Which is the better Pre 90 bike to own?

[suzuki59]

I guess I am biased, but like TMBill,the 1988 RM 250J is my pick.
It was acknowledged as the best bike by all the magazines that year -except MXA who were on Hondas payroll.
It looks unique and more importantly is easy to get parts for in 2012.

[VMX247]

1988 was the year of the KX250.was a sweet bike.Brother had the 500.Where are they now.  Cheers S

[maico police]

There's a guy that was on MXTV (Can't remember the name) with a heap of CR's who's a regular at Parwan. He punches out about 30 solid laps at a time on his '89 CR 250 at a good pace. Told me he had made minimal changes to the forks.
Probably comes down to which brands shop is closest to you.....

[Husk72]

Thanks for all the replies,guys.
I have spent a bit too much money on the CR250 to get it up to almost race spec,and I put the question out there about "better bike for Pre 90"hoping I'd get some feed back on wether or not the Honda would be up to standard in its class.Having typed that, I appreciate all the comments,and some real nice pics that made there way to the thread.
Thanks to Johnny O,and the others who made comments about the forks not being the best,will get onto that problem,and sort it out.
Thanks to Brad ,and Firko,re-the Maicos. I own a CR500 1988 mod,and it goes really hard,would be awesome to hop on a Maico to see how it performs.
Also thanks to TM Bill, for another fab story,always enjoy your posts!


                                                                                  Cheers,Mark.

[evo550]

Yeah, the down side of owning a pre '85/90 is all that techno gizmo (power valve, watercooling, linkage suspension, disc brakes) is flogged to within an inch of it's life, and costs an arm and a leg to revive back to former glory...

[Cooch 04]

Brad that old 85 500 of yours that I rode at cd7 is when I fell in love with them freakin awesome bike to ride and as I told you back then there will always be a place in my shed if you run out of room.

[Husk72]

I was lucky evo550,in that the motor had previously been rebuilt,it sounds strong,and pulls extremely well through the gears.
On the bad side; rear hub was broken,along with missing spokes,front and back brake pads were shot,steering head bearings were worn,fork seals needed replacing,new tyres,air filter,crack in the header of the exhaust pipe. Just normal wear and tear to the expected parts.


                                                                       Cheers,Mark.

[Marc.com]

88/89 I was on KTM350, you know the proper one where you mix fuel, best Enduro bike/off road bike, my bike was well used as had won the 4 day at Kalgoorlie under Scott Staines, but with Schletchen pipe it was missile.