1988 VTR250
This is my latest restoration project and definitely a labor of love, but I think it firmly displays the level of commitment I put into my work\
This is the 7th VTR250 I have owned, but the last one was back in like 1996 so it's been awhile since I tinkered with one of these. Picked this 88 model up for a smokin price in decent cosmetic condition, but barely running on just one cylinder. I figure I could have sold the aftermarket middle fairings & the Hondaline Solo Seat cowl for almost as much as I paid for the whole bike so if I couldn't get it running properly I wasn't going to be out much in the way of dollars. Ultimately some new spark plugs and a decent battery and this thing was running like new. |
Mods List
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Started stripping
it down & giving it some love; new battery, spark plugs and
some serious bead blasting to various parts to make
them look new again as best I could and then powdercoated the
parts that required it.
Also removed all
unnecessary brackets, bolts & passenger pegs plus the EVAP
system
shedding more than 10lbs off this already very light streetbike
Who knows how long fuel had been dripping on the valve covers...
Before
After
Quite a few people have asked about the front brake...
It is a vented cast iron disk INSIDE the wheel housing
Very Special thanks
to Sato Racing for supplying me with this
Titanium GP style silencer
Dyed the Seat Black
YES you can shoehorn a 140-70-17 Dunlop K505 on a 2.5" rear rim!
I used to do this back in the day with the K591R & later the SP tires, but they have long since been discontinued.
Best I can tell
these new Dunlop K505's are the exact same bias ply
carcass as the old K591's they just have a different (updated)
tread profile.
Basically what you get out of this is 3 things:
| 1. A super wide tire that makes the bike look way bigger from behind than it actually is :) |
| 2. A much needed taller rear ride height to alter the bike geometry & get some weight on the front end |
| 3. WAY More tire than you can use... You will drag hard parts before you run out of tire! |
By the way when you
are working on the carbs there is no better place to set the tank
than an unused tire
It protects the petcock & the tank perfectly
| There has
been a lot of talk about proper carb jetting, but let me
tell you this. In 30 years of jetting bikes and owning 7
of these VTR250's not once have I been able to get the
Stage II Dynojet kit to work properly without sacrificing
drivability. Sure you can swiss cheese the airbox and
make it run pretty good on top end, but then the low
& mid-range suffer terribly. If you tune it so that
the mid-range is decent then you get a turbulence induced
stumble on the top end that in my opinion gets even worse
with a high flow (K&N type filter) Basically I can get the bike to run good on the dyno, but in the real world I get a lot more air into the airbox that causes the bike to run rough on top end so what I have done is split the difference & I use a more moderate jetting with a lightly modified airbox. I remove the entire rubber snorkel (which weighs damn near as much as the airbox lid itself) & I drill eight 1/2" holes in the airbox & chamfer the edges and I have learned to stick with the OEM air filter for many reasons. Most of which I explain in this article here if you are so inclined to read it. |
Still to come will be the tank painted black & I scored some OEM Japanese Spec flushmounts that mount in the upper fairing like this:
Still haven't installed the flushmounts, but the got the fuel tank & middle fairings resprayed
Working on new 1000RR
starter switch & HRC Quick Turn Throttle
