Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128082
Project bike The fin ished prod uct,•.well , sort of. Myoid 1982 Suzuk i RM250Z could use some more work. B y K IT PA LMER Sentimental j ou rney If there is anyone year in my life that I wo uldn't mind reliving. it would be 1982. I was long since do ne with high school, I had finally left the nest, I had my own truck, I wa s racin g no fewer than tw o times a week, and, to top it off, I had a fu ll- time job working in a motorcycl e shop. What else could be bett er for a kid who was also abou t to tum 21? My only real care in the wo rld at tha t time was my beloved motorcycle: a 1982 Suzuki RM250Z. I a ctu all y purch ased • the bike in September 1981 at a Suzuki shop in Hemet, California. It was Suzuki's first wa ter-cooled RM250, and it was th e bike' s se cond year with the famed Full Floater rear-suspension system . Then there was the 'Z's motor. By no means d id it induce zzzzz's. It was so stro ng that Suzuki felt the need to tone it down the following year with the '83 RM - big m istake. Th e comb ina tion of the Z' s s tro ng motor a nd as to u nd ing sus pension - w ell , I si m p ly cou ld not lose o n t h at ' 82 RM . I w e n t from a med iocre N ovice to a top Intermedia te seemi ngly overn ig ht, so life th a t yea r go t even better. Meanwhile, the own er of the Honda shop in which I was working at the tim e wa sn 't exac tly pleased that one o f his par ts people was riding aSuzu ki, a nd he kept temptin g me with a new 1982 CR250R, but I w ouldn't bite. Finally, he gave me an offer I couldn't refu se, and with my Suzuki getting a little worn out, I was s uddenly a Honda owner. Althoug h the '82 CR wa s a good bike , it wanted the bike to look nice - not necessa rily per fect - wh en it was d on e; and (4) I d id n' t want to get too deep in debt. Diving in just wasn't in th e sa me lea gue as th e RM . I wen t back to racing my ha m mered RM again and eventually sol d th e CR. I guess w inn ing motos at th at time was mo re important than my job. By 1983, my RM w as truly bruised and beaten, but it had earned me many trophies. Unfortunately, it was now taking significant work just to keep the bike ru nning from we ek to week, so when the ' 83s starting coming ou t, I had no choice but to park my RM and get a new bik e. Boss-man still w an te d me on a Honda. so.... The '83 CR250R was a big improvement over the ' 82 CR, bu t the bike had this annoying habit of brea king pistons. Fed up with tha t, and wit h t h e Viewfinders Grand Pri x a t Riverside In ternational Racew ay just around th e come r, I bu sted ou t the RM again. If my memory se rves me correctly, that was the RM's last race be for e I parked her for good in my parents' back yard . For 16 years, my once-prized but now-ignored RM250Z res ted in disgrace agains t a fen ce, under pine trees, basically unprotected from the ra in an d the eleme n ts. How could I? Tod ay, I rea lly get mad a t myself w hen I think tha t I let my only link to one of the best times of my life d eteri or ate in to a g iant ball of rusty metal a nd crusty p la st ic, not to mention a lu xury co nd o co m p lex for every critter kn own to man. Th is bike deserved bett er. Fina lly ove rco me by guilt, I decided to bring myoid friend back fr om th e dead . It wo ul d be a monumental task, bu t one I was willin g to take on . Nostalgia would be my m ai n d rivi ng force behin d the p ro ject, but, if that wa sn ' t enoug h, I heard that Vintage Iron 's Rick Dou ghty w a s going to introduce a "d ru m brake" (Evolution 3) class - perfect fo r m y RM - at th e Vin tage Ir on Worl d Championsh ips . I n ow had a dea dli ne to comp lete the project. First, I needed a plan. I se t a few realistic goals: (1 ) I wanted to d o most of the work myself; (2) I wanted to restore the bike as close to original as possible; (3) I I had six months to a cco mplish these goa ls, which, at the tim e, seemed plenty. Fu nni ng thing, how time flies. Actually, I got off to a quick start. The easy part was taking the RM apart, pu llin g p ine needles out of the main jet, and makin g th e li s t o f a ll the p a rts that need ed r e p la cing. Gettin g th o se p arts and reassembl in g them, however, w as ano ther thing. For a while there, I let the p roject drop off to a snail's pac e, alw ays thin king , "Aw, I'v e go t lots of time." The first step tow ard reconstruction was welding up cracks in the frame and having it powder-coated. I then sen t the for ks a n d s hock t o my fri end Jake Thompson a t Noleens, who , w he n he heard of my project, was eager to help. Th is was a chance for him to work on some old stuff aga in. "No problem," he said when I asked him abou t findin g the parts to rebuild the RM' s ou tda ted Kayaba suspension components . With in a few da ys, Jake had thorou ghl y rebuilt both th e fork and shock , including repla cing the completely ru st ed -ou t shoc k sp ring with a new one. I was trul y shocked tha t he had a replacement sp ring for it. Even though the mot or was in pretty good shape, I decided to sp lit the cases. • en "" g: . ,£ ~ CD ..c E ~ o Z Continued on page 15 13