Uncle Ronnie’s ’98 CR250R. Built to ride. Not to sit.

Why this one matters

Ronnie runs the #69 plate on a 1988 CR250 he calls the Screamin’ Eagle. The ’88 is the bike of record, but the ’98 is the year Honda’s late-’90s CR250 platform peaked — updated Showa 47mm inverted cartridge fork, longer-travel Pro-Link rear, the 249cc reed-valve two-stroke that anchored the 250 class for the better part of a decade. By any measure, this is the bike Ronnie’s whole argument rests on.

So when one shows up in the shop looking like it does — spray paint, dry forks, twenty-eight years of neglect on every wear surface — you don’t half-do it. You take it back to what it was supposed to be, and then some.

What we did

We pulled both forks and the shock and serviced them off the bike. Full teardown. Every internal surface cleaned and inspected. Every wear item replaced. Hard parts sent out for surface treatment. Both ends revalved to RG3 spec for Ronnie. Reassembled to factory torque.

Front forks — Showa 47mm inverted

• Full disassembly, cleaning, and inspection
• New Showa 47mm seal kit, new inner and outer fork bushings
• New Race Tech cartridge rod seals and free piston seals
• RG3 Factory piston band and seal head service kit
• Fresh KYB 5W fork oil at factory spec volume
• Revalved to RG3 spec, reassembled and torqued

Rear shock — Showa Pro-Link

• Full disassembly, cleaning, and inspection
• New seal head service kit, piston band, internal seals
• Fresh KYB 3W shock oil
• Revalved to RG3 spec
• Nitrogen recharged, bench-tested

Coatings

• DLC (Industrial Hard Carbon) on the fork inner tubes and shock shaft
• Black anodize (Anodize INC) on the upper tubes and shock body

DLC is a diamond-like carbon coating — low friction, high hardness — the same family of finish you see on factory race bikes. On the tubes and shaft, it’s the difference between a bike that looks the part and a bike that holds up the way Ronnie rides it. Black anodize on the uppers and shock body covers the previous owner’s spray-paint sins and seals the surface against corrosion.

Valving

Custom front and rear, cut for Ronnie’s riding. Not a generic motocross map. Not a copy of someone else’s spec.

Ronnie rides what he posts

The internet version of Ronnie Mac is a character — patriotic to the point of satire, perpetually in trouble, faster than McGrath in his own head. The bike under him is not a bit. He actually rides 1980s and 1990s Hondas. He actually made the final at Red Bull Straight Rhythm in 2017, on a two-stroke, against a field of factory pros, and crashed out one race short of the win. The persona is the show. The two-strokes are real.

That is what made this build interesting. There is no shortcut on a twenty-eight-year-old race bike that arrived in the shape this one did. You either find every wear surface, replace what needs replacing, coat what needs coating, set the valving where it should be for the rider, and reassemble it correctly — or you give it back as a parts donor. We gave it back as a bike.

If you have a ’90s Honda — or any two-stroke you actually still ride — and the fork and shock have not been opened in a decade, you are due. We do this work off-bike, ship in and ship out, set up to whatever spec the bike and the rider call for. Get in touch.