Flat Track Racer 250R Project Pics #1

[ScottZJ]

Well as some of you guys know Willie(86waterpumper) and I are building an old school flat track racer(or as close as we can haha). We are trying to get them done in time for Trike Fest. Mine is coming along nicely but willie had to get his stuff to his hired help asap! :D
Well I am changing out the front end and the rear end for parts that will better assist in the flat track racer look. I changed out my fork oil and put new OEM boots and new OEM front tire on it. I also added a nice steele braided brake line with a brand new lever and resivior. I also was able to snag a nice old school number plate to add to the front. The numbers I actually got from a guy from europe that was selling them as BMX bike ones(they fit nicely, esp since you cant get them anymore, oh jenn yours should be on their way). I havent officially mounted the number plate yet, as I want fab some nice brackets to make it look better. Well most of the front is done after I added an nice OEM 86R front finder.

The rear I will start on tomorrow. I am adding a new Dura Blue +4 axle, a PK +1 old school swinger(holding onto the westcoast for now) that I got painted almost to factory color. I got new RAD bearing carrier and all new bearings, an adjustable rear shock linkage to lower the rear down more. I have the "dreaded" Dura blue tires(old school baby!), and some nice new Low Profile rear Maier Fenders. The only thing I am missing that Willie has is the flat track tank kit, I am just going to "wing" it! :p

Well here are a few of the project shots of her for now.


http://www.fototime.com/{067FAB74-5D0F-4EFF-9CF9-0BEEDC2E34A6}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{437C8D44-4363-4899-BC68-C7F9A454CFBE}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{BC8B2CF1-CBD4-47F1-9143-FAD9987A559B}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{E0896281-0152-4AA3-89D7-ABA6425F87D2}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{5E7BA120-11B9-40CA-A97C-DEE8A13037EE}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{64F2FC80-9ABD-4FFB-A314-770DB58CC38B}/picture.JPG

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http://www.fototime.com/{C48C0CED-E7F9-42C5-B0BB-60FF433C69A0}/picture.JPG

[Trikeaholic]

I think Flat track bikes usually ran stock swingarms or if they were really trick, shortened ones. I think only team green ran a +2 per the JW replica manual. Thats why I ditched the +2 on my 83. I figured it would suffer on the ice track with an altered turning radius.

[ScottZJ]

Yeah thats why I opted for the PK(+1) and not the WestCoast(+2) swinger. I wanted an old school swinger vice stock.

[chris200x]

Hey scott, looking good my man. where did you get those footpegs from? i personally think your better off with the stock tank. Unless you can carry a couple gascans with you cause those other tanks are just too small for your everyday type riding.

[deathman53]

what did you do to drop the front end abit, back in the day ct sold a set of springs to lower the bike. If/when I build another atc250r for flat track I'm gonna use the 85 springs but not use the small one and only use the big one.

[Trackburger]

The number plate looks great!!!

[BIGCRIP28]

arent the the rear tires on the sx and the front one on the big red backwards?
nice R :D

[Trackburger]

arent the the rear tires on the sx and the front one on the big red backwards? :D

I guess it depends what conditions he rides in....hardpack or mud....
I think if you put them on backwards (the way they are on) they help a little more in mud and snow. I could be wrong though....... :cool:

[86waterpumper]

It is in fact a old trick to take the top (short) fork springs out when setting up a flattracker, that is what Chris D on this site did for his ice racing bike, and it works well. On my bike, I read in one of my old mags that the old factory Honda racers used to run their short top spring, but would tuck it under the top of the dampening rod, for faster type TT tracks, this should lower it in the neighborhood of 2 inches or so, and should stiffen it up a bit. Scott has his forks slid up about an inch in the triples. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. The disadvantage mainly is looks, if you really want to slam it down, it sort of looks goofy when the forks are sticking up way past the handlebars as I have seen on some drag racer's bikes. On the other hand, Scott can always push his forks back down in the triples and have more clearance for mx or bigger jumps. I'm hoping to run a 21 x 7 x 10 front tire on my bike which would take care of some of the clearance issue. Even on most stock setups you will find that most peoples front fenders have nice black marks from the tire bottoming out and rubbing etc. As for the stock tank versus a shorttrack one, it does hinder the gas capacity greatly, but as scott said, these are being setup for track use, these are not going to be woods beater bikes, we have 350x's and other things to do that on. The tradeoff is less gas, for more turning radius, and on short, tight tracks, it is a distinct advantage to have the gastank and radiators an inch further back so that the bars will crank further.

[Jeb]

There's a great reference for fork lowering on the main page under the JWR manual, pg. 10 (4 of the pdf file).

http://www.files.3wheelerworld.com/Manuals/JWR1.pdf

Any spring you just remove will leave a spot in the travel where the forks are not under spring tension at full extension and they will slam down. You won't be jumping on a flat track, but hard acceleration and/or wheelies will extend the forks all the way and let them slam down when the front end returns to the ground. You need to swap the springs around or add spacers under the top out spring. That requires a complete tear down though and is not as easy as just removing the top caps and pulling the short springs.

On my Tri-Z in this pic, I've got the rear lowered 2", so I just slid the forks up in the clamps a couple inches. That way you can get back to full travel easily. If I had a second set of forks, I'd look at the internal lowering. And on my Z i'd mate them with an 85 R hub on a 10" rim, with 10" rims out back with some hoosiers.

Scott, I've got the same number plate for my R.

I can't wait to see pics of you two guys completed Rs!

[Maine_Triker]

Looking good, very good!!!

[ScottZJ]

Hey scott, looking good my man. where did you get those footpegs from? i personally think your better off with the stock tank. Unless you can carry a couple gascans with you cause those other tanks are just too small for your everyday type riding.

Well like stated above these will be flat track or small MX track racers so no need for a huge tank. The foot pegs I snagged on ebay. Dude had them listed in a box of R parts. They are truely a nice old school addition to this trike.

[ScottZJ]

More pics for ya.

http://www.fototime.com/{A32BACF1-603F-46DA-9FD1-445B1FEFFB0F}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{479F84BE-6ABD-45B0-8D9A-5A5F1097E215}/picture.JPG

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http://www.fototime.com/{21029D87-DC85-479C-B392-D899D73C7842}/picture.JPG

http://www.fototime.com/{99FACF56-0ACD-4126-8688-7AB975AECA4F}/picture.JPG

[ChrisD]

Good luck on the project. Mine is almost period correct except for the ESR330 kit and the tapered bearing carrier. Everything else was available and used at the time.

http://home.comcast.net/~atc330rrider/images/bikeingarage.jpg

You can see what I did on this page.

Flat Track Page (http://home.comcast.net/~atc330rrider/iceracerpage.htm)

This was my 86 HRCR that I had in the 1980s. It did run a Westcoast +2 when I bought it. I didn't like the longer swingarm so I stuck with stock this time around.
http://home.comcast.net/~atc330rrider/images/hpatc250r350x.jpg

[Lots_Of_Nothing]

Man Chris you gotta come around more often, Always one of my favorite bikes to look at!

Looking good Scott, get to work!! 11 days left!

[JohnR.]

A friend of Chris and I is running a -1" arm on the back of his '86 R and when we go ice racing it gets a bit tough to turn since there is a little too much weight over the back. It doesn't like to slide as much as ours do and with the 330 kits we have enough trouble keeping the front end down out of the corners. I'll try to get some pics of mine and post them up here soon. It's been a long time since I've been around and I don't think there are any pics of my bike here that aren't at least 4 years old.

John

[Jeb]

JohnR! Good to see ya around here again!

[JohnR.]

Thanks Jeb. I promise I'll be around a bit more although I think I'm going to let my 350x and my TRX go since I don't have the time, space, or money to devote to them anymore. Once I make up my mind I'll post in the Classifieds here before resorting to ebay.

John

[trikerider2oo7]

heh...didnt even see this thread lol...looks awesome scott