1976 MR 250 Elsinore

[Motosprtman]

I finished my working resto on a recently acquired 1976 MR250 Elsinore, bike was all there and running to begin with. But in need of TLC and the usual chain, sprockets, tires and lotsa clean up and surface rust removal. Bought a NOS set of bars, levers and the accordian rubber lever covers for it. The rest was clean and paint and clean and clean and clean. Cleaned the carb, too althogh it was in amazingly good condition. Speedo shows 2,200 miles, OEM speedo cable still connected! starts on 1-3 kicks cold and 1 kick warm everytime. idles nice and slow and throttle response is excellent. Feels zippy and light in the woods - but the forks need a fluide change as the rebound is awful and the shocks are mere suspenders, nothing more, nothing less. Got a copy of Dirt Bike magazine from 1976 when they tested it, they gave it a good review and likened it up there with the Bul, Husky and Penton of the time, after suspension mods and removal of the 8lb cannister they called a spark arrestor muffler. They claimed an increase of 6-10 HP with the simple installation of a aftermarket silencer to replace the humongorestor. I think those numbers may be high - what do you think? I sure like the bike and love the smell of that maxima 2 stroke castor oil! I think with some suspension work it will defintely give my 04 XR250R a run for it's money. I think it is quicker in acceleration already!

[MEANDMYDRZ]

Any chance of pictures:ride: ? Old bikes are a lot of fun, I really enjoy the smell of the old 2-strokes as well.

[Motosprtman]

Yea - I need to get a picture of it and post it, nice old steed. I wonder why Hondfa in it's not so infinte wisdom discontinued it so quickly. Only in production for one year! the MR175 was around for only 3 years.

wonder of these shocks would be any good, seem pricey to me...

http://www.denniskirk.com/jsp/product_catalog/Product.jsp?skuId=58449&store=Main&catId=113&productId=p58449&leafCatId=11309&mmyId=10926

[Motosprtman]

[Motosprtman]

trying again for the picture

[Motosprtman]

[huffster]

On the shocks...If you ever plan to race the bike or even ride it regularly, I'd suggest going with Works Performance stuff...Totally rebuildable and the ywill spring them for your weight.

[MEANDMYDRZ]

Your bike looks great:thumbsup:

How much work to get it to look like that?

[Motosprtman]

That is about 2 months of stripping, grinding, polishing and repainting. Bike was all there and had not been molested, that was a plus. Tank was super clean inside and other than knee dents ok, so I rubbed it out and left as is. Recovered the seat. New tires, chain and spockets. Pressure washed and cleaned motor and painted. Only thing I did wrong during assembly was to leave the throttle cabel too tigh and had a high idle, adjusted and is ok.

[dumbdotdog]

Those stock shocks are rebuildable and are easy to do. heres the seals http://www.re-mx.com/cr/cr125_cr250.php scroll halfway down the page. Use the pro-honda SS-7 5 weight suspension fluid, 110cc of fluid per shock. Take off the spring and use channel locks to unscrew the seal housing from the shock body, then unscew the mounting eye from the shock shaft. I did my 74 cr250m shocks and they work pretty decent with the modern fluid:thumbsup:

[MEANDMYDRZ]

Those stock shocks are rebuildable and are easy to do. heres the seals http://www.re-mx.com/cr/cr125_cr250.php scroll halfway down the page. Use the pro-honda SS-7 5 weight suspension fluid, 110cc of fluid per shock. Take off the spring and use channel locks to unscrew the seal housing from the shock body, then unscew the mounting eye from the shock shaft. I did my 74 cr250m shocks and they work pretty decent with the modern fluid:thumbsup:

Is it just those type of shocks that are rebuildable or can most twin rear shocks be rebuilt?

[dumbdotdog]

Is it just those type of shocks that are rebuildable or can most twin rear shocks be rebuilt?

Just the CR, MR, aluminum body are. MT, XL steel body are not rebuildable-they dont come apart. 78 cr250 gas shocks arent rebuildable. I dont know about other makes/models, but could tell by looking at them after the spring was removed. If there is a threaded cap where the shaft passes into the body then its rebuildable/re-fillable.

[MEANDMYDRZ]

Just the CR, MR, aluminum body are. MT, XL steel body are not rebuildable-they dont come apart. 78 cr250 gas shocks arent rebuildable. I dont know about other makes/models, but could tell by looking at them after the spring was removed. If there is a threaded cap where the shaft passes into the body then its rebuildable/re-fillable.

I think I'm out of luck, thanks for the info:thumbsup:

[Helmet_Hair]

Man, that is nicer than I'd pictured it being. Very nice job of restoring her.?

[trailman006]

Nice job Moto. I bought an MR250 in the spring of '77. I as 14 at the time, paid $976.00 out the door. Rode the wheels off of it. It was a realy great bike. Read in another post that Honda only made the MR's to fill the gap til the bigger XR's came out, only needing to build 2 strokes for racing. I just bought an MR250 tonight from a guy on craigs list. Have been looking for one to go thru and fix up. Boy did I find a project bike. I hope when I'm done it looks as good as yours. I'll post some pics here in a couple of days. By the way, where are you guys getting parts other than ebay?

[pwrpapa]

I had a couple MR175's when I lived in Colorado that me and my brother would ride the rampart range trails back in the late 70's,they were good bikes, I always wanted a MR250 though.

I've been looking for awhile now but since they were only made for one year they're hard to come by.

I did see one the other day on CL. but it was to much work to try and bring the ole gal back to life.

It looks like you got a good one motosprtman.

Pop's

[showtime45]

I"ve got its little brother..

[rayivers]

That's a '77, right? Nice! Hey, I was wondering... if you're running the stock sprockets, do you find that first gear is low enough for going really slow in the woods? The '75/'76 first gear is mega low and I can creep along at less than a walking pace if needed, while the '77 has the more normal 1st ratio from the MT125 gearbox.

I'm trying to get an idea of what final ratio to start off with on the '77 motor. I won't need it to do the trials-bike thing like the '75, but I'd like it low enough to not need too much clutch slipping in tight woods.

Ray

[showtime45]

Ray, I have a larger rear. It's way to big almost un-usable in 1st. Going to change back to stock before good weather. I"ll let you know. Its a 77. It has you side panel on the other side.. I have a few extra gears from a 77.

[rayivers]

OK, cool - I'm so glad that side cover found it's way back to the right bike. Right now I have 13/46 sprockets on the '75, which isn't too bad with the giant Kenda K270 4.50-18 rear tire; 1st redlines at like 6 mph, though. The next chain replacement I'm going with 15/52 - I'm a big believer in using large front sprockets on these bikes, and I also need a bit more top speed. The CR/MR will use 17/58, at least until the rear sprocket dies (what can I tell you, I've had that 58T sprocket lying around since '76 and was tired of looking at it? ).

I'm almost done with the MT/MR hybrid pipe experiment - it wan't quite as easy as I thought it would be, but at least now I know what's inside the MT125 and MR175 pipes (nothing impressive, believe me). I'll post back when it's done.

You don't happen to have a '77 MR175 mainshaft and countershaft 1st gear, do you? When my '75 gearbox finally gives out I'm going to try putting a mix-and-match 6-speed gearbox in it, using CR/MR/MT gears.

Sorry about hijacking this thread.?

Ray