My 85 250R flat tracker, in the works.

**Billy Golightly** · 09-04-2006, 08:13 PM

I think I'm gonna order one of those hard surface tires from Dennis Kirk and hope its not like the Duro. Thanks though.

**Billy Golightly** · 09-05-2006, 12:42 PM

Well I ordered a new front tire from DK today and sent the Duro back. I hope the new one will be a little bit more low profile. I also received my wheel halves today. Check em out. After looking at them a little bit I've come to the conclusion that either Douglas makes the wheel halves for this company or it and Douglas both receive their stamped out pieces from the same company. This was a .125 rim as had been discussed, but it had a "blue label" on it. Interesting thats what Douglas calls their .125s.

Bad news is both my rear tires are leaking air...I'm gonna try and pull them off and see if I can find it. Maybe I can get away with patching it.

I'm also considering trying to switch to a 350x front end. CoeShow mentioned in his thread that he ran a 350X frontend with less rake then the 250R setup and it turned much easier. Might be worth trying.

**Pete** · 09-05-2006, 02:04 PM

let me know how that front rim goes Billy, you know Im in the market for a new one

**Billy Golightly** · 09-11-2006, 07:41 PM

Well guys, the rim is done. It welded together like butter, very nicely. The beads didn't really look that great because I could only go about 5 or 6 inches and then I had to stop and turn the wheel. Some type of gear reduction with an adjustable rheostat under my left foot while welding to turn the wheel would be bitchen but not quite a necessity yet

Orginally I was just going to make a template to fit the 1/2 hole inthe center and then I could put the wheel in the drill press to drill the mounting holes. I ended up just putting it in the mill and using the DRO to set the 170mm spacing. I drilled them 1/2 which is very very close to the size of the holes in the OEM Honda wheels. The Douglas ones are smaller because they are not setup for a tapered lug nut. I drilled these as close as I could to the OEM size so that I can use a tapered lug nut to help center it. I was also going to use a hole saw to cut the center hole out, but it ended up being a sort of oddball size of 5 and 5/16ths. So I used a 2 3/4 hole saw and used a boring head on the rest of it. Came out really nice I think.

The only screw up I had was the first hole I drilled for the valve stem to go into was right overtop of one of mounting holes

so I had to weld it back up (Smoothed out nice, can only tell where it was from a lack of polish in that spot) and I made a new one. The factory Honda and the douglas ones are angled a little bit but that would be a *Edited**Edited**Edited**Edited**Edited* to drill...so I just put it in further and flat. I think it will work ok.

I did also of course have to cut down the hub. I just chucked it up in the lathe and ran a live center tailstock into the bearing where the axle goes through to center it up. Made a couple cuts and it fit in the wheel perfectly.

My Cost: $98 (shipping included) for the wheel halves. One and a half TIG rods. Valve stem.
My Time: Week and a half.

Douglas cost: $130
Douglas Time: 3 months.

I had made arrangements with the guy at REAL (company I got the halves from) to do a bulk of these...If anyone is interested PM for details. I will make a new thread about the wheels soon I think. We need atleast 10 complete wheels to get the bulk pricing, otherwise its about the same as Douglas, but the turn around time is still a ton quicker.

**NewOldSchool** · 09-11-2006, 09:24 PM

nice....need to get me one

**edog** · 09-11-2006, 09:52 PM

Billy we want action pics?

**Bryan Raffa** · 09-11-2006, 09:54 PM

Looks good billy i see you went with that tire..I think thats a better choice.

**Billy Golightly** · 09-11-2006, 10:00 PM

Well if all my parts come in and I get it together I will be showing up semi unanouced at a race on the 23rd of this month and hoping they will let me run. Doubt I'll be able to get pictures of me riding though :P

**Billy Golightly** · 09-11-2006, 10:01 PM

And yeah raffa...I think thats alot better then that other one I had. This still has tread but not near as much. Only thing is it doesnt have a whole lot of a rounded profile. Be interesting to see how it works. Have you got your rears in that tread pattern yet?

**Bryan Raffa** · 09-11-2006, 10:23 PM

no i havent maybe this winter, just going to stick to dirt for the rest of this season and then some asphalt next spring/summer.

**firefirefire90** · 09-11-2006, 10:48 PM

looks good billy, if an engine finally fits in the R i will be going your route. One question though, are you doing the durablue lowering link? It looks low, but it can always be lower. Thanks

**Billy Golightly** · 09-11-2006, 10:54 PM

Yeah it has the durablue lowering link now. ChrisD and I talked about it a little bit and if someone was the machine a new longer middle piece that is threaded, you could make it go even lower. I need to pick up some aluminum hex stock and get on that.

**Billy Golightly** · 09-12-2006, 07:50 PM

Well its almost done... I have a few more things to tweak (take a little bit more off the front brake caliper to clear). And some bad news...I think my wheel is out of round :crying: I'll have to check more indepth tomorrow. I also tried a little experiment with running ATF in the transmission...It vibrates a ton more, almost as much as my Z

I'm probably going to drain it and put 10w30 back in it. Still can't get the rear tires to hold air... and I need to polish the rims back up. Getting closer. Got a little over a week of time left.

**Billy Golightly** · 09-12-2006, 07:52 PM

Last picture, hopefully this is all anyone will see

I also forgot to mention...I need to stiffen up the rear shock a little bit, or perhaps let some oil out of the front forks to soften them up. It rides a little chopperish now even with the 21inch front tire.

**Mike_Ham_250R** · 09-12-2006, 08:02 PM

*Edited**Edited**Edited**Edited**Edited**Edited**E dited* sweet.

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