The 130mm allen head bolt came in, along with the brass washers so I was finally able to put the speedo on. The only trick being, the bolt was only threaded for 20mm. This meant I needed to go to Sears and pick up a die/cast set to thread the reaming 110mm. Cha ching.
Which then meant I needed to buy a vice grip to hold the bolt so I could thread it. Cha ching.
But the end result was a flush mount to the tripple clamp, just the way it needed to be.
Found some great allen head bolts to replace all the old phillips head screws. Those little old bastards are so easy to strip out, they needed to go so I stocked up. I found everything on ebay from seller searay340. His selection is awesome.
I found these bronze and brass washers from a closeout sale an ebay seller roland4937. The idea being brass and bronze will be the only color on the bike. I’m looking to strip the paint off the tank and clear coat it unfinished. The bike will be black, chrome and stripped metal with highlights of brass and bronze. Hopefully that dash of color will be enough. We’ll see.
Finding the right seat was a bear. I wanted a diamond stitch that didn’t look too flat or bulky. And the more traditional cafe racer seat would just look goofy on a 250 since the thing is not made of power. Luckily Webike has an amazing selection of parts, not for SR250’s per se but for the 400’s and 500’s. Which means I need to modify the seat to get it to fit.
As you can see the seat doesn’t fit the frame. I need to cut off the riser on the back so the seat will lay flush.
Need to remove the metal brackets made for the SR400-500 models.
Cut the plastic and removed about a half inch of foam in order for it to lay over the frame.
I think after I cut off the back frame brace the seat should lay flat. Cross your fingers.
The new headlight and blinkers came in. Took me awhile to figure out how to mount the headlight. A lot of rings and spring loaded screws to line up and put on in the correct order. But alas it’s on. Mounted the blinkers to the headlight brackets. I might need to put on some spacers so the blinkers are offset to be more visible to cars. But for now, form over function.
I bought a small speedo and new headlight case. I thought the 7″ case would fit my stock light but turns out the the headlight is 6 1/4″. I must have measured the case not the light. Looks like I’ll be buying a new headlight soon to fit the new case.
The speedo isn’t sitting flush with tripple clamp. I think I want it down 20-30mm. But promising.
Found a good looking kick starter shaft on ebay and gambled on if it would fit.
Almost! The base rubs against the crankcase a bit. I’ll just grind it down. Which means I need to buy a table vice.
I always felt like there was something missing on this bike, a kick starter. After being at the mercy of a little battery and cold New England mornings. I decided to take the middle man out of the equation and put on what every motorcycle needs, a kick starter. So out came the engine and started looking for something that didn’t exist.
I found a few sites that when combined added up to a full kick starter kit.
CMS for the partial kit. There are a few things backordered or simply not made anymore.
Dillion Brothers if you know the OEM part number.
Had to go to ebay from the kick shaft. You can see an XT250 kick starter on the workbench but after seeing it on the bike I knew I had to find something nicer.
I found out after a few hours of tinkering and trying to get things to fit as described in the schematic that I had a few parts too many. Namely a large plastic bushing that held the large spring in place. The crankcase would not fit with it on but found the case was molded to fit inside the spring. Worries me a bit because the spring will be rubbing against the aluminum when I kick but there was just no way it could fit.
The original bars on this bike curved back and pretty much hit my knees when I turned sharp corners, so they had to go. I first mounted some Renthal low bars for a motorcross feel, since that’s what I’m use to. But after a few months of riding I got to thinking I needed to convert this bike into a cafe racer. And since it’s a 250 I needed to shed a lot of weight in order to get some horse power back.
I first ordered some 35mm clip ons from Dime City Cycles for my 32mm forks thinking I could retro fit them. Once I started to install them I quickly figured out it would not be safe. So back to the internet I went to find some 32mm clip-ons. Luckily I found an ebay seller dustinpoole who has these sweet looking clip-ons. And of course I had to order some vintage grips and smaller hand levers to go along with bars.
After 5 hours of wire brush and dremeling the tripple clamp is starting to take shape. I want the look of this bike not to feel too polished but more hand made. I want to see the work I’ve done so I’m leaving a few blemishes here and there and not buffing them out to look like a show bike.
Living in downtown Boston made the daily commute as easy as jumping on the redline for two stops. Definitely spoiled. But when baby number two arrived our downtown life needed to be traded in for more space and a funny thing called a driveway. So off to the burbs of Belmont MA we went. Only problem was we needed another car and I didn’t want to buy and insure another one. Work is only 7 miles of back roads away, so I figured I could just buy a motorcycle. Jumped on craigslist and found a 1981 Yamaha SR250 with only 2,000 miles on it! Since my last motor-cross bike was an 1989 Yamaha WR250 I figured it would be an easy transition to the road without too much power to get myself into trouble.
MORRISMOTORS 