00XX where XX is the rate in kg/mm. So my .67 kg/mm spring is 883-0067. Check out http://www.racetech.com where they have bike specific spring rate suggestions.

IMO, you can rebuild the motor yourself if you are willing to invest in a rotor puller, clutch holder, case splitter etc. The tricky stuff is splitting and re-balancing the crank. I have used http://www.racerstoystore.com but there are others.

BTW, don't rush to re-valve either forks or shocks until you have the right springs. The Showas had more adjustments but I have heard the KYB forks for instance worked just fine. New springs - if needed - and then play with the adjustors and oil height might be a cheaper start.

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