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I picked up this 1975 honda tl 250 that sat in a barn for a long time, it has lots of issues. one of them the fact that the engine is stuck, lets see what it will take to bring it back to life. this is a two part video as it took a while.

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47 thoughts on “will it run? antique honda trials bike pt 1 of 2

  1. beautiful bikes, even for people like me hating 4strokes and loving 2 strokes, those TL and TLR bikes were in a class of their own, literally 🙂

  2. The heads on those screws/ bolts will probably be JIS so useful to have correct screwdrivers.
    You can usually feel if the screwdriver is bedded in the head or not. There are many types of crosshead screws these days.

  3. After Seeing How Bad Those Valves Are And The Condition Inside That Exhaust Port My Next Move Would Have Been To Remove The Cylinder Head As That Seriously Needs A Decoke .

  4. Kind of incredible, 4 years after this was posted and since I can't remember watching this episode I'm watching it again.
    Definitely shows how addicting Mustie1's channel is.
    His self depreciating humor, the way Darren talks to us like we're actually there and his incredible knowledge and methods of working out problems keep my antique butt coming back for more when it pops up in my YouTube feed while I'm jonesing for a new Mustie1 episode.

  5. Only Mustie has an old ww2 style opening windshield. Used to be method of common people's air cooling. When we drove up to Washington State from California in 1950 my dad had a canvas water bag hanging off our headlight. Being very small I remember how pleasant the cool canvas tasting water was.

  6. I wish the TL250 I bought a month ago was in this good of condition. The spark plug hole is stripped and had been sitting outside no telling how long. It took a week just to break the piston out. The crank and rod bearings are seized also. F… Ole
    Me !!! Every nut bolt and shaft on the poor thing is frozen.
    One of the top rear shock mounts some genius stripped it out. Then he cut the 12mm shaft off and drilled it out and put a 5/16" bolt ( grade 5 ) through to hold the seat and shock.
    Imagine if that bolt , holding the shock in single shear mounting, had broken over a big bump. That shock would have broken someone's leg or hip. Not to mention the 2 or 3 inch hole it would have put in them in the process !!! Dumb asses do dumb shit like that every day and never give one moment of thought about wether it's safe or not.
    This poor bike needs a complete restoration, and will get it. Along with an aluminum seat base, air box, and
    exhaust. That will knock a few pounds off it , and lower the CG a bit too. Have fun with your project. Oh yeah, don't buy a bike from Kaplin Cycles. They are crooks.

  7. it was this very video that gave me the confidence to start tinkering more on old bikes and kick started (no pun intended) my own channel devoted to just that. I even found basically the same bike. Mines a '76. Thanks Mustie!

  8. Theres another spray called, free all that freed up a 2 cylinger honda motor that could not be cranked with the foot starter, after about an hour we were able to turn the motor over with the kick starter!

  9. I had a 74 xl 250. It was a lot like this one. Started tearing into it the same way to get it to run. Maybe, a touch less class since I was doing it for the first time.

  10. I've watched all your videos and learned a bunch. I'm going through some cancer stuff and it really is helping me keep my mind off feeling like crap. Thank you for all you do, love your channel!

  11. 10mm spanners are like toy story and come to life when no one is looking……..and walk away just to laugh at you from a far..

  12. Love to watch you work on bikes i used to have a honda 175 street and trail bike love it i bough new in 1976 ied like it back and im 63years old miss that bike

  13. I found pretty much the frame, front wheel and fender and rear fender (also whats left of the motor) of a honda CL 175. Would you think its worth it to build it from the frame up? The parts all seem cheap enough.

  14. That's an antique? Shit, I'm old! In 78 I was riding a TS185 and my buddy was riding his TL250. I thought it looked so modern and sleek…like something futuristic. Trials bikes like the TL are perfect for the rocky, boulder filled, root covered trails where we rode. Most kids had motocross bikes, but they could barely get them into second gear. But the trials bikes would just walk through or over any obstacles in its way. Low, slow, and nowhere it can't go!

  15. From a veteran Japanese make service tech and service manager: Throttle needs to be wide open for a meaningful compression test. Valve clearances are .004", ex. and intake. #3 Phillips bit and a Blue Point impact driver were standard tools of the day when these were popular and still valid for working on any olderJapanese made bike to restore or service using Phillips type screw heads.

  16. That bike is in great shape I'm sure it was running when it was parked probably 25-30 years ago if they would have put a little bit of oil down the cylinder that thing probably wouldn't taken much to get going.

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