Can anyone lelp me identify my LT250R? The guy I bought it from said it was an 85, my Wisconsin registration says 86. Is there a way I can tell by the serial #. Thanks,
Matt

 

The title is probably right. A lot of '86 models where built in late 85 so people think they're 85's but they're really 86's. If you have the alluminum vin sticker still on the frame, it should give the build date as well as the model. LT250RF is 85 and LT250RG is 86. Otherwise, there are a few other ways to tell. If it has the original seat, the 85's had yellow hollow letters that said Suzuki. The 86's had white hollow letters. The 85's had one huge washer/spacer thing that went over the lug nuts on each of the rear wheels. The 86's did not. Also, obviously if you have any of the original decals left, you can tell from old brochures. One of the years had a yellow suzuki sticker on the very front of the black nose piece, but I can't remeber which year that was.

 

Dam Yagerz, You really know your Zukes! The 85's were the ones that said Suzuki in yellow on the nose piece but I didn't know about the difference with the seats. Also the 85's came with a 32mm carb and the 86's came with a 34. I heard the 85's are a little lighter than the 86's but I don't know where the difference comes from.

 

Yea, I'm not sure about the weight being different between those years either. If it is, it can't be more than a pound or so. The claimed dry weight of both models is 293 lbs, according to the sales brochures. This is actually the exact same as the 86 Honda 250R... Three wheeler! The 85 and 86 quadracers were the lightest full size sport quads ever. The 87 bumped up to 324 lbs which was still the lightest 250 quad.

One thing interesting is that the lt 500 had a fairly radical change from 87 to 88 with the front upper A arms and spindles. The newer ones are quite a bit lighter but they never updated the claimed dry weight. It is 392 lbs for every year. Kind of makes me wonder how accurate those weights are.