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Any Old School Motorcycle Racers Out There?


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I just got this 1985 Honda RS250R factory race bike and I'm looking for any information I can get. So far I've learned that Honda only imported six of these into the US in '85, and that Freddie Spencer won the World Grand Prix Championship on one of these and a 500.

For those that don't know but are interested, it's a 249 cc 90 degree v-twin two stroke, that weighs a mere 175 lbs. It redlines at 14,500 RPM and REALLY goes at about 10,500. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the bike, either a full restoration or put it back on the track. I have a ton of spares with it and the original HRC Comstar wheels.

If anyone used to race back in the day or knows someone in the know I would love to hear from them. Part of the allure of these bikes is cracking the lineage and the history. Tomorrow I'm going to start cleaning it up and see just what it'll take to get it beautiful again. It's in decent condition for a 27 year old racer, and it does run. Need to find some 110 race gas to get it going but I'll be pretty limited as to where I can ride it. post-41423-0-87639900-1349401706_thumb.j

Edited by Lifeislarge
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Raced WERA on a RZ350 in the early 80s for a couple years.

There wasn't much left of it after a couple get offs at speed.

I think turn 1 at Texas World Speedway pretty much did her in, and didn't do me much good either.

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That's a beautiful machine!

Jennings GP isn't too far from you, and would be amazing place for a 250GP bike.

Might have better luck finding an old school RS250 expert on the WERA board. Plenty of 2smoke fans there.

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I haven't raced since 07 but grew up racing CMRA and WERA, still have quite a few race bikes though for the odd weekends I have time to get to the closest track.

What are you looking for info wise? For the bike or for racing it?

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I haven't raced since 07 but grew up racing CMRA and WERA, still have quite a few race bikes though for the odd weekends I have time to get to the closest track.

What are you looking for info wise? For the bike or for racing it?

Before I do anything I want to research the bike as much as I can. I have this disease that compels me to know everything I can about the stuff I get, which is what lead me here in the first place when I bought my Edge. I'd love to find someone at HRC that could go back into the archives and find the serial number, maybe send me a copy of the build sheet, and info on who the bike was originally leased to. I'd like to know how many of these were made in '85 and what number my bike is. Maybe it's just for peace of mind as I would hate to take this thing out on the track and wreck it only to find out later that it was rare enough for that to be a tragedy.

If I was going to restore a race bike, this would be a contender. The fairings are all in perfect structural condition with no repairs and the paint only has a couple of cracks here and there. The frame and engine numbers match and there is no evidence of wrecks. I really don't think it would take much to bring this bike back to near mint condition. Hardest part will be restoring the engine finish. Maybe I'm opening up a can of cluster f#@k but I'd rather know than not. Besides, as with everything, the more info I have if I decide to sell it the better off I and the buyer will be.

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Hardest part will be restoring the engine finish

Very difficult to restore finish on engine cases and cylinders while they are assembled. Best result I have seen was after a complete teardown, wash cases with very hot water and simple green cleaner. Use a stiff bristle toothbrush to scrub and then dry after final hot water rinse and then finish with compressed air to blow all cases passages dry. Make sure any non-removeable steel dowel pins and insert areas are oiled afterwards to prevent rust. Same for cylinders, just make sure to heat dry them ASAP after final rinse in oven at very low temp for 1/2 hour to dry completely, then do a solvent rinse to prevent any rust.

If cases are heavily tarnished from aluminum oxidization, using a very fine steel wool or even better use a ScotchBrite pad to polish external surfaces while doing hot water and simple green wash should bring the aluminum finish back again by removing the roughness caused by heavy oxidization pitting. Do not use steel wool or scotch brite pad on internal case areas.

BTW, having the original factory Comstar wheels with it greatly increases it's collector value status. Looks like yours is a real gem :-)

BTW, BTW, Homestead Florida has a nice racetrack and there are track day providers who run riding events there. There is also a good track in Barber Alabama and the Road Atlanta track in Georgia, all in your neck of the woods (close enuff anyway)

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I never raced it, but I had Honda hurrican in the mid 80's, the 500 cc screamer. also in '74 or '75, we put a Yamaha RD-350 two stroke twin into a Champion frame and flat tracked the snot out of it. Almost all the local short track guys were using Kawasaki KX-350's, o0r the Aeromacchi made Harley Davidson 350's, with a cattering of Bultaco Astros. The RD350/Champion did not corner as wellm as some, but it screamed down the straights. A friend from New Orleans was running a KZ-750 two stroke triple in a Champion frame. Even mon a track full of four stroke Harley XR750's you could hear him coming up behind you. Yes, he ususally passed me at least once a race. I even had a BSA Victor flat tracker for awhile. For those of you that are yunger, the Victor was a 441cc four-stroke single. I think they invented the term Thumper for that bike. Lifeislarge, thanks for the post. It really caused me to reflect on some fond memories.

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Hello: I owned a Yamaha 80 TZ 250 for a while. You may want to look at Honda Canada to get some info on this bike. I think they brought more small bore race bikes into the country than they did in the US. I love the sound of 2-stroke bikes at full throttle :cheers: In Canada they even sold a Yamaha RZ 500 and a Suzuki Walter Wolff RG 400. Those bikes where quick! Thanks, Eric

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Do any of you guys remember the suzuki T-500? Big two cylinder two-stroke, adn you could change teh shifter to teh right side, so we even considered it for as flat track bike. Then there was the famous (or infamous) Syzuki RE-5. A Wankle engine in a motorcycle. But man, it had some power and was smooth.

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This is indeed frustrating... I keep going out to the garage and staring at the damn bike and can't ride it. I need to source out some race fuel in town and at least go for a rip up and down the street. I've been told to be very cautious as the spares for these have virtually become extinct and from reading the owners manual, there is a very limited lifespan on internals. I didn't realize pistons only lasted 300 miles in these things. I have a contact at Honda digging into the serial number to get me a background on the bike. Who knows, maybe somebody worth mentioning was the original owner. I've never been good at simply owning something, I want to play with my toys!!!

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You can run on any good leaded gas 105 octane or better. Use 28:1 premix ratio, Castrol A747 is best choice but hard to find now. Motul 8002T roadrace is best choice 2T oil nowadays.

VP gas stations usually carry several options in leaded high octane. Make sure to drain carbs and tank after riding if not using again soon. Also good idea to put a teaspoon of standard motor oil into each sparkplug hole after draining premix, then rotate engine throughly to distribute oil as most race pre-mixes not good for longtime rust prevention.

Another good way to properly lube internals after running with race gas is to use a small amount of outboard motor (non-synthetic) premix at 25:1 after draining race mix and run engine for a couple minutes at med low revs to get internals lubed. Don't ride bike using this mixture, lube purposes only.

BTW, always warm up to at least 50c temp before riding and don't rev all the way out till engine is fully warmed.

Also, if you will only ride it sparingly on street, then make sure to fill cooling system with high quality auto-motive coolant, not anti-freeze. This can be left in for storage to prevent cooling system corrosion. But for track use, always flush coolant with distilled water and run only 100% distilled water, or distilled water with Redline Water Wetter mix as tracks will not allow regular coolant to be used.

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A guy at our local club has two 86 NSR250's! One is semi-running the other is basically a parts bike. He says he hasn't worked on them for years and I've tried to get him to think about selling but no go.

I have an RG500 in the late 80's that I wish I stll had.

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I don't even know if it's going to be worth the bother. I have two quarts of Maxima Castor 927 if that's any good. Right now I'm just going to wait and see what history comes up on the bike. I have a friend who has an upscale dealership here in town (Ferrari and such) and I might park it in his showroom in case someone walks in who's a collector.

I've read the start up and warm up procedures in the owner's manual and it seems straight forward, I just can't tell if I'm supposed to keep it at a particular RPM (4000???) until its at 60 degrees. It just seems like a lot of work for 3 minutes of thrills. I might regret not ever riding it, but I would regret riding it even more if something bad happened. It's almost like having a collectors firearm and not being able to shoot it. I'll figure it out eventually.

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Don't warmup with static rev constantly, blip throttle continuously after about 20 seconds at static 4-5k revs. Do blips to take revs to about 6-7k, repeat until temp is at or above 50c before riding. Then run easy on revs until it's above 55c before revving it out al the way (12.5k should be considered rev limit especially on an unknown engine condition). BTW, there is no idle mode on these bikes, it will stop running if you close throttle, thats the way they are designed.

Use the Maxima for storage procedure fuel run as I mentioned earlier. It is not designed for the revs and stresses these bikes put on the bearings, specifically the rollers in lower end and the piston. If they don't roll the engine is toast.

If you do decide to test ride it with the Maxima, limit revs to under 10k, maybe even 9k. But you won't appreciate this bike until it revs past 10k.

These GP racers are indeed particular in their care and feeding, but there is nothing else like them in this world. Once you ride one the way it was intended you will never be happy riding anything else fast.

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If you do decide to test ride it with the Maxima, limit revs to under 10k, maybe even 9k. But you won't appreciate this bike until it revs past 10k.

These GP racers are indeed particular in their care and feeding, but there is nothing else like them in this world. Once you ride one the way it was intended you will never be happy riding anything else fast.

Shoot, if that's the case maybe I'd better just keep my happy ass of the damn thing. I have a tendency to A, push things to the limit and B, become easily enchanted. I do not want to spoil riding the bikes I can ride and probably would want to rev the thing to 14,500 just to see what it was like. These tendencies have led to two ex-wives and plenty of other grief so I'm trying to spend my middle age learning from the past. :devil:

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Also, parts are still available at Rising Sun Cycles in New England and from Accu-Products in Ohio. They specialize in GP machines and can always get stuff the OEM Honda dealers cannot get.

Redline PowerSports is also a good GP parts source but usually pricier than the ones above.

http://www.redline-ci.com

Service intervals are 300 miles on top end piston, wrist pin, circlips and bearing). Bottom end (crank, seals and main bearings) need service at 1200-1300 miles (this means full replace). These intervals are based on full race type use. With proper care and easy riding mode (revs kept under 12.5k and not flogging it) these intervals can be extended to 500+ on topend and 1600+ on lower.

Trans usually only needs service once in a great while if at all if it is good shape to start. 300 miles is a lot on a racetrack, usually 3-5 track days minimum.

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Just to whet your whistle, here is an on-board video from 2008 of my friend Carlos Neves winning an AFM Formula II race on his 2006 RS250. Most of the rest of the bikes in this race are TZ250's. The RS250 when properly tuned is a formidable racing machine.

Part 1: Here Carlos leaves all the other 2T's behind pretty quick

Part 2: In second half of race he starts slicing through the 4T bikes started jn a second wave from different class.

Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA

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