Old friends meet again

Last summer got in contact with one of my dads old friends that was a Husky rider. Long story short, mine rarely are.....He invited me up to go crabbing and still had his 82-CR250, you know were this is going. Of course it comes home with me as most do. Last ran in 92, did sorta resto and has been a good bike.
He came to visit last weekend and go for a ride, well ride didn't work out too good. He crashed his new bike on first lap and went on injured list. He had fun anyway and enjoyed watching me go slow, I'm the fat guy on the right

Good story. Glad another old Husky has been placed back on active duty. Bike looks good. DLS front brake upgrade? Preload collars on the Ohlins? Nice. Congrats.

What Pick said plus nice dent free tank(?), aluminum bars, updated kicker, pegs, shifter and 18" rear wheel(?) too. Sweet.

His/its last duty was desert racing so orig. tank was missing. Tank is a ten footer! It was a rough one when I got it, mainly from sitting. Steering head bearing were rusty, swingarm the same, both wheels were cracked at the weld seams, dead shocks and both forks had seals riding up and down, carb manifold cracked, carb had broken pilot jet in it. The good...had 160psi compression,spark after sanding rotor and a Asche pipe.
Donor 84 WR500 came along for the wheels and brakes, took tall 87 kicker off of my 82-430XC-prefer the orig on the 430, HP pegs that are still too small for my 13's, straight bar mounts from a 87, cables and some ten footer plastic etc etc.. Rear shocks are from Leftcoast off of his 430 and he had them set up perfect for me. Maybe next winter do more of a appearance resto. Thanks for the kind words, Scott

Those are all really good mods. Nice work. I've got a set of the straight bar mounts, too. Been meaning to try them.

For my size they really feel good, better balance. Looking for another set for my 84 WR250. Those were off a 87-430XC I parted.

Speaking of balance...

I've got an 81 430WR running the original WR swingarm (so 1" shorter than CR/XC), full length XC Ohlins, and the shorter WR forks (so about 11 out back and I think it came out to 9.75 up front). Can't believe how much that focused the chassis. Pulls the rake in a bit and man does that bike turn. I ride aggressively but I'm not a triple-jumping MX'er so I don't miss that extra travel at all.

shock length

I like it! how long are the shocks your using? Trying to sort out my project and I like the longer shocks, curious if they are the same? Also curious about fork length not sure what mine has on it.
How about some measurements

How about OK?

Shocks: 17.25" center-to-center
Forks: 25.125" from center of axle to bottom of lower triple
Swingarm: 20.5" c-to-c

Got the forks pushed up so the front wheel just barely clears the fender on full compression.

Pick, I think you got a thing for the Skyway's My 82 CR250 came with one but I put my CR500 one on it. Been thinking about putting it on my 82-250XC project. I bought that 81 WR250 for the swingarm because I want the lower seat height (WR) when the XC goes back together. Schools out for the summer and got most of my students graduated so I'll get some projects done...maybe. I do things different, I gather parts all winter because I have very little "shop" time. Summer comes and actually get to work on things.

Different swingarms

Also hate to show my ignorance but the two swingarms that I have were supposed to both be from WR430's but bottom shock locations seem to differ? Are the CR and WR arms lower shock location that different ?

It all depends on size and year and I've been trying to keep good notes so I don't mess up any geometry combo's.

The littlest scoot, the 125, lagged behind in equipment. It had its own shocks and travel numbers. I'm not building 125's from that era so I can't give numbers. But here's what I've got on 81/82 full size bikes:

CR & XC 250/430/500 forks, arm lengths and shock locations are the same for both years. Of course, CR arm is for floating brake and XC is for fixed brake. And they changed shock valving and damping rod holes and so on, but hard lengths and geometry are the same for CR/XC 81/82.

The WR is more complicated. 81 WR was a pretty short bike and still had 35mm forks. It was updated quite a bit for 82 and lots of numbers changed. For either year the WR swingarm is almost exactly 1" shorter than CR/XC arms. But the lower shock mounts differ a bit between the WR years, along with different shock lengths. For 82 the WR got slightly longer travel, different lower shock mount location, longer shocks and 40mm forks, but still not as much travel as CR/XC.

So there are actually three travel lengths among the big bikes: 81/82 CR/XC, 81WR, 82WR.

There are other weirdo differences, too. They came out with that nice new hub in 81 with equal length spokes... but only on the 430. It wasn't till 82 that they all got it. Most 81 250's will have the older conical hub (and also the older 250 motor), but I have seen some high serial number 81 250's with the newer hub.

Swingarms

I've measured from the center of the swingarm pivot to center of the lower shock mount and one mount is approximately 13" and the other is 13.75" ? I know I will use the one that is 13" but the curiousity is killing me. I know they are almost 30 but wow are these piecemeal, so 17" shocks with 13" shock mount will hopefully give me the same geometry yours has along with a similar 40mm front end.
What is your swingarm pivot to lower shock mount?
I would also like a good handling 430.

Husq.fleet,
Sorry, realizing now that we hijacked your thread. Back to your bike...
What bend are those nice gold bars? And if I may answer IM's one last question...

Looks like all my 81/82 stuff has very close to 13" lower shock mount, except the 82 430 WR which is 13.75". That seems to be the oddball. The "nice handling" 430 WR above has a 13" lower mount.

No problem, all good info. They are CR bend Fly bars. He had them for the bike when I bought it, but I actually like the orig Husky bars with a inch or so cut off each end. With my "dainty" frame the higher bars are more comfortable. My 82-430XC still has stock bars. I hated those bars (gold ones) untill I put the straight mounts on. I need a couple of more sets for the others. I had a set of Fly "Mini" bend bars on my 84 WR500. They came on it and I liked them and seemed comfy so I'll try them on the 82-250XC project.
Amazing how the older we (I) get the pickier we are about bars/grips/seats/ suspension set ups/tires and everything else we never bothered with untill we destroyed our bodies with ill fitting stuff like the above!!! I fiddled around with my 08 CRF250X Honda forever trying to make it/me agree on anything. Sold it and bought a 84-WR250, put a 83 seat/tank on it and done Something works, stick with it. Now if they would just make a Duramax/Allison combo'd 72 Chevy pickup.........