Yamaha SR250 - A clean standard build

sincerelyadam said:

haha that is most definitely a thing. http://thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com/

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Haha awesome. The first one I saw was actually an entire Kawasaki H3. That was one of the early ones several years ago and it blew my mind. Then I really like the ones that Classic Bike do every few issues of an exploded engine in great detail. Cool stuff!

Got the front guard I designed/ordered in the mail today. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, its amazing that its hand made and its freaking awesome that people have these skills and I am grateful for that. On the other hand, it'll be the only part on the bike that will 'look' hand made. Sure, its charming and original, but I am more of a design for production kinda designer rather than an artist kind of designer. Plus its just not quite right. I made a drawing for the part and sent it to the guy and offered to send the 3D printed prototype as well but he said he didn't need it. I wish I had sent it anyway. Then he would have had something to match it up against - like a buck. I printed out the curvature at 1:1 scale and cut it out and put it in the middle of the guard - you can see its a way too tight of a curve. I know how hard these double curvatures are to get - I have done a couple of metal shaping classes myself (I sucked) but I wanted it to be a bit more mellow than this. I'll put it on the tyre tomorrow and see what it looks like before deciding to use it or not. Looks like if I did want to start selling these, I will need to invest in some press tools, rather than going down the hand made path...

Got a chance to see what the fender would look like in context. I think it will look good. It could have been a bit wider - this can be seen when comparing to the prototype too. But the curvature is actually fine and the radius of the fender is perfect

That is good looking fender!

Habanero52 said:

That is good looking fender!

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Cheers Habanero. I cant take credit for making it, but the design maybe

Its been a pretty slow couple of weeks on the build front - I blame life getting in the way and needing to generate money - sucks haha. I have been doing some design consulting for a couple of companies to try and bring in some dosh though. Highly necessary to continue!

Anyway, couple of parts arrived in the post today. Some tacho block-off plugs I designed a couple weeks back. They look good. Perhaps a bit hard to get without seeing them in context - I will take some pics when I am in the shop next. One is for the XS750 I am working on for a mate/customer and the other is for the SR. The cool thing with the SR one is that it fits the front speedo drive hole as well (see comparison next to chopped speedo drive cable/fitting). So if ever someone wanted to block that off and use an aftermarket speedo with a magnetic pick up, they could use this plug.

Anyone know if the US and Spain model SR's came standard with a tachometer? I know the Australia delivered models didn't (there is just a blank boss in the head casting) but I think most of the European models did - at least to Sweden, Germany and Denmark...

The USA version SR185/250 did not get a tach.

Nice! Looks about like the tach plug I made for my SR500:

I'd kill for a good euro head for the SR. I want a tach. I'm hoping to find one when I go to the UK at christmas.

I used an electronic tach on my SR250 cafe. Works well.

Which one? Supplier? I like the look of that.

Here's a link to the one I bought from Dime City Cycle. I think the brand is "Bikers Choice" which is available though lots of places.

Thanks for the info Zap! So perhaps there wouldn't be such a large need for these after all...

Teledan that plug looks nice! You make it yourself? You got a lathe? Looks like the one I designed could fit the SR400/500 too then perhaps?

I've used a tacho like that before too - on a DT400. Do you wrap a wire around the spark plug lead for that one hdscarbro? I found the one I had lagged quite badly. But that could simply come down to quality.

Buying tachs are hit and miss I find. I've returned two that didn't have a switch or wire combo to run a single cylinder.

JadusMotorcycleParts said:

I've used a tacho like that before too - on a DT400. Do you wrap a wire around the spark plug lead for that one hdscarbro? I found the one I had lagged quite badly. But that could simply come down to quality.

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It connects to a wire going to the coil, not the spark plug wire. Not a noticable lag. I can shoot a video tomorrow if anyone's interested in seeing it in operation.

That would be appreciated.

Here it is.

cosworth said:

That would be appreciated.

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Perfect. Any special wiring other than switched power and the lead to the coil positive?

That one looks perfectly responsive! I rekon it would be better to install one of them than to try and get a head with the mechanical drive. Cool that this is an option.

My thoughts exactly Jadus. I just put my head back on with the top end rebuild, This is just making a mounting plate and taking the tank off. Makes me rethink my speedo as well. To get a matching set.