Although our Long Haul RM250 got a vacation from the pages of this magazine, it didn't get a break from the track. After some staff changes, the Suzuki got passed along to test riders like Matt Armstrong and finally ended up in the hands of Chris Neitzel, who took it on the road and raced it during the summer while working as a riding coach for a group of fast mini racers. With a roughly estimated 50 hours on the bike at the time of the last update, it was freshened up with a top-end kit. The bike responded with a slight increase in snap. Amazingly, the clutch was still alive-a testament to the strict maintenance schedule, which included changing the tranny fluid quite regularly, or after almost every other ride. At about this time, the chain was truly shot, and it was replaced with a D.I.D 520MX Gold chain and a set of Tag Metals sprockets.
We had a Pro Circuit top and bottom triple clamp on the bike, but a big crash wadded that and the ProTaper bar-all in all, a $700 wipeout. We put the stock triple clamp back on, added a Renthal bar and licked our wounds. It hurt worse in the wallet, but we were really lucky we didn't bend the fork.
When we turned the bike over to Neitzel, it needed a thorough going-over as a lot of the big pieces, such as engine mounts, headset and swingarm pivots, were in need of grease and retightening. The bike was given a fresh clutch, and off Neitzel went. In Texas, the bike was raced at Oak Hill and Three Palms in its nearly stock form, and it kept ripping, even against the four-strokes it was facing. It carried Neitzel to some good results in the +25 pro class, and he isn't the lightest guy by any means. Those motos and a strict diet of practicing put 20 more hours on the bike by the time it came back to California. After a few more races and some practice while back home, the only thing it needed was some coolant every few rides. Then a misaligned air filter had the motor sucking sand, and you guessed it, the crank seized. Not only that, the sand rubbed everything above it to death.
From there we called it a year, but not before we decided to see what it would take to get the RM back up to snuff. We tore it apart (something you'll see in a lot of our final Long Haul reports) to see how things really turned out. We knew the crank and top end were junk, but we wanted to see how all the other stuff fared. With the bike stripped down to nuts and bolts, here is what we noticed. Considering the number of riders on the RM and the general level of maintenance, meaning it was treated in a "not my bike" kinda way, the RM was in surprising shape. Except for the sand that went through it, the cylinder looked like it was still in fine condition. The head was so tidy that it cleaned right off with a rag and contact solvent. All of the chassis bearings still moved easily and had no play; they just needed grease. The wheels were not perfect but were mostly round and in good shape. The RM's plastic wasn't cracked and was in decent shape, though it is no longer like new. While the frame had no obvious cracks, it would benefit from paint touch-up around the peg mounts and the swingarm pivot area. Even the levers were in good shape, since they were replaced after the triple clamp-tweaking crash.