Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

How many of y'all have you Elsie's restored to stock? I ask for two reasons. One, mine has been painted yellow with yellow aftermarket fenders on it. Two, how collectible and valuable are these bikes? I am not really interested in selling mine. I would much rather just fix it up a little and use it. My son loves to ride and I am the only dad in his group of buddies that does not have a bike. With this one I could trail ride with them. Another thing is, if mine is a '75 the original color is green, and I want to paint it red and put white fenders on it. Green is a fine color and I like it but I like the red much better. I don't wont to completely ruin a very collectible bike, but I was going to use it anyway, not display it.

Hi Scott! I do. I have two of them as close to original as practical. That's what I wanted. You should go with what YOU want! I say paint it and put the white fenders on and go have fun on it. That's what it was meant for!

Thanks! That is kind of what I decided to do. It is a cool old bike and I want to use it for what it was meant for. I cannot ride as aggressively as i used to do to injuries, but I can go with my son and watch him and we can explore the hills around here together.

I recently bought my son a trail bike. He also loves to ride. Just messing around with his bike, as forced me to get mine out of storage. Its been 20 years since I ridden the trails on my 74 250 Elsie CR. I too am getting it out to trail ride with him. I had forgotten how much fun it is to ride. I'm still getting it back into working shape, but we're getting close to taking a long trail ride to shake off the cob webs...

If I were you, I'd enjoy the bike, trail ride with your son, and let him know the old man's still got it...

The only "change" I'm making to my bike, it to gear it down to make trail riding a little easier. I'm dropping down a tooth on the front sproket to get some lower end torque (not that the bike needs more lower end, but I'm hopping it will allow me to get myself out of a bad situation, because you know it will happen...)

Good luck

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74 CR250M, bought new in 74, still stock, except for the new 36mm Carb, and proform exhaust.

I echo Tom's comments that you should set your own priorities which seem to be to have a reliable bike you can ride with your son, and if it looks a nice Honda red color - bonus! There is room in this "scene" for everyone from the purist collector to the casual hobbyist. I worked out that the time, money and "connections" needed to really "restore" these bikes was beyond me, and conflicted with racing them. So now I have a tastefully re-built CR250R 1979 that gets taken out and thrashed at least once a month at the track. Mechanically near perfect but a purist would question the not quite Tahitian Red powder coat, replica plastic, 1983 front-end, Mikuni carb etc. etc....Soon we'll all be able to go and see absolute stock versions (and more) at the Primm Collection.

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