1983 250 Xc Magic

Presto...Chango. Picked up this 250XC on Evilbay to fit in the family of 1983s. Visually, the bike looked quite good. Breakdown of the components is finding rust or frozen bearings in steering and wheels as well as the usual bailing wire fixes to some things. Thankfully, the fork tubes and shock shafts are in good shape. This will be my first posting of how things progress. It's great to follow some other projects that are already done so well or in progress. Plus, I will be using some jetting, shock valving, and fork settings from Cafe Husky threads. This will be a racer so some cosmetics will be used to make it competitive.

looks like a nice fairly low use project

Beauty is skin deep on this one!

well, thats to be assumed on an old bike. that one looks pretty good. sometimes they are super rusty! i count it as a win if things come apart ok, and just need bearings replaced.

That one cracked me up. So true. The "impending doom" is in the disassembly.

same as my moto villa disassembled like new, even mr Mac Hanic was impressed on how the motor came apart...then he pointed out the rusted gears..thru the hard facing..

I hope it ultimately turned out okay for you. I'm slogging along with the project. Hope to post some updated pics soon

need to get 3 gears "made" and the biggest drama is the layshaft, its also part corroded. sat outside by the sea for 10 years, sucked salt air in thru the breather. exhaust gone and the forks were dechromed above the seals.

Sounds like you need a parts bike?

Slowly making progress on the 1983 XC 250.

Great collection of bikes. Husky is gonna look great.

Getting there on the 83 XC250 project! It started quickly but I can tell it is fat in the jetting. Track testing hopefully next week

Nice job bud! Wish mine was that far along. Can't beat the satisfaction of putting one of these vintage machines back together.

Lookin good

Successful first race

how did the bike feel?

Good! I used ITC shock recommendations from this site and they worked well. Motor was pretty spot on. The forks were too stiff. I also used some Cafe Husky members recommendations for the forks; stiffer springs with 500cc oil per leg. I'm going back to stock springs to see if they soften up a bit.

What weight oil?

im using ~450 ml of 15wt and find its a bit heavy. going back to 12.5