I recently purchased a NSR250R (MC21) and do not have a lot of experience with 2 stroke bikes in general.
Given the age of the bike, and the fact that I am a new owner, what are some things I should be doing maintenance-wise before it hits the road? (Other than the standard oil change, and spark plug check).

I would appreciate any suggestions and or tips!

Hello Malinda, and welcome to NSR-WORLD.

Can you expand a little? Was the bike from a dealer, or a private sale? Can you post a few photos, so we can gauge the condition and take a guess on its previous life? Often there are tell-tale warning signs that would urge caution.

There's a basic maintenance schedule in the Workshop Section of the main site that will give you a starting guide.
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Apart from the standard stuff you mentioned personally as an absolute minimum I would clean and service the power valves, if these have not been serviced correctly they will destroy the PGM in short order.

Maybe remove and clean the carbs, bit of a ball ache but if the fuel in Canada is anything like the crap we have over hear they can get gummed up pretty quickly if the bike hasn't been used recently.

I purchased the bike in Japan through a dealer auction through Apex Moto http://www.apexmoto.jp/ and recently had it imported into Canada where I live.
I was actually engaged in the auction process for a few months before arriving in Japan. I know that once Apex picked it up for me, they gave it a really good look over to make sure it was in decent condition.
I also rode it around Japan during the three weeks I was there. It was a great bike and I am excited to get it on the road in Canada. The only issue I had with it was the engine over-heated during one of my rides, but it was a pretty humid day and I was riding on a mountain in pretty high altitude. The bike still ran fine, but the temperature gauge definitely looked ominous.

I have attached a few pictures of the bike. One was during my travels, and the other is in its current condition. I was able to find brand new fairings for it so I plan to swap those in. But I figure since all the fairings are off, I should try to tackle some maintenance, such as the spark plugs.

My guess on this guy's former life was that he was a street bike. I noticed that alot of the NSRs that came up in the auctions had incredibly low mileage- probably because they never left a track. But the one I purchased had almost 20,000 Km. Also, there were some scratches on the fairings that has me suspecting that a previous owner dropped it on gravel.

Any insight you have would be helpful! I am not an expert with bike repairs, but always enjoy learning, if it is something I can learn to tackle on my own.
Also wanted to say thank you for creating this site. When I was shopping around for the NSR, I used this site almost exclusively for all of my research!

Nice looking bike! How did you manage to import it to Canada? I know in the US it varies from State to State.

I don't think this bike is good for a long highway ride, like it's a street bike but not sure if it's does well under constant high rpm.

My quick suggestions are: 1. use good 2t oil. 2. top end rebuild every 10k miles or so. 3. Don't leave it alone for too long.