Journal · Bench Racing
It is not possible to be half-way into this sport
Bitten by the bug... hard
A few months ago I wrote a short story about dropping my bike off the trailer. It was my last ride of the season and I finished the story pining about how the vintage bike was great but not real practical. My goal when getting into vintage motocross was to just do a few rides and take in a race or two. I never did get to a race, but I rode more than expected and found that my desire was far stronger than my original vintage moto vision.
I started looking at Kijiji for a deal that I could not refuse. In the winter, the deals on bikes do tend to rear their pretty heads. One day a 2013 RM-Z250 appeared on the listings. Asking price was $3500. I have a Suzuki thing going on now for whatever reason so this deal looked real good to me. I figured it would be gone in a day or two but it lingered. I would sit in my bed at night beside Mrs. Vintage Moto scanning through the listings. I was passing through osmosis that I had a pretty strong desire for another bike. This RM was there day after day and a couple weeks passed. I talked myself into it and then out of it over and over. I gave a lowball offer to the owner which was refused. Eventually, I drove down to Brockville and bought the thing. This is not what I should be spending money on, but if I cannot afford it, I can sell it in the Spring... yeah... thats it!
This is the new bike- all set up for motocross.
The bike was owned by an older motocross nut. He is about my age but not my size so I will need to do some setup. He is the second owner and he figures the bike has a total of 50 hours. The original owner raced it in the Nationals (I think) and this was his race bike. It was only raced, he had another bike for practise. This bike has SSS suspension work but otherwise it is stock. It looks perfect
Once I got the new bike, I took the old bike to work and poked it into the barn with plans to fix up the damage caused when I dropped it off the trailer. I had no problem ordering the necessary throttle parts from the local Suzuki dealer. I sent the seat to a local seamstress to have it reupholstered. I took all the scuffed plastic off and brought it home. I managed to smooth out the scrapes and scuffs and I even filled the holes that were worn through the front number plate and radiator shroud. I brought the damaged number plates back to PixelWorks in Almonte. They cut my numbers for me last winter and it was easy for them to print off another copy. If you have an 84/85 RM and you need numbers, they now have the necessary templates.
Last winter, I ordered a set of decals from Evo-MX in the UK. I never did use the kit though choosing instead to put my own VintageMota.ca logo on my bike instead of "Suzuki". My logo looked good there but they were not heavy enough to withstand the abuse of a season of riding. The graphics from Evo-MX are built to protect the original plastic. They are very heavy and should withstand the punishment that will inevitably be delivered. Included in the kit is a tank cover which not only protects the tank, but covers up the brown age-stains.
I still don't have the seat, but the rest of the bike looks pretty decent. Sadly I will not have the yellow RM250 logo on the seat. I was going to order a seat cover, but decided to keep it local.
So now I have two Suzuki 250s built 29-years apart. I am hoping I can now have some guests ride the new bike. I think the 4-stroke would be a good bike for my daughters to ride. Maybe even Mrs. Vintage Moto will feel brave this year.
I do need to personalize the bike. I want to put my numbers on it so that I can take in a race or two this year. This bike has a lot of pretty funky graphic work done to it. It has "Twisted Mounty" all over it whatever that is? It looks cool, but it is not to my tastes. So I got to thinking... why not give it a vintage look? All I would need is a blue seat and a graphics kit. I did some searching online and I found a few different choices.
I found the bomber kit which is pretty awsome, but too busy looking.
I found this one out of New Zealand and it is a complete plastic kit. By the time it would be shipped it would be too costly but I love the look.
I thought of asking Pixel Works to make something for me, but decided against it as they don't know what sort of abuse MX bikes go through. I did not want to go back to Evo-MX or Decal Works in California because it can be a pain to import. The shipping, duty, exchange and taxes make the price unpredictable so I decided to find a Canadian company. I found Ride Industries in BC and talked to them on the phone. I find the seat on the RM-Z250 to be quite comfortable and I don't want to re-cover it just for aesthetic reasons so I had the idea to make a hybrid. Use the vintage 1984 look but use the 2013 colours.
Alan at Ride Industries seemed to get exactly what I was talking about and said the artwork would be included in the very reasonable price. A few days later I got an email with the couple samples to choose from. I made my choice and then asked if he could include my logo on it too. I sent the artwork for my logo and about 30-mintes later I had the sample you see below. This is perfect for this Vintage Moto guy.
