In November 2016 I purchased a 1983 ATC 250R site unseen. It was supposedly a good strong running machine. When I arrived to pick it up it was anything but. There was no carburetor, air filter, thumb throttle and I am sure another 50 parts missing. Bathroom silicone plugged a gaping hole in the stator cover and was sealing the clutch cover, plus the cylinder head was weeping oil. For some reason, I still gave the guy $900.00. If you’ve ever seen the money pit with Tom Hanks, welcome to my life.
I have learned quite a bit about these old machines over the last year and even though I still consider myself a newbie, at the time I received this bike I knew nothing at all. I thought I had a 1983 stock 250r roller and started second guessing the decision to buy it. I was determined to get it running because it was originally going to be a gift for my best friend that his family and close friends all went in with me to buy. I eventually traded him a very nice '85 250R to "buy him out" of his portion of the bike.
I posted a few pictures here on 3WW (you can search my posts and see the last year of posting about this bike) and it didn't take long to find out that I had quite a rare piece of history in my hands. The first thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to the 3WW community was that I had a Hondaline 300R top end. This was encouraging news considering how rare I soon found out those were. I was also informed that I had a sectional pipe, but no one could pin point the original manufacturer. After much debate a friend of mine sent out the pics to a couple “historians” and it ended up being an original Selvy Sonic II pipe made by Kenny Roberts! Those two things alone made the $900.00 investment worth it, which is a good thing because that is just about where the useable parts ended. I will go through the entire process with as many pictures as I can and tell exactly what we had, and what we had to fix or replace.
Brendon Yaeger at Yaeger Performance Machines (YPM) headed up the entire build for this. I know that there are several talented and knowledgeable builders on this forum so this review of YPM is only a reflection of his work and professionalism and is not meant to point fingers and say YPM is better or worse than anyone else. Having said that, he is extremely knowledgeable and professional. I can't imagine one of my machines in any other shop than his.
At the heart, Yaeger is a huge fan of OEM and I am aftermarket/custom. So, this build was a weekly conversation in the “war room”. In the end, the 300R ended up being about 50/50 OEM and custom. I believe the mix of history vs. contemporary really came together and created a stunning package that far surpassed what I originally thought was possible.
This is what the bike looked like when I first bought it and at the time that I thought it was just a stock 250r:
You can imagine my disappointment when this 250r that was referred to me as a "Beauty Queen" that "Runs Strong" arrived and not only did not run, but looked absolutely horrible.
For the life of me I can't figure out why the seller put new tires on a machine that (later after tearing into the motor found) was impossible to run mechanically speaking. But, at least I got some nice tires.... that I use on a different machine.
This was the picture that later became valuable to me. A very nice Hondaline 300r Top End!
Nice huh?
Believe it or not, this all original Selvy Sonic II pipe was sent back to Kenny Roberts. He had to weld a new section from the sectional to the exhaust flange and created an all new matching Sonic Silencer for it (oh yea did I mention the silencer was missing too?) YPM then refinished the pipe to an original raw finish. For me it is hard to believe this is the same pipe.
This is a picture of my best friend, Jacob, who at the time of this picture was still the owner of this hunk. He and I spent several nights taking it apart which ended up being the worst decision I made throughout the entire build. In my defense, I thought I was going to put it back together myself at the time. Looking back now, it would have been significantly faster if I had shipped the entire bike to YPM and let them take it apart and rebuild it. I moved to a new house during the process so there were several parts that were lost and in some cases so corroded that we could not tell what they were. Future machines will be shipped to YPM complete and the entire process will be done there.
The swingarm bolt was an absolute nightmare to remove. We heated it up with a butane torch and hit it with a sledgefor an hour or two before it finally came out. Needless to say it was not usable.
I noticed this when I bought it but didn't know what it was. I mentioned earlier that it was mechanically impossible for the bike to run. We found the crank broke at the woodruff key insert causing the flywheel to never be properly in time. Moreover, someone used the wrong nut on the crankshaft and it ground through the stator cover. When I got it, the woodruff key was ground into bits. The flywheel and mismatched nut had exploded through the stator cover.
At the time I wasn’t sure what problems exactly, but I knew we were going to have problems with the swingarm as you can see in the above picture. You can also see a sleeve on the axle that was welded on only on one side. We ended up replacing the axle and the swingarm. This was an interesting thing because after we got the new axle in YPM realized that sleeve still had to be removed to get the sprocket hub off.
He ended up cutting the axle, which after a phone call that night from him sounded like it was not very fun! But, the new one looks great!
We replaced the swingarm with a 2nd generation 250R OEM swingarm. That means 1983 or 1984 right? WRONG! We bought an ’84 swingarm and skid plate, cleaned them up, had them powder coated and then, and only then realized that and ’83 and ’84 swingarm are totally different when it comes time to mount them to the bike due to the different shock linkages. It’s a very subtle yet important difference. So, learn from us if you are building a 2nd generation 250R make sure that the parts you are using are the same for both years otherwise buy the exact year model you need. We ended up finding an ’83 swingarm and all was well, until we realized we had to get an ’83 skid plate too!
YPM started with the most important, and in my opinion most impressive part of this ATC, the motor. The 300r Hondaline top end needed a major dose of TLC so we decided to call in one of the best in the business, Rob Selvy. The motor in itself is a major evolution of the 2nd generation design.
Crank: Welded and CNC’d to “full circle”
Rod: Stock
Piston: Custom from L.A. Sleeve
Cylinder: Custom Race Port, Bored, Chamfered
Head: Ground and CNC’d for high temp o-rings
Exhaust Flange: CNC’d for high temp o-rings and TRX 250R 3 ring flange
Carburetor: TMX Mikuni 41.5 taper bore
Fuel: 110+ Octane
The frame and other various metal parts were all sent to Gateway Powder Coating in St. Louis. Mark Eckmann and Alex Wilson at Gateway did a tremendous job getting the exact colors we wanted. YPM suggested this color scheme to me and I have to admit he certainly knew what he was talking about when he told me I would love it. The frame is Columbia Powder super mirror red, black is Cardinal BK08 and white is Cardinal WH485.
The seat was sent to Tammy Mosher at Cosmic Quads. She nailed it with matching the frame and topped it off with a black gripper and perfectly aligned 300r labels on both sides. Tammy also created the custom SELVY bar pad for us. I will have to get pictures of the bar pad later. This is a very nice touch to the bike. I would highly recommend sending using Tammy for any upholstery needs you have on your trike!
The fenders are Sundhal style low-pro fenders produced by Wikid Fabrication. They are carbon fiber fiberglass fenders. These are white gelcoat and the number plates are raw finish black carbon fiber. You can contact Jason Tetz at Wikid if you would like to have a set made for your trike!
All of the other major components of the bike were completely rebuild by YPM. If it could be rebuilt, YPM rebuilt it. If it could not, we tried to find an OEM replacement that could be rebuilt. If that absolutely was not an option, we bought aftermarket or custom.
The frame had to be fixed and welded in a few spots from its previous hard life. YPM was able to fix it perfectly before Powder Coating. The brake calipers and master cylinders were all rebuilt and powder coated. The original clutch perch with parking brake was rebuilt, polished, and YPM even sourced the original parking brake sticker. The brake perch was also original to the bike and rebuilt and polished. The triple trees were sanded, polished and re-used. The forks were also original to the bike but were completely rebuilt with progressive springs. The front wheel was original to the bike and is the only thing on the entire bike that was not touched. Believe it or not, that is the same tire that came on the bike when I got it. It is a Kenda Front Max. The rear wheels however were replaced with Alba Racing beadlock wheels. The beadlock rings were powder coated to match the frame. The rear wheels are 18” holeshots.
All hardware was sent to Cody Gary in Texas for replating. All the way from the swingarm linkage and axle all the way down to every last nut and bolt were blasted and nickel plated for longevity.
[Insert Pictures of cleaned parts before and after]
The forks were original to the bike but YPM completely rebuilt them with progressive springs. The rear shock is the original to the bike, but, was sent to Seth Fligge (SF Racing) for a complete rebuild with a PEP heart transplant and new spring. The front and rear suspension is set up for a 230lb rider with gear. This setup feels like any modern bike you can buy today. To me it is the biggest difference in the before and after. I never realized how ragged out 30+ year old suspension could really be until I sat on this trike for the first time after the rebuild. The bushings for the swingarm were made by Brian Melugin (BKM on 3WW) out of delrin.
The handlebars were replaced with Renthal bars. The grips are ODI Rogue lock on grips. A TTO temperature sensor was installed on the handlebars to keep an eye on the beast. A Pro Armor kill switch tether is mounted just below the bar pad. Braided red brake lines are used on front and rear and the clutch cable is from Hel in England.
The air box air feed through the frame was sealed off. That portion of the frame was customized and welded shut. We believe it was likely done long ago to accommodate the large carburetor that was being run. But, since I received the bike with no carburetor I will never know for sure. Since the massive 41.5mm carburetor barely fits, I have to believe this was the reason. Being that we could not get air the way the bike was designed and knowing we really wanted to run a lid for protection and for proper air intake control we turned to EHS Racing. We sent them our lid and they created a custom pre-filter for us. Even though you can’t see it unless you take the seat off, I love this part of the bike! It looks totally awesome! And, the best part is it functions wonderfully.
After receiving the motor parts back, YPM proceeded to have everything powder coated or polished and began putting the beast together. I was able to go spend a weekend in St. Louis at Yaeger Performance during the finishing touches. He had already sent me videos of the initial start but when I got there and we cranked it up I couldn’t help but smile. Over a year of spending money and waiting finally paid off as the Dragon roared and breathed fire right before my eyes. I couldn’t wait to get it home and get some seat time!
Stay tuned for my first ride review. We are working on a video that will feature the entire build in video form (interviews with several involved with the build) and ride footage.
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Originally Posted by NeverLift
