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'04 YZ250 Woods/Technical Hare Scramble Build

Clutch cover: Polished ✅
Water Pump: Rebuilt✅
Hubs: Sexy✅
Tires: Gnarly✅
Yee: Haw✅
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Should have more picture-worthy progress by the end of the day.
 
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Engine is in! That opened up a ton of assembly just to get parts off of benches and unwrap a ton of the new parts I had sitting around. Taking the time to clean wiring harnesses and run new carb lines sucks but I think the payout is worth it. This thing is looking awesome so far.
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This is about as far as I can go at the moment. The forks and shock are at my buddy's shop for a rebuild and revalve. Since it's a hare scramble race bike and not a hard enduro build I had to fight the urge to ask for a full squishy setting. I asked for something better in the rocks and roots than my 450 but with enough bottoming resistance to not ring my ankles if I have to do a lap on a moto track here and there. Interested to see how that part turns out.

Graphics and suspension are pretty much the last big checkmarks on the list.
 
Stuff like new carb lines and the wiring not covered in mud stains is what makes a rebuild look good/new and not a fast clean up with a couple parts thrown at it. So its worth the time. Looking good.
 
Suspension is back in, everything is pretty much assembled, and she's ready to be sitting on her wheels. I am dead out of money on this build but the last few parts are trickling in and I should have graphics in hand by next month if not a little sooner. Really close to being done!
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Then it's time to get her out in the woods :usa:
 
Engine is in! That opened up a ton of assembly just to get parts off of benches and unwrap a ton of the new parts I had sitting around. Taking the time to clean wiring harnesses and run new carb lines sucks but I think the payout is worth it. This thing is looking awesome so far.
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This is about as far as I can go at the moment. The forks and shock are at my buddy's shop for a rebuild and revalve. Since it's a hare scramble race bike and not a hard enduro build I had to fight the urge to ask for a full squishy setting. I asked for something better in the rocks and roots than my 450 but with enough bottoming resistance to not ring my ankles if I have to do a lap on a moto track here and there. Interested to see how that part turns out.

Graphics and suspension are pretty much the last big checkmarks on the list.

I'm stealing that carb line zip tie idea. I dig it. You don't loop your overflow?
 
I'm stealing that carb line zip tie idea. I dig it. You don't loop your overflow?
You talking about the transmission vent? Nah, I didn't do anything with that. Everything you see in those pics is 100% stock line routing, just sorted a little better by the zip-ties.
 
You talking about the transmission vent? Nah, I didn't do anything with that. Everything you see in those pics is 100% stock line routing, just sorted a little better by the zip-ties.
No the fuel overflow. I always loop mine, less spill when I eat shit.
 
Following along... but I have a 2004 Yamaha WR250F - any chance I can use the better forks and such?
I am not much of a dirt bike rider/builder, but this thing was set up for a 280lb rider before I got it.

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Following along... but I have a 2004 Yamaha WR250F - any chance I can use the better forks and such?
I am not much of a dirt bike rider/builder, but this thing was set up for a 280lb rider before I got it.

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Looks like the WRs still had the 46mm forks in 04. So in order to get 48mm SSS forks on there you'd have to do a similar process to what I outlined in the thread above. Top and bottom triple clamps so the forks fit, and at that point you'd be ahead to keep the newer brake system and hub as well.

Donor bike time!:flipoff2:
 
Looks like the WRs still had the 46mm forks in 04. So in order to get 48mm SSS forks on there you'd have to do a similar process to what I outlined in the thread above. Top and bottom triple clamps so the forks fit, and at that point you'd be ahead to keep the newer brake system and hub as well.

Donor bike time!:flipoff2:
Google says:


48mm Fully adjustable inverted forks
 
Google says:


48mm Fully adjustable inverted forks
Click the link google provides under that. That spec is for the 2011-12 model year, not 2004.
 
No the fuel overflow. I always loop mine, less spill when I eat shit.
Ah, gotcha. I always figured the point of overflows is so the fuel has somewhere to go other than down the bike's piehole, so I leave it alone. If I wreck this bike and haven't stood it back up within about 15 seconds, it means I have bigger fish to fry anyway :laughing:
 
Following along... but I have a 2004 Yamaha WR250F - any chance I can use the better forks and such?
I am not much of a dirt bike rider/builder, but this thing was set up for a 280lb rider before I got it.

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Yes, I had an 03 and did exactly that.

Pretty sure I have a Scott's damper mount for that set up in a box somewhere (06 forks/triples on a steel frame wr) as my buddy who bought the bike didn't want it.
 
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Alright fellas, time for the big reveal!
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I've also been busy putting a bunch of the finishing touches on it and tracking down random custom bolts and whatnot. Got the engine broken in, and she should be ready to rip this Sunday! Hopefully I'll remember to take the time to get a video of it out ripping, it sounds absolutely mean as shit and runs hard too. Thanks for following along, I'll try to keep updating this thread when it goes places or I race on it.

Time for some 2004 era good vibes:usa::usa::usa:
 
Ride report from sunday was pretty damn positive. Definitely had some usual "new build" blues, a couple of bolts falling out and a few issues with the brakes that caused me to yard sale it into the trees... twice. Once I panic braked through a berm and all the way into some trees because it felt like the front brake just did not grab as much as I'm used to, and on a hill decent right after a stop my rear brake faded and sent me careening down a random hill and through another tree. Something was funky with the back brake from the beginning of the ride, but a splash from the camelbak to cool the caliper off and a pedal height adjustment, and it was smooth sailing from there. I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Most of everything I want to change just has to do with ergos and rider triangle. I chose to forego a steering damper temporarily for cost reasons and also tried a combination of a very tall bar bend and no bar risers to see if I could find a happy setup using the cheaper top mounted damper. No dice on that. The end result is making the bike a bit too different from my 450 and made me pretty uncomfortable for the first hour or so of the ride. I ordered up a used steering damper and sub mount setup from fleabay and I'm going to try and go from there.

The new suspension feels crazy good. My builder likes to mismatch the feel of the forks and shock in his "tight and technical" setups, so the front is very plush and floats through rocks and chop very well, while the rear has more support. More testing required, but it does lend itself well to tight nimble turning, which is what I was after with this setup.

So more to come, it's not perfect but fuck is it fun to be back on a smoker!
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I have a scotts damper somewhere in my garage. Needs a new shaft, as the nut rattled off and the threads got damaged. I would sell it for pretty cheap.
 
The SUB mount and the frame collar actually came in fast enough to install before this weekend's ride so it was a bit of a dash to get it all put together in time.
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This SUB mount and damper came with a billet triple clamp off of an 05 WR250f. That means that the fork size was correct but the fork spacing was off, same as the original reason I went with the front end swap on this bike. So I had to drill out the mount holes in the stock 08 triple clamp and shorten the sub mount bolts.
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Moving to this sub mount also acts like a really tall bar riser, so the tall black bars I bought had to go in favor of these low bends. This should mimic the setup on my 450 really well though, so it will help transitioning from bike to bike not be such a pain.

This is definitely a funky mismatched setup with some strange geometry going on, but I sort of expected that going in. The damper post is too close to the mount with this bastardized crap, so I also had to file the link arm's slot waaaaay further toward the shaft to get this to work. And it has a little creak in it sometimes, so something still isn't all the way happy. I also need to update the steering stop interface down on the frame, as the damper is running out of travel before the steering stops hit. That's probably going to break something I really don't want to deal with at a bad time so that's getting worked on soon.
 
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But those little growing pains didn't stop me from getting it out and enjoying it in the forest, where we've had a solid 3" of rain in the past week or so.
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Problems with ergos are worked out! I was able to get comfortable on the new setup very quickly, and a lot of the problems I was having on the first ride appear to be solved. It sucked getting the bike so disgustingly dirty that I had to take a bunch of stuff apart just to clean it but man that was a fun ride. It felt like I hit a wormhole and wasn't even in NM between being rained on the whole ride and the vegetation being so green. I'll leave all this nasty mud riding to Squamch though, I can go faster when it's dry :laughing:
 
Few months of riding in, and the verdict is very positive. It's a fun bike, and starts on the first kick every time.

The ergo issues I was having were from the front tire. I have never ridden a tire that folded over on the knobs as bad as that one. It felt like riding on a constant flat, very vague feel. Running a Starcross 5 on the front now with a Nitromousse and love it.

Only ended up taking it to one race this year, but no biggie, got some decent pics out of it.
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