little old hondas and other stuff

...my first restoration...wrote this for the Husqvarna Club newsletter, then put it on my old website..

a little History...

Dateline: Friday March 19, 1999 - For the first time today, after over 28 years, I threw my leg over a running Husqvarna 250 (no muffler and castor – what’s that smell ?) and put it in gear. WEEEEOH ! Maybe being 48 instead of 21 has numbed my senses abit, but this sure seems to have ALOT more power than I remember, thanks Forest, and the memories just come flooding back.
Flashback October 1971;

Me and my friend Hank both had Husqvarna 250s and we thought that if we could get in it would be a kick to go and race the TransAMA...While it started in CA. we would pick it up in Unadilla and race the last 12 races and end up at Saddleback Park. Heck, I had a new van, we borrowed my dads pop-up camper and off we went. I had 5 or 6 hundred bucks in my pocket. Well it rained that day in Unadilla, anybody remember what the 'screw-u' is and what it is like wet,or the big back hill at Unadilla.
So we were on our way, Canada, best coarse I was ever on, Ohio, Fl. .......in Fl, we set-up lawn chairs on the starting line after the race and watched it on the local news with the Jones bros., they had a big motor home. Eating canned soup with Torrie Jonsson (Ake's younger brother, on a Macio of course) in MO. Brad Lacky fliped his van in N.M, what a time we had.
But in the end we ran out of cash in Ca and I had to sell my Husky to get us home to N.Y., 3 days LA to NY, almost 3 months, and 17,000 miles later. After that I had a little racing on a Rickman Montesa, but hung it up shortly thereafter.
Then on to the real world, work, marriage, kids...and one day my wife says to me 'Dale, you need a hobby'. Yeah, ya think so ? So I went and picked up a bunch of magazines on stuff I was interested in, radio, nix, hotrod, geese see what 8 pistons cost, Britsh car, no thanks, I owned a Lotus Elan for awhile, computers, double nix I do that all day at work, bicycles, na, too much work, all that peddling, then and a couple of bike mags. Yeah I'll get and old bike and fix it up, so I started to find old Honda 160's for cheap. 60 bucks, 100 bucks, at one point I was up to 7. I also found that by doing a little digging with a computer (BI - before Internet) I could find lots of Honda parts for 10 cents on the dollar. Now I am down to 2 160's - one I use around town, and one is my next project in the workshop.

the Find

Years go by and I have always said I would like to get a little dirt bike to play with, and the internet grows. I happen upon The Husqvarna 4-speed page Craig & I pass a few emails back and forth..., Then right there in the local all classified paper on-line, daring me to call, not 4 miles from my house, is the following line;
FOR SALE 1971 Husqvarna 250 basket case $200.00
I go look. You know what happend next. Looks to be pretty much all there, the tank is right , but spray painted, pipe looks perfect, motor, well, the motor is messy, org front tire, good seat but no cover, so will you take 150. Sure. Done.
I immediately shoot a note off to Craig, 'Now look what you made me do'. Once home my family looks in the back of my truck and my son says 'are you 'nuts' what a pile of junk !'. Well of course I didn't see it quite that way, and I unload this 'pile' to the work shop. After asking alot of questions, and making lists and taking pictures, getting Craigs news letter, I start. Slowly at first. Watch On Any Sunday a couple of times for motivation.

the search for parts

The search begins, and this is where I begin to have some problems with the old bike hobby. I am cheap, and there are alot of demands on my megger income, the kids need shoes etc. , the well pump is going to go one of these days (it did monday night). So I start looking for parts to begin restoring my Husky, and I find fairly quickly that ALL the parts are in FEW peoples hands and boy do they want top dollar for this stuff. Well supply and demand, right ?. I go back to the drawing board. I am never going to get this done if I need to buy all the stuff I want to buy. After making many more passes over this bike I decide that I will invest money in the engine, and the tank to make it nice. Everything else I can do, I will do myself. I began by doing the ritual cleaning of parts, and what I found was that much of what I thought I needed to replace I could re-use. For example the original Magura lever assemblies that would cost about $40 each to replace could be straightened out and polished up very nicely. I actully took them along with the rear wheel on vacation with us and while the kids were at the beach I sat in the shade and polished stuff. Talk about some strange looks !
The bars were original but rusted and it would cost too much to re-chrome, so I ended up getting a used bar from someone here in CT for a MJ ....not correct but I'm building a play bike here.

And I'm not going racing, I have 7 screws and a plate in my right ankle, not motorcycle related,

the Forks and the Motor

Forks, well new seals are a given, so I ordered a set of seals from VMX , Chris is great, give him your business. I pull apart the forks, the seals don't fit. what !...I end up going to a local bearing / seal place with the old seals, 'I need 2 of these please'. That done I set the forks aside.

On to the motor; The top end was off and there was water in there, yuk. double yuk. The piston is toast, the crank turns but makes an awful noise so it is probably also toast. Head is o.k, cyl maybe..So I'll need gaskets, piston, bearings..more. When I go to split the cases I don't want to kill them so I ask Craig for advise and he agrees to pop the cases with his case tool, and he comes through with a piston, Way to go Craig. Off to W.V. goes the motor and a few days later Craig calls. Dale your motor is pretty bad, but the transmision looks good. After we talk about it we / I decide the best coarse to take is to let someone do the motor work. I decided to send the motor to Forest Stahl. Forest does wonderful work, and he made me a great motor, runs like gangbusters. Thanks Forest. But it ain't cheap, remember I said I was cheap, the day that Forest told me how much it was going to be to get my motor back, and I had to go home and explain that to my wife, well I have had better days. 'Sue I need to talk to you about something'...and after I drop this she says, well it is your only hobby.

So the motor comes and it looks just great, and I spend alot of time just sitting in the shop looking at it on the bench, some would call that strange, but some would understand.

the Frame and Silver bits

I have one of those little Home Depot sand blasters. No blasting cabinet. So last summer while the wife and kids were away in Cape Cod, and I was 'home alone' I got at the frame, and other painted parts. I started with a couple of small parts, sand blasted them, and primed. I then went and got a few different types of spray can paint. I found that Krylon dull alu. was a really good color for the silver pieces, and with a couple of coats of clear they look pretty good to me. I couldn't afford to powder coat, and I didn't want to drop hundreds on paint materials at the auto body store. I kept doing the small pieces, till I came to the frame. I hung it from an apple tree in the front yard and went at it. There I was sand in my hair, shoes, underware, what a sight, 10 hours. With a quick trip back to Home Depot for more sand, but it was done. A good cleaning and soak with laquar thinner and I was able to get primer on it all in one day. During the next week whilst home alone, I hung everything up in the garage and got about 2 coats on it every night, and before the wife & kids came home I had most all of silver parts done. With the frame on the work stand, I started assembling things. forks on, himmmm, I have to set this motor in the frame, wow it fits just like it should be there. Rear shocks on , bars on, levers on, throttle, little problem with the throttle cable ......but nothing a 40 dollar cable won't fix. Now as things come together I start saving my lunch money to get final items.

Mount a new rear tire/tube, remember that if you can't change a rear tire in four minutes you can't go to the Six-Days, well I cant' go to the Six-Days.

Put the new cover on the seat, get the motor bolted down, and I can't stand it anymore, so one day in December I roll it outside put some pre-mix in the Bing and kick.

It fires after the third kick...wow this is great. Over the winter I puttered around putting things on and taking things off, until I decide that it's ready, the tank looks like crap, but I gotta ride it. I cleaned out the tank with gravel and gas, and seemed to get most of it out. It is now March 1999, roll him out kick, kick, no spark...on man, what now., I did have spark, it did run. I checked the coil and motoplat. I even sent the coil to Bob Hogan 'Hogans Cycle Shop' in MA. he has lots of Bultaco, OSSA, and Yankee stuff laying around, he knows Motoplats, what a neat place. I finaly found that I had pinched one of the motoplat wires under the backing plate, fixed, days later, kick, kick blrp, blrp. kick, kick...go to the loaded up drill, wide open throttle, kick, kick, blrp, kick, kick, blrp, varoom, ring-ding-ding-ding...oh boy. Back to the beginning, March 19, 1999 for the first time in over 28 years....my 12 old son David has the camcorder...and he and his brother Jeffrey go nuts when dad wheelies up out of the back yard, and Dave says
'What's that smell ?'
What a rush!

/* I need a kick-stand for a 4 speed !!!!!*/
So what's my bottom line 'restoring a 1971 Husqvarna 250'. - it aint cheap !
It's not as expensive as restoring a 68 GTO, but it is alot more expensive than restoring a 67 Honda 160...
Would I do it again, probably, and I am getting an urge for an old Bultaco...uh ho.

the new giro tool...Great story..My friend John sends me an eBay link..1964 Bultaco Mercurio ...'buy this'.
I watch, I wait, in the last minute I bid like $800.00, it was around 100.00 or so..I win it for 325.00 and I had an eBay coupon for 15% so out of pocket something like 284.00.
The bike was near Flint MI. Whilst I was making arrangements to get it to Forward Air, John, you remember John, calls...STOP, ROAD Trip !!! Turns out he just bought an El Tigre out in Milwaukee. The guy he bough the El Tigre from had just bought a Suzuki road race bike in N.H. and John cuts a deal with him to bring the Suzuki to Milwaukee and pick up the Bultaco. And we can then swing by Flint and pick up the Bultaco I bought...it's a plan.!!
We take off from my place in CT at 5 am thanksgiving morning, we were in Milwaukee at 9:30 that night, Next morning got to the guys garage at 7:30ish, dropped the suzuki, loaded up the Bul, shot the bull for an hour or so and were off to MI. Picked up the second Bul, and headed back across Canada and were back at my house at 6 am Sat morning..
48 hours, 2200 miles, 10 states, 2 countries, 2 Bultacos..