HAd the 125 and though it was so so. I heard the 250 where flaky on the gearboxes.
You had a CR125M and thought it was so-so? They're easily the pick of the pre-75 125s, so you're obviously not ever going to be happy with a pre-75 125....
The 250 Elsinores are weak in the gearbox, and parts are apparently a nightmare to find at sensible prices. Which is a shame, 'cause I reckon they'd otherwise be the winner on the price vs maintenance vs competitiveness scale.
It seems to me that any of the Euro pre-75 250s will do the job in the 250 class, if the rider is up to it. The YZ250A is up there too, but they seem to be dearer to buy than the Euro bike.
Well put it this way, they where tainted to me as a teen i had a red one 77 i think ? and some rich boy up the road had a new KX 125 and smoked me all the time in the paddocks and really stuck it up me ( little rich turd), then again it was the 80s and his was a current model, so it just seemed wafty. i sold a silver green one only about a year back to some guy in Queensland that was resto for the same reason it just seem to rev and make lots of noise and didnt pull, only bike i have owned that has pulled my arms out my sockets is my mx 360 and my Dirt track YZa 2fity. maybe im just used to power that feeds on without all the revs and back then they were as they came im sure tuned and stuff you might have better memories.
Although having said that i had a favourite bike that was a 125, used to MX it and enduro it also, think it was a GS ? some mid early 80s KTM 125, that thing was so easy to ride, loved it more and road it faster than the new 96 YZ 250 i sold it to buy, i got sick of shoving resin in the Water pump to stop it leaking, for some reason the alloy cover just kept corroding away and leak inside and out, meh... still was a great bike so easy to ride, not like my new KTM, bloody thing has a crazy head on it, it likes to wooble out at stray out at all sorts of strange times, usually at high speed on small bumps.
This was the little 125 at Gilman back in the day when flouro colour was coming in and they hadnt built that stupid speedway track there yet and wrecked it for everyone.
