1981 XT250 (1 Viewer)

[brettk]

I grew up in East TN, not too far from the Tail of the Dragon. Always thought it would be fun to ride a bike around, but the amount of bad drivers always kept me off of one.

Since moving to Nebraska, things have changed slightly. My in-laws are really into riding, but it’s all straight roads and desert out here, it didn’t have the same appeal. My son turns 3 in 2 days however, and he’s liked them a lot. So I decided to start looking for a cheap bike to fiddle with and learn on, so one day I could teach him. Then I found out we have a dirt track 15 minutes from our house.

Eventually things started coming together fairly quick, and now I’m the proud owner of an old farm bike!

 

[brettk]

First step was to get it street legal again. I found a used, but original tachometer for it…one that wasn’t held on by wire.

Much better!

Then I put new mirrors, a tail light and rear signals on, along with a new wiring harness. The old one was a chewed up rats nest. Thankful for a company like Kedo!

 

[brettk]

A lot has happened since the last post. I took the bike from 6v to 12v, just so bulbs would be easier to find, and cheaper.

Next was to lube the cables. They seemed good, just dry. At the same time, the horn and the kill switch still didn’t work after all of the electrical changes, so that was goal #2. When I removed the kill switch, I noticed 2 things. Everything had a coat of oxidation over it, and the power wire was broke. Cleaned up everything and dabbed a thin layer of dielectric grease, spliced and resoldered the wire to the switch. Then got distracted with all the cables over the next 30 minutes.

I hop back on the bike and take it around the corner to see how everything feels. Cables are night and day difference, firm and smooth. No more catching or grittiness. I’m feeling pretty good, until I pull up to the stop sign and hit the brakes when I get a real nasty shock on my right hand. There’s a car coming in the distance to my left. I try to stop again, and promptly get nailed again by 12v. (Probably would’ve been easier with only 6v, right?) I ended up rolling through the stop sign and turning off on the first turn I could. Thank goodness we live on a not-so-busy street. What the heck just happened?

I get back home to take a look at the kill switch I just reassembled and everything looked as it did before, and that’s when I noticed the handlebars, the switch sat on a painted area, and only the grips covered the unpainted area. Instead of using the ground to kill the engine, I became the ground as soon as my feet hit the pavement and it was instead trying to kill me. Assembled it back together to a freshly sanded spot on the handlebar, and very nervously hit the switch, and the engine instantly died. Success!

I repeated the same thing on the left handlebar with the horn. Once I got the switch apart, I cleaned out all the cobwebs, cleaned the contacts and sanded down the paint on the bars. Once I assembled the switch and excitedly pushed the button, I instantly jolted again. This time not at 12v coarsing through my body, but at the loudness of the horn compared to the deadness of night. Success!