Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

To all:

Anyone know of a website or company doing trick MR's? I did a search and nothing came up, but bikes for sale. Did anyone ever make an accessory pipe for this bike? How about someone in this day and age who makes an after market Expansion Chamber? Did DG or FMF ever make one?
We need websites on these great bikes!

LC
PC

_________________
Proformance Cycle
c/o Lee Curry
58 Wyoming Ave.
Wyoming, PA. 18644
570-693-5811
mailto:proformance58@cs.com

The problem with the MRs is that they were only produced and sold one year. A lot of them are still around, but not the numbers to support many bike-specific aftermarket items. There is a plastic tank for them sold at Re-Mx, I believe. Other than that, though, you have to look for CR250M1 aftermarket parts, which normally bolt right on. As far as pipe goes, any aftermarket pipe for a 75-76 CR will also bolt on to the MR, but I have to say I've never seen an aftermarket pipe for the 75-76 CR.
Any pipe, suspension component, brake (except pedal) or engine component (except flywheel/points) for the CR should bolt right on the MR.
I found a flawless 76 aluminum CR tank and GP seat I have on my MR. Makes it looks oh so much faster. Of course, I'm now afraid to ride it and dent the tank. Also, on the CR and MR, you can use newer CRF 50 foot pegs, if you want wider pegs.

Mitchie, any idea of why they were only built 1 year? It seems also it's one of the few bikes made only for the US.Just about any Honda in one form or another was sold somewhere else but not the 250.I have a magazine called the Motorcyclist from 12-1975,they were very critical of it.Here is a pic of mine-
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l119/ ... p_0699.jpg

Gary: Gorgeous bike!! No one apparently knows today why Honda only made them one year. In "The Amazing History of Honda Dirt Bikes," Rick "Superhunky" Siemen wrote:

"A DECENT ENDURO BIKE
In 1976, an enduro version of the Elsinore, the MR250, appeared on the scene. It had a big 3.4-gallon tank, lights, quiet muffler, real knobby tires, wide-ratio gearbox and shared many of the same parts as the pure racing Elsinore. Many enduro and desert riders modified the MRs with CR parts and loved their mounts. Strangely, the MR was in production only one year."

A couple of magazines indicated the bike was much more difficult to dial in than the CR250M1. I finally ended up going to the Mikuni 36mm carb and my bike now scares me at times (But I have it dialed right on the edge of being lean right now, so it's just a little too crisp for long-term piston comfort). I've messed with all sorts of gearing and now run 13-48 for tight trails and 13-47 for anything with some wide open areas. In my opinion, the stock 14 front gear is worthless for anything but desert racing (which I guess is what the bike was really made for, now wasn't it??!!)

A question for you: go look at your front wheel. Is it centered in your forks?? I just noticed after putting new fork wipers on the other day, my front wheel is set to the right (closer to the fork wiper on speedometer gear side). I've never noticed this before and may have to look into it closer.
And, how do you keep the engine side cover so unscratched??? My boots try to polish the paint off of both sides.
Thanks, Mitch

Honda also made a gp cylinder that fits the mr250 I guess it was made for the cr250 but it will work. I also would like to know what the difference was between the tranny on the mr and the mt.

Mitch, Thanks,It is in real good shape but the tank has some small scratches some wear on the frame paint by the foot pegs and the back wheel has a small crack.I have another but haven't bothered to put it on yet.I cheated on the cover, that pic is about a year or two old and I had just repainted it.I bought it off of ebay from the 2nd owner who got it from a friend.That first owner look liked he tried to pull the flywheel and used a screwdriver to keep it from turning.In doing so he damaged the stator windings and there it than sat for alot of years with about 1100 miles.In the process the flywheel cover,side plates and tools vanished.The 2nd owner got a used cover and sideplates but could not find a new stator coil and must have given up looking.I had the coil rewound and went from there.The gearing is stock,I'll have to try a 13 sometime.
The front forks have lugs on the front,the left side having the brake cable clamp.I measured from there to the rim and it's 2".The other side is the same.

This is strange because my wheel is noticeably closer to the right wiper than the left. The axle fits nicely and there is no play and the wheel is straight. I don't have a lug on the right side any longer as I found a NOS set of lower CR forks for (get this) $20 !!! --I love it when people list things wrong and I find them.
I have the brake on the left and the speedo unit acts as a spacer on the right. Hmmm. I wonder if I'm missing something on the right, but there is no way I can see to slide the wheel over to the left even if I'm missing something on the right side. I guess it's been like this ever since I had it.......

Fellow MR Owners
I've tried on and off for a few years to get more info on the MR, like how many were actaully sold in the US, and why Honda didn't make a 78 "red racer" version, etc etc. I've written to Honda, AMA, American Motorcyle council, a few other orgs, but have netted zero answers.

I bought my MR in 77 from a pal's dad, when I was a kid. Glad I held on to it. I've raced it an a few vintage events, and it always attracts attention. In the Northeast it stand out (as an oddball) in the Ossa, Penton, Husky crowd.

I have (what I beleive to be) an Al Baker aftermarket pipe. I'm saving it for a CR/MR project bike I've been collecting parts for.
Also have a perfect 75 CR tank, never been on a bike. Will go on the project bike too!
I'm using a Clarks' XR250-500 (78-81) plastic tank that looks great on the bike, saving my steel tank from dents.

Michie, looks like you found a CR seat! Do the pegs you mention have the proper height like an MR peg, or or they lower like a CR peg?

I'm about as far away from being an authority as you can get but on why the MR went the way it did...

Bits and pieces I have picked up kind of indicate the story went something like this.

Honda was trying to get into the big the street bike market and initially were trying to do it with big twins reasoning that was what people in the USA wanted. Persons unknown told them the multi cylinder Formula I and GP bikes were really more interesting to the consumer and the Honda 750 four was born.

Given that success Honda started listening to consumers and I recall there were a number of advocates that said trials was going to be huge in the USA, bigger then flat track or MX. Honda was doing relatively well in events like the 6 Day Trials, desert racing, and the Baja so they went for it.

Unfortunately Trials never caught on in the USA. I can't say the reasons but the mass hysteria around Evel Knievel took off about that same time. This morphed MX from what used to be closed course racing on natural terrain using bikes with 4" of suspension to whoops, arena X, and doing a flip while jumping the fountain at Ceasar's Palace by riders promoted like boy bands. Don't forget the fireworks.

The main reason for the new format MX other then the stunt aspects were putting on a race where you could put peoples' butts in seats and something packaged for TV. I'm sure there were safety issues too, like the advantage of not having a bike go into the fans.

WAY off topic but a guy I used to ski lease with had some bindings that were kind of a glowing red/pink/orange color. I asked him what was up and he told me they were specially made for racers and nicknamed something like "Gay Orange" by racers and salesmen. They were specially produced because they showed up well on TV on a downhill skier going 80mph in a snow storm. I figure all the gaudy colors and plastic we see on bikes now is exactly for the same reason.

Rick

MR: A '75 CR tank that has never been on a bike???!!!!! I'd like everyone to believe I'm too smart to be the first to put it on a bike. But I'm sure I'd probably do exactly that.
Might bring a couple grand on fbay, from what I've seen. But I guess maybe the '75 tank is not quite as collectible as the nos 74-74 I saw go for $2,300+ a few months back.
I really think I should hold that tank to save you from yourself.
Think of it as an intervention!!

Ok, It WAS on a bike, but the original owner took it off the minute he got home, replaced it with a plastic tank. Yes, the 75 hasn't reached the hysteria the earlier bikes have, but someday they may!

It was an eeeeboy "buy it now purchase", I had to grab it as soon as I saw it. I didn't want to get into a bidding war and drive the price up. Even has the petcock, cap, mounting bolts.

Mitchie, you get first dibs if I ever want to part with it!

Whee!!
I'm going to have to build a new shed to "hide" my extra parts from my better half!!

Kind of in the same vein I bought a real nice TL125 in the mid 90's.The guy was at that time buying up old dealer stock before anyone else was.He gave me a new gas tank still in the box and a new frame still in it's bag.I've seen that same tank as a take off like yours on eb-- go for what I paid for everything.One side of me says sell the other says but what if?This guy had paired down his collection down from 100 to under 30 ish.He had a garage just for them and had the second story of it full of shelf's with nos parts.He even had a S90 that was brand new still with the taggs on it.

Whatever happened to him?? I'd like to be his friend.

MR: in answer to your pegs question I just now remember you asked earlier: the pegs I have on there now are Red Baron CRF50 billet pegs. They are the height of CR pegs, not the raised MR pegs. I like the width and grip, but miss the extra inch of height on the MR pegs for trail riding. I carry the MR pegs in my toolbox so I can switch if I want to.