Video: A dirt bike engine rebuild like you’ve never seen

Jan 14, 2021

As a skilled mechanic, it would normally take Nick Hagman half a day to fully rebuild a two-stroke dirt bike engine.

This time, however, it took Nick 500 hours, spread out over the course of 365 days. That’s because he documented this 1993 KX250 engine rebuild with more than 10,000 photos, all of which required meticulous editing, to create one of the most entertaining and satisfying stop-motion videos I’ve ever seen.

Set aside nine minutes to watch this vid. It’s worth it.

“It’s worth it” also happens to be the only (unspoken) dialogue in the video, and frankly, it’s all that is needed. That’s because Hagman does a masterful job developing the plot and giving the engine parts personality, none more so than that fresh Wiseco piston, which initially refuses to sacrifice itself for the shreddy gnar.

Gearhead or not, you can’t help but be fascinated by the storyline. And that makes sense, given it’s one of the oldest and most powerful narratives there is: That of the hero’s journey.

Mechanimations video set — BTS on the Mechanimations set. Part of Nick’s garage was walled off for over a year while he documented the KX250 engine rebuild, frame by frame. The pro-level lighting, editing, and sound design – from a hobbyist photographer, no less – is impressive. Photo by Nick Hagman.

“I’ve never done film or anything story-related,” explains Nick, a hobbyist photographer. “So I Googled it and learned about the hero’s journey story template."

Mechanimations set rigging — There’s no CGI in “It’s Worth It.” Everything was captured on film, with support rigging carefully masked out to show only the background elements. Technically it’s call compositing, but at this point Nick probably just calls it a pain in the ass. Photo by Nick Hagman.

The hero is always reluctant to embark on the journey at first, but finds inspiration (the posters on the wall), is guided by a mentor (the manual), and has allies (the tools). The final stage of the journey is the return home, in this case the perfect crosshatching and well-chamfered ports of the freshly replated cylinder.

The KX250 is a homecoming of sorts for Hagman, as well.

“In high school I thought I wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic,” says Hagman, 36, who works as a maintenance technician on computer-chip manufacturing equipment in central Oregon, “and this is one of the first bikes I learned to wrench on. I sold it to a cousin in 2002, then it was sold again and got beat to shit. I knew the bike was just sitting there, destroyed, and I knew it would be good for this video.”

When asked about future stop-motion projects with the KX (he’d previously filmed a fork rebuild as well as a shock rebuild that caught Greaser's eye), Nick responded in the negative.

“I’m thrilled to have a break, and not have this project calling to me,” he said. “If I’d known it was going to be as long and difficult as it was, I probably never would have started. But I’m glad I did.”

I am, too, and I’ll never look at a worn piston the same way again.