WR250 tuning

[Kurlon]

I will be selling a really nice 04 yz250 in a week or two, soon as i replace the rings. R.E.P Motor, R.E.P suspension. The one i blew up at southwick this year. Interested? my dad wants to sell it and get somthing 4 stroke with an electric start after woods riding it a couple times.

Unless you're looking to sell it for 'Back of a van in a dark alley' money I can only spend in small bursts right now. Tires and screws being this burst, next will either be sprockets and chain or suspension... etc.

If my GD ST3 sells, that'll free me up to add to the stable but priority then will be a road race machine.

[6 Fingered Man]

Hoping to sell it for enough to buy an XR, or something like that.

[Kurlon]

So, got a Kenda Trackmaster 2 in back and Bridgestone M59 up front on the way, along with a 13/51 sprocket set. I'll have my current 14/50 sprockets to play with also if it doesn't feel right, JTs are cheap enough that I don't mind having to order another if needed.

Slowly making progress.

Also have to remember to get boots before Stimilon, any I should avoid or aim for?

[breakdirt916]

hi cinderella, I will cut you an extraordinarily good deal on the alpinestar boots, if they fit you

just think of what you consider the "best deal", because that's what I have in mind

they're labeled a men's 9, but I think it would fit a person that wears a regular men's 10 shoe. For reference, I'm a 10.5 shoe, and they're a little too tight on the toes for me, but I could ride with them

[Kurlon]

Ok, what are people using for rim strips? I've always used rubber ones. When I took my rear tire off I found 4 layers of duct-tape from the 60s based on carbon dating... a ton of dried glue and rusty spoke nipples. Blech. Of course, no one around here HAS any rim strips in stock. One place went so far as to say they won't have any till April when they do their spring order. This is the same place that had 756s on sale... so... how would they have suggested mounting them?

In any case, while I try to find my wire brush to clean the rim up I did some googling, came across a Transworld video on tire changing. Bridgestone rep showing how to change a motocross tire using one of Kevin Windham's wheels as the demo. They're using duct-tape as a rim strip... That about blew my mind.

Is it really that common?

Edit: Cinderella? Come say that to my Fairy Godmother's face!
I'm a men's 10 wide to 11 wide normally, sounds like those might be a touch too tight. Then again, they might fit? Sounds like we're going to have to get together some time to ride and swap gear. It'll be great, then we can have a pillow fight and tell ghost stories!

[seth399]

I use duct tape

[breakdirt916]

dude if the shoe fits, they're free!

[Paul_E_D]

Dude, Duct tape is totally rare. I think you've Got KW's first factory racebike there!

[Kurlon]

Dude, Duct tape is totally rare. I think you've Got KW's first factory racebike there!

SWEET!

I just always assumed it was the hack way, there are rim strips, use'em... d-oh! Time to go tape shopping, I don't have a Yamaha Blue roll.

[gregp]

Duct tape is quite normal, and been so for years. It doesn't move around like rim strips do, making getting the shraeder valve through the hole much easier. Just make sure you do not go too far up the sides, or you may have a hard time betting the bead to seat. Also, make sure you use a razor knife to cut a decent sized hole in the tape for the valve. If you just cut an X, you will be swearing when it comes time to push the valve through there.
If you want to avoid flat tires, I recommend getting some Bridgestone UHD tubes before you get started.

[Kurlon]

Shimmed the bearings in the rear wheel today. Rotor side was fine, it was the two sprocket side bearings that were hurting. For starters, rust everywhere. The seals aren't keeping water out, or what gets in is staying in there.

Inner bearing was shimmed with a .001" feeler gauge plus sleeve retainer.
Outer got .003" feeler gauge stock and more sleeve retainer. Could have gone thicker on both ut it was what I could get my hands on.

Rear tire swapped, rim strip and new bikemaster tube as that was all I could get my hands on. New sprockets on, x-ring chain, just have to remember to bend over the retaining washer on the front before riding. Front gets swapped tomorrow. Clutch nut retaining washer hasn't shown up yet so didn't tear into it yet.

[Kurlon]

Front wheel swapped, I now have fresh rubber at both ends.

[Kurlon]

Aaannnnnnd... forks are stripped, brake side axle lug... thought it was odd the axle was loose, but I didn't mount the front tire last... now I know why it was loose. So I get to track down new forks, not sure what years swap onto my antique directly but I'm hoping TT has the answers.

[Kurlon]

Ok, cost of the tools to fix my fork is more than the cost of buying newer forks.

Before I go that route, anyone know of newer blown up YZ250s kicking around? My other option is to swap swingarm pivot bushings in my motor and transplant it into a more modern chassis, direct bolt up. I can in theory adapt to a YZ250F / YZ450F roller too but that requires welding new motor mounts and other fidiley work.

[seth399]

[Paul_E_D]

My god, man. Where your eyes closed when you bought this thing? I wanna meet the guy who sold it to you. This thread should be eternally stickied and renamed, so you wanna buy a cheap dirtbike? Too late to walk away now though. You should be able to find a set of forks to bodge in there.

[Kurlon]

Hey... YOU'VE got a YZ250...

GIMMIE!

[TheIglu]

Paul is crying on the inside watching threads like this.

[TheIglu]

Lets start having you and Bhavesh tally the money/time you guys have spent on these things. It's a competition!

[seth399]

Hey... YOU'VE got a YZ250...

GIMMIE!

New yz forks rule! Honestly though, just be careful shit fits when you get new legs. For example, the 05-2011 yz 250 is mainly the same bike but the fork clamp width was changed in 2008 so getting forks from an 05-07 fit a little different.

[Kurlon]

My god, man. Where your eyes closed when you bought this thing? I wanna meet the guy who sold it to you. This thread should be eternally stickied and renamed, so you wanna buy a cheap dirtbike? Too late to walk away now though. You should be able to find a set of forks to bodge in there.

Fortunately no bodging required to swap front ends on this machine. Yamaha has retained the same steering head setup for years. Short story shorter, up to 1995 YZs use 2 28x52x16 stem bearings. Post 95 the bottom is swapped for a 30x52x16. Steering stops didn't change till the aluminum framed machines came out. So as long as I don't snag an AF clamp set I'm at most changing a bottom steering stem bearing to swap on a new front end, clamps and all.

A 16x1.5 Helicoil or Timesert kit with the required drill, tap, etc costs about $170, there are entire front ends off bikes a decade newer than mine on ebay going for less than that. I figure I can either spend the money for a tool I'll likely never use again, and still have shot forks or spend similar and get one hell of an upgrade up front, plus a newer wheel and brakes.

On the flip side I know of a couple YZF rollers circa 2001 sans motor going for $400 to $500. If I can find an entire YZ250 roller in good shape for similar money I'll get a full chassis upgrade but retain my nice WR 265 motor that I'm quite fond of at the moment. Hence the query.

[Kurlon]

Lets start having you and Bhavesh tally the money/time you guys have spent on these things. It's a competition!

Never! I did the math ONCE on another bike, never again. When I stop being amused by the project I'll dump it, for now I'm still having fun.

[Kurlon]

New yz forks rule! Honestly though, just be careful shit fits when you get new legs. For example, the 05-2011 yz 250 is mainly the same bike but the fork clamp width was changed in 2008 so getting forks from an 05-07 fit a little different.

Yup, I've been reading up and researching. Plan is to get an entire front end instead of piece-mealing it together. Cheaper when I'm not getting nailed on shipping multiple times that way too. I've got a line on an entire 01 YZ426 front end, sans brakes that I've got to figure a reasonable price on, I'd ideally like to find something 04+ to get into the later generation stuff though.

[seth399]

F it, just find like a newer 09 250f roller and put the 265 in it

On the yz forks, the awesome SSS valving forks are 2006 and newer

[6 Fingered Man]

I have a blowed up 04 yz250 with R.E.P. Suspension.

He wants to sell it but was going to fix it and buy an enduro. Make an offer i'll run it buy him.