OK, I made a mistake, but a good one. Whilst working on my loop for our race, I had the wife and youngest son (AKA The Marine) out with me. I rode the 449 with the GPS, my honey rode the IT, and that left my son with the WR250. Needless to say, he was amazed what actual suspension and brakes felt like and he dug the power too. The oldest son who lives up here by us hasn't had a bike to ride in a long time either. He's a great kid, hell he's a hero. He donated a kidney to save his mom's life. We had a dilemma in what would happen if we wanted to take both of them riding. So the search ensued. I wanted a pre-2003 250 2 stroke so it would have a Green Sticker (Cali riders understand why). I'm kinda partial to the Tuning fork brand, so that was my target.
Found this on the D37 message board. The guy had built it from a basket case and raced the Revolution class with it. He said it needed a top end but not much else and still runs good enough to test ride. For $600 with current tags and clean title, I took it home.
It runs, but it does need a piston. He said he totally went through the bottom end with all new bearings, seals, rod, etc. It's got a Talon rear hub and a sort of trick looking upper triple. Other than cosmetic stuff like plastics and a few rusty looking bolts, I think it will be great. I'll get her torn apart for a full inspection and see what the barrel looks like. Yamaha was using nikasil by 94, correct?
that looks like a GYTR Ti subframe!! wooooooo that is a great CrMo Yamaha , Im sure ZipTy Ty has some good ideas for that thing.
Ya think so Rob? I was looking at the welds and noticed they were very nice and had that blue color to them. I do plan on picking Ty's brain. I don't want to get too crazy with it, but would like to know it's up to a good desert day. He also threw in a 3 gal IMS Tank with the dump cap. Maybe it would be a good back up race bike haha.
Here's a look at the sub-frame as tear down commenced. It's not ferrous so maybe it is the Titanium one!
So, the frame is a rattle can silver that I'm not real fond of. I also found a couple of voids in the cradle underside from sliding over stuff. Other than that, not horrible for a 23 year old bike.
Here's the piston and barrel. Looks like it had an unhappy moment along the way. I think the PO may have just thrown rings on it as they looked pretty good.
It's got a Boysen Reed block in there and the reeds look decent. The crank is smooth and the rod looks fine. The output, shift, and kick shafts look good with no slop or sign of leaks. Don't see a reason to do anything but change the oil in the tranny for good measure.
The rear shock has some trick anodized adjusters on the reservoir and a Race Tech spring. The fork seals are done so it's a good excuse to take them over to Ty and see what's going on in there. I'll take the shock along too to get it a freshen up and see what the spring rate is if I can't read the spring. Also the barrel doesn't have the size letter stamped on the intake side so I will have to measure it.
Here's the inside of the piston. Looks like an OEM slug. Wonder how long that poor old thing had been in there. No carbon inside anywhere by the PV or the top of the up and down thingy. The base gasket just popped right off.
Getting closer. Look what Mr. Postman brought today! The suspension is getting a once over at ZIP-TY (of course) and Ty threw a quick hone on the cylinder and cleaned it up nicely. If he gets done with the boingers The Marine and The Hero will have a bike to put back together next weekend.
I think so, it sure wasn't interested in a magnet. It feels like it weighs less than a pound. It sure looks trick. The spring turned out to be a 6.0 and the guy I got it from was smaller than me. Ty knows what I like and I'm sure it will be fine. I think once it's broken in I might look for a flywheel weight to smooth it out.
Just waiting on the suspension, but customers come first. We ran 2 heat cycles. Started first kick on the 2nd go round. Not bad considering it's perched on the stand with no front end.
The suspension was a mess. It has some odd base valves in the forks that even Ty wasn't too sure of. I told him to set it aside and work on customer bikes and piece it all back together when he can. The stock kick starter just plain sucks, it directs the inside arch of your foot to the peg. So did some research and found the 426/450 kicker is a direct fit. No more ouch foot and scuffed boots.
