I am looking seriously at a silly bike a co-worker has in his barn. I can't seem to find much more about it, other than it apparently drove into this barn in the 90's.
Anything else I should know?
I am looking seriously at a silly bike a co-worker has in his barn. I can't seem to find much more about it, other than it apparently drove into this barn in the 90's.
Anything else I should know?
Know that you should go get it. That'll clean up nice.
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Find out what's missing and if the parts are still available, go get it.
That bike is one of the great ones that led the transition from heavy four stroke British bikes to light and stupid fast two strokes offroad. They're neat.
Not really.
That's an MT250, a pretty tame and fairly lame 2 stroke dual sport. They were really nothing special even in the mid 70's when they came out. A Canam TNT 250 would walk all over it.
In reply to Peabody :
I'd good naturedly argue that any Elsinore is a very significant bike. Sure, plenty of bikes were made that could walk all over it, but this was a definite peak in motorcycle evolution.
Kinda agree with Peabody here. Unlike their much cooler CRxxx brothers, the MTs were kind of turds when new and dual sport technology has come a long way since the early 70s.
I had (actually still have, I think it's sitting in a shed on my parents' rental property) that bike's little brother, an MT125. I was an overly ambitious teenager when I assembled the thing out of three basket case parts bikes only to watch it run for a grand total of about 30 seconds and then die and refuse to ever start again. My meager skills at the time could never figure out what the issue was, although in hindsight I think the timing was probably just off. At that point, I took stock of what I had into it and what it still needed and decided further expenditure of time and money was unwarranted, but I did learn a hell of a lot.
From what I recall, there isn't much repop stuff available at all unless it's something shared with the CRs, and production numbers were pretty low to begin with so even used parts are hard to come by. They don't make much power at all since they're just piston port 2 strokes with no reed valve or anything, although CR parts should swap right over for hotter porting, better carb, expansion chambers, ect. The problem is those parts aren't cheap and then the gearing won't match, at all.
That being said, the example above looks really complete and for the right price I'd drag it home. Just be realistic about what it is and can be and set your expectations appropriately.
I'd go for it. It may not be as significant as the pure motocross Elsinores, it's still a cool and somewhat collectible bike (and a fairly rare example of a Honda with a two stroke engine.) I don't recall if the CR had an aluminum tank or a steel one.
If it is solid, fairly complete, and the tank is still good, grab it.
The MT and MR series Elsinores don't carry the prices of the CR, but they are still collectible.
If you don't want it, let me know. I still miss my old MT125.
I had one of these for a summer and, while fun, it was kind of a gutless turd. I'm not sure there's much parts commonality between the MT and CR Elsinores (I believe there is between the MR and CR, though). The MT is a mild steel frame, steel tank pig, probably in the 265lb and 18hp range.
I'm not in any way saying that it won't be fun to tool around on, but it's not going to rip third gear wheelies on the pipe like a CR Elsinore would.
Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado said:I had one of these for a summer and, while fun, it was kind of a gutless turd. I'm not sure there's much parts commonality between the MT and CR Elsinores (I believe there is between the MR and CR, though). The MT is a mild steel frame, steel tank pig, probably in the 265lb and 18hp range.
I'm not in any way saying that it won't be fun to tool around on, but it's not going to rip third gear wheelies on the pipe like a CR Elsinore would.
What he said ... we used to joke that the MT was the state of the horsepower vault when the Honda engineers went looking. Nice project bike but personally not my cup of tea - now a nice SL125 "turtle chaser" would be a different story!
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Agree to disagree... the great (street legal) transition bikes were the DT1 Yamaha, TS185 and 250 Suzukis and SL100 and SL125 Hondas. There were some specialized bit players but they were the mass market Brit killers...
But it's so easy to make it run like a CR. Just sold a '77 CR125 and I would rather have had the versatility of this MT250 any day.
wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to Peabody :
I'd good naturedly argue that any Elsinore is a very significant bike. Sure, plenty of bikes were made that could walk all over it, but this was a definite peak in motorcycle evolution.
I would say the detractors are prolly younger than us... not wrong, but I would have loved a new one back then!
Go and get it. I'd drive to ATL for it!
It's a 2 stroke? It looks like an XL-250.
In reply to 914Driver :
It's a two stroke and not an XL. They're very similar looking, though.
If you look at the top of the cylinder head in the OP's photo, you can see the typical cooling fins that only the stroker had.
Ah, thank you. Spoke with my friend Ron yesterday, he's got 23 Honda motorcycles. Complaining he's got to sell some to make room, will keep you folks posted. BTW love his Super 90s!
Looks like I might be picking this up this weekend! I've never owned a 2-stroke. What's the first things I should do before trying to fire it up? Oil change, spark plug, carb clean, tank clean?
maschinenbau (I live here) said:Looks like I might be picking this up this weekend! I've never owned a 2-stroke. What's the first things I should do before trying to fire it up? Oil change, spark plug, carb clean, tank clean?
Put on a helmet - You're gonna wanna GO!
Drain the fuel change the plug (drain the carb, as well) Depending what the fuel looks like (or whether it still has fuel in it) you might have a bit more work ahead of you.
Free bike day! Had to extract it from the 2nd story barn with a fork lift. Did they jump it in here way back when? Truly a "barn find".
Even comes with a mouse nest
In reply to maschinenbau (I live here) :
Wow that looks way nicer than I expected all cleaned up! Did it come with any bonus brown recluses?
This looks amazingly complete. Great find.
No spiders but I did leak the entire oil tank onto my driveway. Engine turns over with the kickstarter. No battery present, and the original owner doesn't remember it ever having one, but I would think it needs one to run. Lots of surface rust. Tires obviously shot, and wheels might be too rusty to ignore.
But. The seat is flawless. The tank is dentless. The guages are in great shape. I need to get more pictures of it cleaned up. It's a time capsule for sure. I don't think it would take much to make it run.
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