The bike Honda never built - or, my MR250 Elsinore for the Vintage 1000

[Mr.E]

I'm back! Don't worry, stuff is getting worked on, I'm just not on here much. Here's what I'm cooking today. A seat rack of sorts. It's 1/2" thick, and I wanted to make it lighter, so I'm using that fancy drill press machine to make it so. There's some extra holes in there, thats why this is getting used, cause it was used when I got it. Oh well, it will still do the job.

 

[Mr.E]

Did a little more over the weekend. Got the frame painted, presses some fresh bearings in the case (still waiting on a couple to show up) and wrapped up the last of the holes in the cases and got them painted and baked.

 

[xb33bsa]

hey e that is coming along really well
seeing is how you are a machinist there is a free mod for the enginre that will definately wake it up gaining power everywhere on the band and have it run much smoother should be less 4 stroking or 6 stroking lol going on ()the stuttering 2 strokes do at part throttle low loads) there is free power lurking in all production 2 trokes
squish emeffer can you say squish in english ?say it one more time i dare ya
squish band camp is where you study the squish band
yep that is if its 2 big a project for you ,maybe yer not good enough
ah ferget it who needs free better power

 

[irk miller]

LOL ;D ;D ;D

 

[Mr.E]

hey e that is coming along really well
seeing is how you are a machinist there is a free mod for the enginre that will definately wake it up gaining power everywhere on the band and have it run much smoother should be less 4 stroking or 6 stroking lol going on ()the stuttering 2 strokes do at part throttle low loads) there is free power lurking in all production 2 trokes
squish emeffer can you say squish in english ?say it one more time i dare ya
squish band camp is where you study the squish band
yep that is if its 2 big a project for you ,maybe yer not good enough
ah ferget it who needs free better power

I'm listening.... can't guarantee I will make any changes other than a little polishing in the ports because of my schedule and not wanting to make this old mud gut grenade itself in the name of power, but if you got some recipe I'm all ears man.

 

[xb33bsa]

I'm listening.... can't guarantee I will make any changes other than a little polishing in the ports because of my schedule and not wanting to make this old mud gut grenade itself in the name of power, but if you got some recipe I'm all ears man.

eric gorr and there is lots of info out there on squish

 

[Mr.E]

Ok, so some more work over the weekend, and I even took pictures! Not a bunch of cool stuff but yall get the idea.

Shellac on the new gaskets. Btw, long shot but if any of you are buying the new made gasket kits for MR250's that come from Canada, they are NOT an exact fit. a few case bolt holes no not line up. The kit is useable, just not a 1:1 replacement as the ebay ad implies.

For good measure, I traced the gaskets out so I can have a master copy to make my own from, and note differences, etc.

Then I got the new old crank dropped in, some gears installed, some gears installed wrong, cases together, found a spare gear and thrust washer that i *probably* should have installed, split the cases again, installed the gear and washer, ripped my gasket, broke a oil seal,cursed a lot, and ended back up here.

Also, I put more paint on the hubs and cleaned the hoops, and my Thai lady boy spokes arrived. Unless there are some serious fit issues with the spokes, They seem to be top notch so far, but tune in next time for how all that goes.

 

[JustinLonghorn]

Keep up the good work, man.

 

[adventurco]

Sweet. I just got some Thai spokes myself for the XL350 from eBay...they sent 18 of the wrong length for the offset front hub with the drum brake housing on the front (half are 195mm half are 230mm, they sent all 230mm). Surprisingly they actually have some customer service and are sending me the 18 195mm spokes I need at no charge, thought I'd be out to dry and left to cut and thread them on my own :

 

[Hurco550]

Sweet. I just got some Thai spokes myself for the XL350 from eBay...they sent 18 of the wrong length for the offset front hub with the drum brake housing on the front (half are 195mm half are 230mm, they sent all 230mm). Surprisingly they actually have some customer service and are sending me the 18 195mm spokes I need at no charge, thought I'd be out to dry and left to cut and thread them on my own :

Came along a similar issue with a cj360 drum I was lacing. They were quick to respond and remedy the issue

 

[Mr.E]

Sweet. I just got some Thai spokes myself for the XL350 from eBay...they sent 18 of the wrong length for the offset front hub with the drum brake housing on the front (half are 195mm half are 230mm, they sent all 230mm). Surprisingly they actually have some customer service and are sending me the 18 195mm spokes I need at no charge, thought I'd be out to dry and left to cut and thread them on my own :

Good to know guys. I've only looked in the box to see them and examine a couple up close, so I'll be sure to lay them all out tonight

 

[Maritime]

Nice work and great idea on the gaskets. gotta love stuff coming in wrong. My Ebay headlight and bucket came in with the plug wired all wrong and if I didn't have the oem one I might have scratched my head for days trying to figure out why it was acting funny.

 

[iatethepeach]

Great stuff here.

For good measure, I traced the gaskets out so I can have a master copy to make my own from, and note differences, etc.

Scanning them is the way to go.

 

[xulf13]

Looking good E. Just found this, I'm in


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[Mr.E]

Thanks Eddie! funny thing, this ride will have me kinda near your state in August, but I'm not really sure where.

A note about the spokes. I did sit down and compare them last night (sorry, didnt stop for pics) and indeed the short spokes on the front wheel are about 5/16" shorter than the oem ones. However, the new nipples are also about 5/16" longer than the old ones, and seat a little deeper in the dimples on the hoop. I partially laced the front, but need to go back and fix some mistakes. Been a long time since I've done this.

 

[xulf13]

Very cool man. When in August is this event you're going to?

Whatever happened to that XL we were trying to get running last year at Kiley's during Barber?


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[Mr.E]

Very cool man. When in August is this event you're going to?

Whatever happened to that XL we were trying to get running last year at Kiley's during Barber?


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That was a 175 elsinore Kelly brought me. Its in a bunch of pieces at home right now. I'm kinda combining it with another MR175 I already had to make one good one. These Elsinores have been growing like weeds around here lately. I thought about using one of those for this event, but the 250 having just a little more oomph, is the chosen one.

 

[xulf13]

Ah ok, gotcha! I remember it being a 2 stroke now. XLs are 4 stroke. Explaining why it was so easy to keep trying to kickstart it for about an hour.
Yeah Elsinores sure have been coming up a lot lately on this forum.


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[Redbird]

Done yet?

 

[Mr.E]

Done yet?

SURE!!


not.

Some progress going on tho. Last week I clipped the old spokes out of the rear wheel because they were not worth even trying to remove the right way. While clipping, I found this:

Crap. I may be able to get this repaired, but I'm not set up for aluminum welding. So off to the junk yard to find a donor wheel. I found a mystery wheel with a rear disc and cush drive, which will go nicely on another project ive got rolling around soon. But thats another thread for another day. I pulled all the spokes off this wheel, and then replaced the bearings on the Elsie hub too (wheel bearings are my nervous twitch on old bikes) I will almost always replace them even if they check good. Chains too.

Drilling the divots out was one of the first things I learned on DTT years ago. And its served me very well thru countless wheel repairs.

Today I was doing some assembly work and this happened.

If you cant tell, the tap broke in the bottom tree fender mount hole. I hate it when this happens. Because of various reasons i could get lengthy in explaining, I went with the following method to remove - tho I dont have a lot of opportunities to do this method. But here's how it goes.

set your welder up on a test part first, cause you only get one good shot at this. you wanna put a good dab of weld right on the nub of broken whatever sticking out of the hole. Hold too long or move and you weld it to the part and we don't want that. just enough to build up a tiny bit.

Then drop a non galvanized nut on the welded nub, and weld inside the nut to attach it to the nub.

Then get a wrench on there and remove it like a bolt.

Next up we've got the airbox. I guess this is West Virginia/Maryland standard issue, but it isn't gonna fly here. More to come on this later.

For now more assembly.

Fresh forks, fresh paint, a few gussets, an XL175 front fender from Deviant, and one shock installed. Got lots of brackets in a phosphoric acid bath right now, and a few more hanging from the rafters with paint.

And here's a shot of the rear wheel all laced up and getting trued. Front is also done but thats a tad redundant i guess. And yes. these are the dreaded Thailand spokes as a few other builds here are using. I'm also not overly impressed with the overall fit, but we will see how they do after running a bit.