Something different here (MT250 inside)

Master_Spazez

New Member
So I'e been interested in cafe racers and vintage bike about as long as I've loved classic Japanese cars. So I finally ran across a cheap enough old Honda that I thought was interesting. It is a 1973 MT250 Elsinore (wait, a 2-stroke enduro?). I figure since I've never rode a bike before it would be a good project and since its small and light, a good learning bike.

Anyway the plans for it are as follows:
- Get it running
- Convert to 12v
- Get a title
- Lower it/repaint/different tank, seat, front fender (ditch the rear fender completely)
- Paint it (the tank/battery cover/front fender) red with a shit ton of flake
- Clubman bars (don't want to commit to full clip-ons because I'm a big puss, etc etc.

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Not what you'd expect for a cafe project! I figure it should be a cool project for my first bike.
 
Sounds like a good plan on that there bike ! But why lower it ? Would be a fun lil tracker I bet !
 
I like low things haha. See my car:

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Anyway I got it running last night (for the first time since the 80's!) the thing runs perfect, I didn't have to touch the carb aside from cleaning it, but the clutch kinda sticks and it slips bad. Second gear is destroyed also. But I didn't crash into anything and it starts up first kick! Still needing a new ignition/key and battery and everything should work properly. Today I'll tear into the clutch and see if I can't get it to grab all the way. I found a new gearset and that should be here next week
 
Well the clutch lever was sticking so I pulled it out, turns out pieces of second gear had wedged themselves against it, so tomorrow I will crack the engine open and clean it all out really good and just look at all the internals. So because of that I will strip the whole thing and paint the frame with some semi-gloss black. Maybe strip the tank and hit it with some red. Definitely clean the rust off of the wheels while I'm at it.

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I cracked that engine open and decided it wasn't worth the money in a new clutch gearset, gasket set, and bearings, as well as the machine shop work it would take to get the broken teeth out of the clutch lever hole and I found a running engine on eBay for just under $300 that I could just drop in. I also started stripping the frame of rust to prep it for paint. my real concern with the whole thing is making a new exhaust. I want it to make power in the middle of the rev range since it will be used around town at speeds under 70mph. I saw this kit online at AJS Motorcycles that is a weld your own deal and I could tack on a megaphone because I just love old Japanese bikes with a megaphone on them.

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In my mind no Japanese bike looks complete without them. I also found a little motorcycle salvage yard down the street where I can get a front fender as well as a nice-looking megaphone.

The real problem still remains at getting a title by springtime next year.
 
Master_Spazez said:
I like low things haha. See my car:

I realize you may have been joking there, but a bike is not a car and as much as cars handle better when lowered, bikes don't.

And it's a two stroke so it needs a tuned pipe to work. With a megaphone I'll be able to hear you from several states away but the bike will be barely able to get out of its own way.

Cool bike BTW.

I'd suggest get a title first and then make a decent tracker or retro MX or retro Motard type bike. It's a light, fiesty 2 smoke and the world needs more of them running and scaring dogs children and old ladies. :)
 
Even if it is just tacked onto the end of a tuned pipe? I understand I can't just have a straight pipe hanging off the exhaust port and expect to make power at all, but there is no way to have a megaphone on a 2-stroke? I do still have the stock exhaust which worked fine I just want that megaphone on there so bad lol.

Anyway I got a lot of the rust knocked off of the frame and I painted it and the swingarm. Next up is to clean off the forks.

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Also I want to lower the bike a hair so I can reach the ground comfortably when I come to a stop, I'm a short guy! I'm not looking to put the frame an inch off the ground, just bring it down some so I'm not stretching to reach the ground when I sit on it. I'm just switching out the rear shocks to around a 12" eye-to-eye instead of a 14 1/2" shock.
 
'fraid not. You could add a small trumpet to the end of the muffler just to make an obnoxious noise I suppose, but it would sound awful.


I hear you on the seat height. That's a heck of a difference in shock length though. Try trimming some foam out of the seat and say 13" or 13.5" shocks. As long as you can get one set of toes down, you will be OK. I can't get both feet down flat on a lot of bikes - especially if the seat is wide.
 
There's another way to get the same thing with out diff shocks ! You could trim down the padding in the seat and make it thinner would take 2 inches out would lower u and not the bike ?
 
Kick ass man! I cant wait to see it done. Ive got an old honda enduro in a shed I've been thinking about doing up. Keep up the work man. your progress looks really good!
 
Yeah I thought about the seat too since this one is toast anyway. I figured the exhaust wouldn't work so its either the stocker, or fit a race pipe off of a CR250 of the same year, I'm sure it could fit with little to no bodging. anyway I got the frame back together to make it easier to handle, don't worry the wheels will get cleaned up and that monster sprocket on the rear will go the way of the Dodo bird and be replaced by a smaller one so I could possibly see 90 going down a hill. I also finally got my 6v battery so I can test all the circuits and such to make sure it all works.

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Also my clubman bars and grips came in but they're in the apartment office and they close at 6. :'( Also looking at getting custom gauge faces from Sonreir because the factory ones won't match the look of the bike at all.
 
It will be quite a challenge to make a good looking Cafe Racer out of that bike, but it would make an awesome tracker. It's really just an update on the original design intent. Mid height bars, tracker seat and it already comes with serious attitude. No need for clip ons or rear sets or any of that.
 
I don't think so, if it had different tires on it it wouldn't be too hard to see it as one. I have this awesome picture in my head and I think I can pull it off, we will just have to wait and see how it forms.
 
Why completely ruin a perfectly good bike?

That bike is great at what it is meant to do. Dont try and shoe horn it into something it will never be good at.
A base bike for what you want to do is not hard to do at all, so cutting up a dirt bike just because thats what you have is a cop out.

Walk before you run
The talk of lowering bikes and megaphones on two strokes tell people in the know alot.
Everyone has to start some place and its great you are super excited about your new found love of bikes. But focus the energy and put it to good use. Nothing that you have talked about has anything to do with the way the bike works as a motorcycle. Focus on the function, make improvements and play to a bikes strengths. The style, life style and the rest of the dress up game can wait.
 
Just because it is outside of the norm shouldn't exclude it from the party. The bike was made as a dual-sport derived from the CR of the day, so why not focus it more on the on-road side of things, since that is where my heart lies anyway? I'm sure it would be a brilliant tracker, too. However I just am not interested in going on trails with it. I got the bike on a super good deal, and I don't see anything wrong with molding it into the cafe racer in my head. Just because I'm not an expert on the way a bike handles or how a 2-stroke engine works doesn't mean I don't have a good idea.

Anyway my bars and grips came in so I put them on right away. Also I muscled the bike up a flight of stairs because I had to take it home from work.

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Master_Spazez said:
Just because I'm not an expert on the way a bike handles or how a 2-stroke engine works doesn't mean I don't have a good idea.

Actually it does. :-( I'm not busting your chops here. When I suggested a Tracker look it was because the frame, seating position and general geometry lend themselves to that ergonomics and look. A trail or dual sport bike can be made to go on trails, that's true, but a street tracker is a bike that looks like a dirt track racer but lives on the street. Trackers don't go on trails.

Way back in the day, a small company in the UK made some interesting club racers out of those bikes but it did take a lot of work and they had sufficient experience to make it work.

For a cafe bike you really need shorter forks and a modified frame, different wheel hubs, spokes, rims and tires. That's all possible. The frame will probably need some structural changes too and then there's body work to consider.......

Anything is possible and my first cafe racers was built around a bike that was almost as unsuitable but it's the only one I had so it had to work. So I absorbed every book and magazine on performance bikes and workshop skills and anything technical about making things work better and went from there.

I'm not telling you can't do it. That's not my job, nor is my intention. I'm just suggesting that if you want a cafe racer, then that bike is not the easiest place to start. For a newbie that's important to know. None of us starts out knowing what we don't know. The more we learn, the more we realize we don't know.

We're just trying top point you in a direction that we feel will be more rewarding and effective. What you choose to do with that is entirely up to you.
 
Ummmm think of a tracker not for the dirt but more like a supermotard a dirt bike with street bike tires !
 
That looks kind of silly in my head, I was already mulling the idea of forks from a CBR around in my head but keeping the factory rear swingarm so I can keep dual rear shocks. The biggest issue I see is of course braking. the rear would have to be a custom mounted rear disk and the front would have dual disks, a bit extreme for a 250cc 2-stroke but it would be a nice upgrade from the 40 year old cable-actuated drums. But I am kind of afraid of doing all that heavy modding for my first project.
 
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