XL250 Motorsport. So it begins

[98tls]

Picked the old girl up today down in Dunedin which in itself almost led to disaster as the house i picked it up from had a cliff face for a driveway,not a problem in itself but upon leaving and reaching the top of said cliff the to low for its own good ute bellied out and wasnt far off refusing to move thankfully awhile back i had part of the exhaust replaced and the guy poked it up higher than it was otherwise it would have been a noisey trip home.Bloke i collected it from was a bloody nice guy who gave me a box of bits inclusive of original tailight/indicators and the missing tacho which must have been in the box for years as its like new.Got it home and going,took around 3 kicks and off she went.Gave it a quick scrub up and hey its not to bad i reckon.Wanted to stay out the shed and tinker but Mothers day intervened so was pulled kicking and screaming round to the in laws.Anyway will probably be the longest resto thread in history but thought i would kick it of with a few pics.More to come.

[98tls]

Question time,the bike has been on a farm in central Otago all its life,farms being sold the bloke i got it off was the original owners mate looking after the bike,original owner sent the key to his mate in an envelope resulting in it being lost in the PO sorting machine which they reckon they clean out every month and theres a fair chance of getting the key back,if not can i take off the ignition block take it to a locksmith and have him take it to bits then make a key?

[FJRider]

I owned on when I was in Burnham. The Selwyn river bed was its usual weekend haunt. From Highway one up almost to Hororata it was almost always dry for most periods of the year. Water DID flow ... but it ran under the gravel. There were a few water holes ...

The route to and from ... was via Two Chain "Road" ... a paper road for it's most part. And a mud track in the wet.
A regular companion was on an XL125. The air intake vent on the 125 was at the bottom of the air-box. On the 250 ... it was at the top of the air-box. That gave me six extra inches of water depth I could get into. And I DID get deeper a few times. I always hit the kill switch before it ... hydrolocked. A few times it was submerged (totally) .. and after being pulled out of the water (the heavy bitch it was), plug pulled (cleaned and dried) and kicked over a few times to clear the bore ... it went ... and got me home to camp. After letting it sit for a bit and draining a little water out of the tank .. A regular oil change helped keep it going.

I've even ridden it to Invercargill (and back) a few times from there too.

There used to be a 305cc kit you could get for them ...

[98tls]

I owned on when I was in Burnham. The Selwyn river bed was its usual weekend haunt. From Highway one up almost to Hororata it was almost always dry for most periods of the year. Water DID flow ... but it ran under the gravel. There were a few water holes ...

The route to and from ... was via Two Chain "Road" ... a paper road for it's most part. And a mud track in the wet.
A regular companion was on an XL125. The air intake vent on the 125 was at the bottom of the air-box. On the 250 ... it was at the top of the air-box. That gave me six extra inches of water depth I could get into. And I DID get deeper a few times. I always hit the kill switch before it ... hydrolocked. A few times it was submerged (totally) .. and after being pulled out of the water (the heavy bitch it was), plug pulled (cleaned and dried) and kicked over a few times to clear the bore ... it went ... and got me home to camp. After letting it sit for a bit and draining a little water out of the tank .. A regular oil change helped keep it going.

I've even ridden it to Invercargill (and back) a few times from there too.

There used to be a 305cc kit you could get for them ...

Fun eh,annoyingly my old man sold a TL250 awhile back and gave the guy the 305 kit he bought the same day as he bought the TL new.Doubt very much this thing will ever see much off road bar some gravel possibly.Tis a get it nice and ride it to work thing i think.Will add that the old man set in his ways by his own admisson didnt think the Japanese trials bike he bought would last long hence the purchase of big bore kit,that bike did huge miles (even on road use) and never let him down in 30 something years of ownership and as i say he never did use the big bore kit.

[FJRider]

Question time,the bike has been on a farm in central Otago all its life,farms being sold the bloke i got it off was the original owners mate looking after the bike,original owner sent the key to his mate in an envelope resulting in it being lost in the PO sorting machine which they reckon they clean out every month and theres a fair chance of getting the key back,if not can i take off the ignition block take it to a locksmith and have him take it to bits then make a key?

There may be a key number on the ignition barrel. Either above where you insert the key or on/in the internals. I don't recall the ignition switches being anything special/different for the 250 (compared to other Honda trail bikes)

Or get a new/replacement unit on the internet. I'm guessing you know how that's done ...

[98tls]

There may be a key number on the ignition barrel. Either above where you insert the key or on/in the internals. I don't recall the ignition switches being anything special/different for the 250 (compared to other Honda trail bikes)

Or get a new/replacement unit on the internet. I'm guessing you know how that's done ...

Yep think i can manage that mateGot any pics of your old one?

[FJRider]

Yep think i can manage that mateGot any pics of your old one?

Yep ... somewhere. I seldom had time to take photo's ... and the Kodak 126 camera I had at the time ... didn't like water (OR MUD) ...

[98tls]

Yep ... somewhere. I seldom had time to take photo's ... and the Kodak 126 camera I had at the time ... didn't like water (OR MUD) ...

Get em on disc and post them up then eh...

[merv]

Can't help you with a key, but wondering why its sitting so low on the front forks - are the springs kaput coz doesn't look like its slipped up through the clamps?

[98tls]

Can't help you with a key, but wondering why its sitting so low on the front forks - are the springs kaput coz doesn't look like its slipped up through the clamps?

Can tell you the seals are well naffed so an inspection of the fork internals will be done anyway merv,cant imagine the oils been replaced in 40 years.Been a hellva long time since ive seen one but cant remember them having that much travel from new to be honest.

[JimO]

do you remember the TV add for the Motorsport??. I cant find it on utube but it was set in a quarry or sandhills from memory

[FJRider]

Get em on disc and post them up then eh...

Most of my old photos are in slide form. I'm taking a look through them now. A few good ones so far.

I'll post them here soon.

[FJRider]

You may like this one ...

http://youtu.be/wTCun-wnCNQ

And THIS ...

http://www.hondampe.com.au/docs/owni...xl250-1973.pdf

and ...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/honda-xl250-motosport

[Ocean1]

Been a hellva long time since ive seen one but cant remember them having that much travel from new to be honest.

6" front and 4" rear. The 6" in the front could be made to behave OK, but the 4" at the back was a lost cause. Fox shocks was the eventual cure for my 350.

[ellipsis]

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