Ok since I didnt start this thread that long ago - im gonna revive it! ---->
Hi Guys, Ive been milling around there forums for a while and i think there is some pretty cool stuff going on here when it comes to the good ol CBR250. I saw ol mate psidey's resto project and thats inspired me to share mine... although his is very true to the originality of the bike - mines gonna be a little bit of a mod-job without going too mental.
A bit of history: For me this is an intro to restoring bikes... in the past ive been very much a car modifier - i completely rebuilt / restored / modified a 1979 ford escort back in my early apprentice mechanic days - about 10 years ago. This thing was a beast.. i spent over 20k on it, it was the vein of my existence for a while and turned out better than i ever imagined (ill post a pic sometime) - but thats not why we are here.
To cut a long story short - Im not a mechanic anymore- I was heavily into downhill mountain bike riding, got on a dirtbike and never looked back. One day i thought wouldn't it be good to have a dirtbike AND a roadbike... I didnt have the cash (or correct licence) to turn around and buy an R1 so i thought why not restore something - Id always loved the CBR250 ever since i first saw one back in school, so when i decided id restore a roadbike this was my first choice... cheap parts, and plenty of people have aftermarket bits available - such as the TYGA blokes.. when i saw the body kits they were selling, that helped me decide.
Anyway - I bought this 92 CBR250RR from a bloke in Brookvale for $1200... it had been in a pretty serious front ender - the damage included: Bent forks, Buckled front wheel, bent subframe, screwed exhaust headers, Smashed fairings, busted pegs/levers.. you get the picture - but its only got 30K on the clock so i thought it would be a good start.
Here are some pictures of the bike a few months ago - just as i started... I was a little hasty and didnt take pics before i took off the fairings... but you arent missing much... all ill say is it was blue and white and had broken bits...
Ill do my best to keep you all up to date - ive already started, the bike is in 10,000 bits now - but over the next few days ill try to put up a few posts of whats gone on already !!
For those of you that were interested, my first ever resto project was a 1979 MK2 Ford Escort.. The work I did on it i could start another entire thread about but the quick rundown, Engine was bored to a 2.2 litre, Ported & polished head, huge cam, oversized valves, 2x 40mm Dellorto carbies, 2in mandrel bent exhaust, Supra 5 speed.. LSD, The body was stripped to Bare metal and painted pearl metallic Blue... It took me 4 years and about 20k...
Enough of that... So im quite a few months behind here posting wise, so far, the bike is completely dismantled and ive been cleaning parts, trying to decide what im going to do with things and ive bought a whole lot of new bits and pieces which ill reveal as i put them on.
My first big decision / learning curve was the frame. For some reason i thought it would look cool if i polished the alloy... but i didn't want the shine to go through oxidisation, so i thought putting a clear coat over it would do the trick. I spend HOURS and HOURS with polishing wheels and compound polishing and cleaning the frame, before putting a 2 pac clear coat over it called POR15 Glisten... well, i didn't really match the picture in my head.. there was something not right, i didn't know what it was. I thought once id finished the frame, id start putting stuff back on... but for some reason didn't.. i farted around for a while not doing anything to it.
After going to the Sydney motorbike show out at homebush, id collected all these brochures of sick bikes i was never going to get in the next 10 years, i was looking through them at home and thought there is something that makes all these sport bikes look so wicked, I couldn't put my finger on it until finally the penny dropped... Black. It was the black frame / swing arm and all that other stuff. It just makes the bikes look more modern and weapon like... so i decided to throw all that time id spent in the bin, sandblast the lot of it and get it Powdercoated black NOTE: at this stage i didnt know about this forum. If id seen some of the stuff on here before i prolly would have gone down this path straight away !!!
Even tho id wasted so much time and literally threw money in the bin.. i felt happy about it. Having restored something before i didnt beat myself up about it too much - this shit happens.
So off with it.. Here is my load of stuff ready for the sandblaster..
A few days later and its all ready for powder...
Its all with the Powdercoater guys now so ill post some pics when i get it all back next week.
POWDERCOATED
Everything is back from the powdercoaters and its looking sweet as... Im so glad i did this, everything looks better than brand new !! Im almost ready to start putting it all back together, now i have the engine covers im sending the engine off to be given a quick once over, check valves, a few gaskets and seals replaced and the tyres to get some rubber. The only thing im stumped on is the rear shock... it still looks like crap, and im tossing up weather i should do what psidey did with his or get a brand new replacement... but then im not too sure who to talk to about that - if you read this and have any ideas speak up !!
Now for pics...
REARSETS
Got these rearsets from ebay (hong kong)... they have a few good and bad points. I really like the design, and the fact they house the rear brake master cylinder, the actual machining of the main alloy parts is awesome but the footpegs are rubbish... ive already ordered a set of anodised billet pegs from somewhere else.
The heel guards look like they have been cut out of an old coke can and covered with a carbon fibre themed contact !!! but again, im going to use these ones as a template to get some new, thicker ones made up at an alloy fabricator near where i live.
I just need to get them all black. Originally i was going to get them anodised, but there is some kind of copper bearing that i cant for the life of me remove, it needs to be pressed out and i don't wanna risk screwing up the alloy... so i think im just going to pull them apart and give them a coat of black epoxy paint... thats cheaper anyway
Here they are !
UPDATE
Ive now got everything ready to assemble a roller... ive replaced all the dust seals and bearings in the rear suspension assembly and wheels, got new tyres... the lot.
I started last weekend thinking this week ill post some new pics, but ran into a major wall... the triple clamps from the original bike were damaged in the crash.
So here we are, close to putting the wheels on... sliding the fork tubes up through the triples.. and the second one is about an inch out of alignment...
[email protected]#K. To the bin with them.
I ordered a set from a wrecker on monday, dropped them at the sand blasters yesterday, and took them to the powdercoaters this morning... dont think ill get them back till next week tho :newspaper:
If i get time ill post some pics of my progress anyway !
