Bike of the Month - March 2010
1980 CR250R Elsinore
Tim Smith
Newburyport, MA

Photos

Hello,

My name is Jeff Szenftner and I'm submitting this bike for my friend Tim Smith. Basically the bike had low mileage and Tim bought it for cheap money. Tim put it in a trailer box, where it sat for 10+ years. Once he sold his business, Seacoast Cycle, he had lots of spare time and a trailer full of projects collected over 20+ year. Ossa's Montessa's CZ's Bultaco's Husky's Maico's KX's Rm's, and Honda CR's. Probably the Husky's are the biggest of his collection.

The 1980 Honda CR250R was the first because it was in need of the least amount of repairs. So it was stripped down to a bare frame. The frame, swingarm, pipe, engine were sandblasted, and painted with the original Honda color (only thing Tim didn't do was paint).

Every part was torn down to nothing and rebuilt. The entire motor was rebuilt with OEM parts that Tim collected over the years from other shops that went under and out of business. The forks were rebuilt. The shocks were kept stock, as there is really no way to rebuild them and they were still in good shape (thank God for low hours). He just had to strip them down and give them a very good cleaning.

Wheels where polished by hand and fresh bearings & tires installed. The stock pipe was dent free (amazing), just sandblasted and painted it. Some of the plastic was rough. Side panels where purchased on eBay. The rest of the plastic was cleaned and polished with Plastic Renew.

I would say he spent approx. 3 month restoring it and it came out pretty darn nice. The yellow amature plates were put on because that was as far as Tim got in his racing career. He is now restoring a 1974 Suzuki TM125 with a Hooker pipe (sweet look) and has a 1979 Honda CR125R also in the stripped down works.

I'd like to say more, but Tim didn't have much to say, most is from my memory. I have known Tim 25 years and worked for him for several. When he gets the '79 CR125R done I will sure send it along for everyone to see the finished project.

Cheers,

Jeff Szenftner