ATV On-Line 250x rebuild

Sep. 01, 2000 By ORC STAFF

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MAN !!!! Just when you think nothing else can go wrong............BAM !!!!!

It all started on a saturday morning. I had the truck and the trailer all loaded up and ready to go. A buddy of mine arrives at my house at 6:00 am. Right on time.
Everything looks good so far. I'll be riding my Suzuki LT250R and he will be riding my other bike , the Honda TRX 250X. We are headed up to wisconsin for some trail riding and we have a 3 hr drive ahead of us. First thing we do is stop to get some breakfast, after that we are on our way. The drive was uneventfull. We arrive there a little behind schedule but thats no big deal . We are in no hurry. We park at the trailhead and unload the bikes. It's a beautifull morning , life is good . We head out onto the trails going from town to town. We reach this one little town where we were supposed to able to get gas.
Uh Oh !! Now theres a problem. The gas station that was supposed to be there, according to the map given to us by the state, not only wasn't open, it wasn't even there anymore. Seeing how neither one of us was carrying extra gas , I figure we better head back to the truck. Once at the truck we can fill up again , then head off in another direction. Things were lookin good, we were almost back to the truck without running out of gas when..............

BAM !! He hit a tree , heres what it looked like when we dragged it back to the truck and got it up on the trailer.
Needless to say , something like this can sure ruin your day . It made for a VERY long ride home. The part that upset me the most was that , I just spent $$$$$$ to put in a new piston and rings , a fresh bore , a new cam , a new clutch , a valve job , and that was a brand new front bumper ..and now I won't be able to do any more riding untill I get it fixed. Oh well !! Life goes on ,and we can rebuild. We have the technology.
	This is what she looks like from the bottom. Turns right easy , turning left could be a problem .
Once all the damage was noted ,the reality set in, this was major. The damaged parts list goes like this....... 1) Frame ,Totally toasted , Ripped , torn, bent and cracked in over a dozen places, 2) Right side lower controll arm bent, 3) Right front rim bent, 4) Right front shock bent, 5) Steering stem bent, 6) Tie rod ends , in and out , right side bent, 7) Front bumper trashed, 8) Handle bars bent, 9) and some misc nuts , bolts , and a few bearings.
Now the real work starts . Everything will get taken completely apart cleaned and repainted. EVERYTHING !!!!
I started by removing all the damaged components so that new parts could be ordered right away .	Once the frame was picked clean , you could really get a good look at the major part of the damage.
Once everything was disassembled and the new parts were on order , the next step is to start with the cleaning and repainting.	Front end components before cleaning and painting.
Rear suspension componants before cleaning	Sure , might as well clean up the ol' power plant too.
Once all the new parts arrived and everything was cleaned and painted it is really just a matter of puttiong it all back together , just like a puzzle.
Check back in next mont when we start getting this thing back together again