Posts
481
Joined
5/31/2013
Location
Rutherford, NJ
US
1979 Mugen 360
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I have a powder coated frame, a completely rebuilt 1979 CR 250 bottom end, machined and updated with a 1980 kickstarter gear, freshly plated Mugen 360 top end, Fully rebuilt & painted Fox piggybacks, two tanks to choose from, one completely restored to Newman like quality, the other is void of paint and polished to a nice shiny finish, new plastic, NOS peg assemblies, FULL PDE bolt kit, and a brand new NGK plug. Now, I have a few options on the forks and I was going with one of two finalist up to last week. Both were 43mm Showa's from 1983. One with a Mugen fork kit the other with 1988 cartridge internals. Now, a third option was presented to me by Peter Hardsteen of VMX racing......he feels the bike will look killer with stock forks machined to look like Works forks using the tiny dust caps.
I am thinking about updating the airbox to a PDE carbon or a KLP aluminum one.
I have really, really nice wheels, but I am still thinking about this one too. I might just go ahead and build a new set just to have gold rims.
I have to clean out my shop which is in a 4 year nose dive. I was rear ended four years ago and could not work on my restoration projects since then and no riding except for a few times last year that led me to sell my 2006 YZ 250 and buy a 2013 KTM 350XCF, thinking I might be getting better. Then, the back issues started back up this winter and my shop which turn into a catch all for the last four years got even worse.
If I could tell you the amount of doctors I have seen and the amount of time I have spent in PT, chiropractor's offices, spine surgeon's offices, pain specialist, voodoo doctors, etc, your head would spin. I can most likely manage 3 to 5 hours a week on this build. I will do my best to document as much as I can so others can see me build the bike of my dreams that I might never get to race.
Though my GMC HL 500 might have ruined the dream for me as that bike is awesome. Who would have thought a TT 500 engine could be so much fun.
Richard
There will be PICS as I gather all the parts in one place.
As mentioned just above, the whole "girl driving her car through the back of my car" thing has really set me back.
I will run the whole build in PICS from this point forward in this thread.
Richard
The Shop
So, that brings us to today. I had found a great doctor last year that knew how to treat my injury, the epidurals were a waste of time, he injected a cocktail of cortisone and steroids directly into my lower back muscles. Now I need two new knees.
What has that got to do with a Mugen 360 you ask.....well, it explains the 2 years of no new news and why I am finally back.
I am just getting all the parts laid out, so lets get this show on the road.
What we have here on lift number one is all of the PDE bolts and parts for the build with NOS complete footpegs, air filter, intake manifold, swingarm bearings and caps, etc. I have a new seat cover and near new throttle and cable.
Now, we have all seen Stevie Denton builds, well, it will not be that off the charts, but the PDE parts will move this up a notch from any standard build.
This is a fresh never run engine that I had actually planned on racing, then after retirement, restore to perfection and pass on. Hence that lack of a good paint job. That will be dealt with soon enough.
The pipe is a custom Dough Childress and I will have more PICS in the next few days of the silencer and rims and all the good stuff this bike is getting.
The shocks are rebuilt by Thor. What a good looking shock.
After this build, I will take PICS and sell this bike as I have no where to display it and I will never be in good enough shape to race it like I planned on. And keeping it to just say I have one, not my style.
I will have more PICS this week as I pull out the rest of the parts and get this under way.
For the forks - you may want to consider what I did - buy a set of modern Honda XR650L forks - they are 43mm, with the same internals as the '88 CR250 forks. The only thing is that they have the disc brake lugs. So to fix that, just send the left leg to Stevie - he'll machine off the disc stuff and weld on a new lug for the drum brake backing plate. Then if you want, have the legs machined to look like Works forks after that. Add Racetech Gold Valves, and you have a set of new, modern forks that work great and look vintage.
I have a bunch of options with forks here in my shop. I have 43mm's set up for racing, but at this point, I am not racing this bike. That dream went away 6 years ago....
I was talking to Peter and he fells for the "look", just modify the stock 37mm forks on a lathe for a "Works" look as the Mugen Showa's were only 2mm larger. As best as I can tell, when I am finished, and sell this bike, it will most likely end up a display bike.
More PICS later today.
Richard
The HollyEquipment guys have had replica Mugen arms running on their shop and EBay for awhile now as well, not sure if they source them from someone or have them made in Japan.
Had one of the VMX Fox arms for a bit; it was well built, but enormous relative to the orginal Fox arm; couple pounds heavier and the spars were 1/4" larger on all side. It's shape was a lot truer than the KLP replicas. I would love to see someone do a true repop. Very cool that their repop of the Mugen arm was a clone of an original.
But that's all beside the point because your project is flat out awesome and I can't wait to see it dolled up.
So, I am digging through every box, every pile, everywhere and pulling out each piece for photos and here is a few more. I hope by Monday to have a temp paint booth set up ( I saw a great set up on YouTube) and start painting the engine and replacing the hardware.
The first pic is the Doug Childress silencer and a custom built Chain guide I got in a pile of parts from a mass purchase.
The second is a Billet rear brake arm and hardware off eBay
And the last two is the triples if I go with the 43mm forks
Is that brake arm custom one off , Thats so good looking
I think I will use the 43mm forks with this build. I want to use them on my 1980, but I found I am not the biggest fan of 43's on a Red Rocket. I am going for a full on million dollar Race tech 41mm for on that bike this time around.
The only thing is, I do have someone who is interested in the bike as is and I am not sure how far I am going to get with this build........money talks.....
If I did not have such a nice unit, I would have bought a PDE Carbon AB or, and I was leaning strongly in this direction, an Elderfield Aluminum unit. I love there AB's.
BTW, the AB was dry at this time.....I wonder what it will look like tomorrow. We shall see.
Pit Row
http://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Old-School-Moto,22/79-CR250-Airbox-and-Final,1138118
There are quite a few greats, unfortunately there are the hacks too. Me, I do OK, nothing great, nothing horrible, but I also do not bill myself as some top of the line builder.
I personally have seen some ugly shit come out of the shops of some of the self promoting fools. And there are a bunch of those. I have also seen work that rivals the best from total unknowns........
This is a hot button subject and I will stop right now.
THIS is how you restore a bike.
Thank goodness I am building a Hot Rod and not a restoration. FTE, you just added another layer to my project as I had no idea how I was going to restore the CDI. And there it was (clue the music) for all the world to see.
FTE, again, thank you.
I have a Fox swingarm on my '80 250 - not sure if KLP or original - can anyone tell from the pics?
And here's my 480 project - using a KLP RC replica swingarm
Foreground arm is VMX, middle true Fox, back KLP.
Reverse:
Side by side
Fox and VMX close side by side.
I was hoping one of the repops would have been closer to true Fox; unfortunately my arm ha some damage on the bottom, I am assuming from the kickstand when the prior owner used it as a trail bike. I'd still like to find a fresher Fox arm, but way on the backburner.
Is that a Holly RC replica gas tank?
PK - exactly - paid around $900-1100. Somewhere in there. It's as close as I've ever found to an RC500 tank without stealing Newmann's! LOL
Biggest challenge is gonna be mounting it. Gonna need to fab some brackets to mount to the stock Honda locations. They are not even close.
Here's the goal:
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