1989 WR250...The bike before disassembly

For those of you who have not heard of the WR, it is the same thing as the yz, expect for the transmission. The WR stands for "wide ratio." I will be attempting to mount a light to my model, but modern wr's come standard with a headlight and taillight. Yamaha attempted to stun the off-road bike scene with a YZ 250 that had enduro bike features like a heavier flywheel engine, a light capable coil, a lower 1st gear and higher 4th and 5th gears. The only stunning thing was the fact the YZWR was so much like the YZ 250. Since the bike was really a slower reving YZ 250, many YZWR's were raced. If the 89 YZ 250 makes a good trail/play bike, so will the YZWR.

I bought this bike on Ebay for $380.00, which I thought was a good deal. It needs parts but I thought the price wasn't bad. The bike has not been ridden in a while and will need to be looked over and have some things replaced. I mentioned earlier that I bought this bike as a 1990 YZ250f, which is what the stickers said as well. After bringing it to my local dirt bike shop they went over the serial numbers and concluded that the engine was defiantly a two stroke, which I already knew and that their best guess was that it was a 1990 too. The dealer wasn't very helpful and looked scared by seeing such an old bike. The dealer thought that the engine was replaced so none of the serial numbers matched up. Unfortunately they had no idea what year the frame was. I have looked at all different parts for these bikes and it came down to either a 1990 or a 1991 frame. I decided that the 1990 looked most accurate. Later.... many months later I realized it was a 1989 wr250.

The bike needs a magneto and cover to run, but will need a bunch of other stuff to make it complete. I am in the process of stripping it down and cleaning it.... looking through everything to make it complete. I have concluded that so far I will need a new air filter, plastics, new rotors, possibly a new rear caliper, and new sprockets. All I need to make it run is the magneto but I would like to get the bike in its best condition. After I strip everything down, I will clean and look over it. I originally wanted to powder coat the frame to make the paint stronger and give the bike a better look.... I ended up just cleaning it, sanding down the major rusty areas and priming and painting them with the closest color I could find. It looks a little odd but I think it will prevent further corrosion.

Here are some pictures of the dirt bike partly disassembled.