I got a phone call mid last year from Darran Milton from Merimbula asking if I thought the 1983 CR250 he had been offered was worth $400.

If it's complete, absolutely its worth it!

He dragged it up to my place to get me to have a look at it and on close inspection it was a great buy. The plastics were great, it had a disk brake front end (legal for the Pre '85 class) and everything was where it should be. I pulled it down to check what was needed, and the usual things like a re-bore were required.

Seeing it was past the maximum Honda piston bore, a Wiseco piston was fitted (1.5mm os). The great archilles heel of the first water cooled Honda was the water pump cover corrodes out, and this one was no different. Luckily an old fitter mate of mine at work has made a mandrel to fit the water pump cover, so after bead blasting and filling with Devcon he just sticks it in the lathe and machines it back to original specs. He does a great job and works for cartons. Other than that the thing was really tidy. A new air filter, brake pads, tyres, seat re-covering by another mate of mine, wheel bearings and numbers and backgrounds finished the thing off. After all this I thought I'd see if it started. 2nd kick. How good is this thing?

He now has a very competitive Pre '85 250, surprising him how quick and easy to ride the bike is. These buys are out there, you just have to lucky enough to find them!