Building A 2001 Atc 250r

[Tecate250]

Well been fighting with a buddy of mine about getting a bike he can drive. He is in school and has a small child so he don't have much timefor nothing. He had a banshee he didnh have time to drive. Now he traded his shee for this cr and 1800$. He wants a new bike with no running on it for 2-4thousand. Yeah Right. For a 450r. So I showed him the tpc 450 and now he went from hateing the trikes to loveing them. So when he found out how much it cost to have one built he bailed. So now he wants to make a 250r out of his cr. But he dont want to use out dated 250r parts. he will get everything machined. He plans on using the aluminum frame and a 450 swinger. And he seen someone's build on here and thinks it will go together nic ly. I told him to put a post up of his build to ask a few questions. But hes a rocket scientist and dosent need answeres here. he know them all. Like will a 4504 swinger bolt righ up to his frame. he thinks yes. Going to get a custom machine front hub" cause the 250r is too old":lol:
Here is his bike now.
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll148/Tecate250/1.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll148/Tecate250/2-1.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll148/Tecate250/3-1.jpg
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll148/Tecate250/4-1.jpg

[atctim]

Speedbump tried this a few years ago - maybe show the rocket scientist that thread. LOL - I get a kick out of know-it-alls. Or - maybe see what happens by letting him go for it without doing any research - that might be fun too!

[Crawford902]

LOL... Common Dwanye, I said I'm going to get a 450r swing arm and go from there, I have a friend that works at a machine shop so I have some access to parts being made/machined. Once I get a Swing arm, carrier and axle Ill see what it going take to mate them together. I've seen a few made on here, worse that gonna happen i put it back to a dirt bike or order a new frame for it.

tpc trikes don't seem practical for me not already owning a trx 450r so to pay the 4g for one then tpc 3g plus doesn't seem practical.

[atctim]

You will most likely have rake issues with it. You will need a good aluminum welder to adjust the top of your rear shock mount to get it to set right. It can be done - but there are some guys on here yo should talk to about it before just diving in.

[oldskool83]

good luck, this wont be easy, and better yet sometimes the 1st 2nd and 3rd designs ideas dont work. he could have a new atc250R is he contacts HREatv.com HA!!!!!!!

[jeffatc250r]

Another thing to consider is the gearing. First gear is pretty steep in MX bikes. If you fiddle your sprockets to get first gear tamed down, youll end out topping out at 55. But i guess it all depends on what you plan on doing with it?

Going off of the cr frame is going to be a challenge. I know Jason hall made one. Came out awesome, his work speaks for itself.

[audioworks04]

Cant assure you of all this on the cr frame, but when I did my crf conversion this is what I found.The 450 swinger will not mount right up. First you will have to mill off each side of the pivot bolt section, thats the easy part. Next the pivot bolt on the crf is much larger than the trx, so the bearings and sleeves that are designed for the trx swinger. What I ended up doing was using the crf pivot bolt with trx bearings and had custom bearing sleeves made. Also you will most likely have rake problems with the older aluminum frames. You may be able to correct this in the triples, but will probably have to change the rake in the frame itself. Custom tripled will be needed along with the hub, axle, spaces, bearings and the whole front brake setup. The rear shock will probably need a new mount welded in lower than the factory cr mount. This new mount will most likely be in the way of the carb inlet. So a custom intake tube and air box will have to be made. Next is making a sub frame that will work and not make your seat hight way too high. The forks will probably have to be shortened inorder to keep your center of gravety low. And even after all of this the cr is geared way to high to drive the smaller tires and sprockets required. So you could gear it way low, but then your top end will suffer as will ground clearance. On my crf its not as big of a deal because it has the torque of a tractor, but with a two stroke it will be awhole different problem
I am in no way trying to stop you guys from trying this, I did and I do not regret it at all. But it is alot of work, time and MONEY.
Check out my build along with the other aluminum framed builds that have been done.
Good luck if you have any questions I would be more than happy to give my opinion.

[Tecate250]

Wow Thats great info. I was sure this mod would not be as easy as he claims it to be. I realy hope he does build it. We have a few trike haters around here. Like a mutal friend who use to ride and own trikes. Now he went to a 450r yamy. Plus he dont have alot of experence with 3 wheels at all. Should be a good for a laugh but hopefully for a ride I deserve.

[atctim]

In all honesty - the hard part is not transforming a bike to a trike. I have no doubt that he can do that. The hard part is getting it to ride right, handle right, and look right.

[oldskool83]

i fully agree with that

[sandpuppi101]

Yeah if I remember correctly from Speedbump's conversion the front end rake and the gearing were the 2 biggest issue's he had wasn't it Tim .I also remember it wasn't too awful much longer that he started parting the machine out also,I would definitely suggest looking at his build thread,I'm thinking it was back in '06 that he built that,but do a search and you'll find something on that build.I wish he would have pursued the project more IDK if he got discouraged or what.Crawford902 by what I see thus far you're the one doing the build correct ? I wanna say welcome to the board's 1st off and like someone stated before ,we're not trying to knock you from the build, I'd personally love too see it done but with the pinger gearing,IMO it isn't gonna be as forgiving as with the 450 and 600 thumper trike conversion's.But then again I ask myself about the screamer CR500 conversion's like Mielke's. I built the XR 600R conversion 2year's ago now ,and I was fortunate when it came to rake and gearing.With the rake I was able to use a set of tripple's with 0 degree rake which made it a lot easier as I was committed to use the existing XR cradle,and with the gearing I honestly still would like to get that tweaked in better but with it being a 4 stroke I have the bottom end that only suffers slightly and is only slightly compromised.I say go for the build I agree with your not wanting to sink 7000.00 into a build like the TPC is gonna cost when all is said in done.The way I look at it if we all thought it couldn't have been done and always did what others said we'd just have to be content just riding out 250R's with 300 kit's but since some of us took the leap and went against the grain now we have our 450,500 and 600 trike conversion's.I'm sure you'll find a lot of good info in here from other builder's if you'd like the info,but just remember constructive criticism is also a good thing!!

[harryredtrike]

good luck.

[Tecate250]

Yeah. Plan in the future if I get my atc250r that Ill slap a 500 into it. Im sure you guys will help get this machine going faster then he thinks. You guys are the best of the best.

[atcman77]

Here's a conversion I done back in 2007 on a 2001 model CR250R using SpeedBump's old parts. These photos are about half way through the build process but you can get the idea.

The bike I started with was in great shape and had several goodies on it!

As far as the build goes... It honestly wasn't that hard to convert it, especially with the two hard parts out of the way, swingarm and triples. I spent A LOT, changed a lot, and added a few items to make it more trail rideable... A flywheel weight helped out tremendously as did a lighting stator for night time use.

In the end though I won't lie... I did run into a couple of problems just as SpeedBump did with his conversion. The major one being heavy steering due to the rake angle and frame geometry. Other than that the only other major downfall with this conversion is the CR engines use a 5 speed tranny and with a built engine like this one had you really need another gear!

By the way... I do have these conversion parts on a shelf and will sell them if anyone is interested. Just PM me.


http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/rwcurry4/Picture033.jpg

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/rwcurry4/Picture034.jpg

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/rwcurry4/Picture039.jpg

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr249/rwcurry4/Picture040.jpg

[Crawford902]

Great info, So what Rake angle are you shooting for when doing this? The 2001 cr frame has a Rake of 27.73 degrees, the 02-05 crf 450r has a Rake of 26.8° degree in 2006 they changed the Rake angle to 27.3 degrees. Could it be possible that the longer swinger made could of been ad'n in the the heavy steering you speak of? What is the top length with that swinger/axle center from axle to axle. What was the ground height to bottom of frame ? By mounting the location of the rear suspension are you not? deciding your rake angle within reason? I'm also wanting to using the trx 450r swinger, any pro cons of this, things I should consider / keep in mind.

Kyle

[NOS_350X]

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g285/NOS_350x/IMG_6791.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g285/NOS_350x/IMG_6789.jpg

Git R Dunn the easy way

[Tecate250]

Wow! I like the black. Atcman77, Makes me want to build one. Yeah I like the older look myself to. Just old school I guess. Even for a honda.:naughty: Anyone know if the older dirt bikes are easier to do these kinds of mods? Like the rake angle and stuff.


And mabey this bike might be able to come and play, if you can handle it.

[atcman77]

Wow! I like the black. Atcman77, Makes me want to build one. Yeah I like the older look myself to. Just old school I guess. Even for a honda.:naughty: Anyone know if the older dirt bikes are easier to do these kinds of mods? Like the rake angle and stuff.

Thanks for the kind words Tecate250.

As for converting an older bike... Yes you can but the object of my build and others that have performed this was to use the much lighter aluminum frame versus an older steel version. Not to mention the upgraded suspension of a later model bike.

There again it's all left up to personnel preference.

[audioworks04]

Its not that it is "harder" to do these mods on an aluminum framed bike, just most people do not have the skills or equipement to weld heavy duty or cast aluminum. The steel frames on the other hand most people have the knowledge to weld mild steel and with enough reinforcing plate is easy to make strong again. But the aluminum has many advantages, obviously lighter, vibration dampening and looks (atleast in my opinion). As others have said and I will restate your biggest challege will be getting the front end to function correctly and the gearing to be correct, it is also not an easy task making the subframe work with fenders and an air box that all looks like it belongs there. I rushed mine and wanted the lowest seat height possible which is why my seat looks like its a mile long. But this also works out great for hill shots when other needs to sit up on their tanks I just slid up on my seat.
If you have questions or need some guidance I am more than happy to shoot you back a message if you message me.

[Crawford902]

Atcman77

Let me know what is included and your price. I'll buy all if need be.

[Tecate250]

So anyone else try to build a new aged trike? I my self would rather build an older style trike. Nothing better then the lines of the 80s. new bikes look like butterflys and the old look like wasps.

[atctim]

Tecate250 - not sure if you ever saw the one I built for my wife - but it has super nice lines. We are currently working on yet another on of these - but with the older body style.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/cosmicquads/2010%20GW/GordansWell023.jpg

[Tecate250]

Man. those skinny tired trikes are growing on me. :)

[NOS_350X]

To me it just shows the difference of oppinions, IMO i think that 250ex conversion is one of the uglyest 3 wheelers ive ever seen. BUT hey some like blondes others like brunettes.


Its intersting to me, we have a handfull of 450 trikes built now, and every one looks completly different (stance and the way they where built)

[Tecate250]

Yeah. Im still old school tho. Cant beat them

[Tecate250]

Had a feeling you would fall through on this kyle. All talk with no progress.

[Dirtcrasher]

I probably have 10 projects in mind, with many stumbling blocks in each thoughts way.....

But, thats how you do it. It takes hour after hour of thoughts to come up with ideas and then 60% of them don't pan out because they affect something else.

That trike in this thread looks great! as do many of the conversions.... I think the 250X conversion is a great idea and well suited for plenty of people. I think it's the sideway engine that always made them look a bit off whether they are part of a quad or trike.

As it's been pointed out, dealing with aluminum is a whole different story. Any knucklehead can toss together a steel frame with any motor with electronics that they come across. The aluminum brings it to a whole new level.

I have the utmost respect for anyone thats done any conversion. We can only do our best or whats within our limitations. Some are better than others but it's better than the guy doing nothing and ruining the older parts because they "think" they'll always be readily available...........