79 CR250 Wheel Resto

Here is the third part of my 79 CR250 restoration. This will cover all that when into
restoring the wheels. Believe it or not, the wheels were one of (if not the) most
difficult to accomplish. Both rims were flat spotted and cracked (not at the welds).
The spokes were rusted , the wheel bearings and seals were trash and the rear
backing plate was missing some key parts.

I was trying for a high quality restoration by this point but I soon realized that the
OE tires were non-exsistent. I didn't realize it at the time, so were the OE rims.

I disassembled the wheels and tossed the rims in the recycling pile. I cleaned
and blasted the hubs. The front brake lining was nearly 100%, the rear hub was
sent out for relining. I restored the brake arms and replaced the bearings,
distance collars and seals with OE Honda parts.


Rear hub after ultrasonic cleaning, powder coat and new bearings, distance
collar and seals.

Rear hub backing plate with new shoes, springs and restored brake actuating cam

Rear backing plate showing restored brake arm and torque arm hardware.

Restored and assembled rear hub.

Next up were the spokes. I was determined to use as many original parts as
possible, so I decided to restore each spoke, spoke nipple and washer. This
was a tedious and painstaking proccess that ate up a lot of time. I removed
the rust off of each spoke (72 total) with a wirewheel, then hand polished each
spoke with Autosol. Then the spokes went into the ultrasonic cleaner to
remove any polishing residue. Simultaneously, the spoke nipples and washers
were placed in a vibratory tumbler with rust removing media for 24 hours followed
by another 24 hours using ploishing media. Finally, everything was sent to the
platers to be cadmium plated, clear on the spokes and Gold chromate on the
spoke nipples and washers.

Spoke, nipple and washer as removed from bike.

After wire wheel and polish.

Some spokes ready to ship to plater.

Back from platers, ready to lace.

Bucket of restored spoke nipples and washers

Restored brake cam.

While I was restoring the wheel components, I was also looking for new OE rims.
The original Elsinore rim, the "381" was replaced with a new rim when the
Elsinore went from "M" to "R" in 1978. The new rim was a "430". This rim had
a different spoke hole arrangement and also had "DOT" info stamped. As far as
I could tell, they had ceased to exsist. I looked for months and exhausted all of
my sources. I was just about ready to give up and go with an aftermarket rim,
when a gentleman from Japan that had Honda and industry connections
contacted me and offered me a set of NOS rims. Only these weren't just NOS,
they were new NOS as in just recently manufactured. He had gone to Daido and
commisioned a limited production run of twenty pairs of the "430" rims made
off of the original blueprints with the original alloy. I was stoked when they arrived.
Thanks again Holly.

Brand new "1979" DID rims

Rear wheel laced and trued

Other side

Front wheel

Other side.

dogger