The beginning

back in 2014 I got dragged into helping a group of lads race at the  Belgium classic TT Gedinne.
2 years late I find myself alongside them. Well maybe a little behind....

I have been riding since I was old enough to hold a licence and have loved all things mechanical since I was big enough to care. Ricing had always been a far away dream that people with lots of spare time and money did. People associate motorcycling with me; so every so often opportunities come up to do odd and interesting things.

One of these events was spannering and photographer for the RAFMSA at the Belgium classic TT Gedinne.
I would be working on a line up of RD250's (one a maxton) and an RD400. I had no real interest in 70's air cooled 2 strokes but I was doing a favour and bikes were involved so why not?

A healthy combination of good people and motorcycles was a winning combo for me. I left there wanting to finally get round to that racing I had dreamed of before. Ideas of racing a 400 had been floating about in my head for years and this was high on my mind now.
These bikes however were winning me over slowly with their 2 stroke charm (I had just bought an NSR250 MC28 at the time) and easy if frequent maintenance.

One of the other racers, Andy, worked hard to brow bash me into getting involved with the classic team to the point where he lent me the frames you can see on the right.
There was his old air cooled RD frame (closest) and a much more complete water cooled RD250 YPVS. This would have had me racing in a different (and much quicker) class however.
Time and money prevented me from progressing these bikes very far before another opportunity came round.

Another racer was willing to part with his planned spare machine to finance some shiny bits for his main race bike.
The bike came at a very fair price and wouldn't need a whole lot of work to at the very least get out on the track.
With this bike I would be able to race in the post classic 250 air cooled class of the CRMC with the rest of the team.
I would still need to hunt around for spares but the bulk of it was there and I snapped up the chance to ride with the guys.
I guess I'm a Yamaha owner now...




The bike was basically an RD250 D/E. It came with an earlier B crank and a matching Fensatronic race ignition which was all older than me but I was assured it would work.
Foot peg mounts had been braised on to the frame along with fairing and ignition mounts. The rear brake had been set up using a triumph master cylinder which was interesting but seemed like it would work. The front end had a disk but nothing else.
As for fairings; the bike had a mid 80's TZ aerodynamic tail unit which made for an interesting look on a bike that was otherwise naked.
Did I mention it didn't even have an exhaust?
"We can just weld you one up" was Andy's simple answer. "Simple" I thought to myself.
I had a lot to learn over the coming months clearly.

The T5 got its first test as a bike carrier, picking the bike up from near Grimsby which got me into thinking about how I was planning on moving my new race machine in the future. Something I only got round to sorting recently and yet another job to keep me busy for nearly a year.

Things like carbs, hoses, calipers and even a drive chain were a long way off, but for the time being I had a foot in the door and a lot of garage time in front of me.
It was clear that I would need a short and long term plan. The bike needed to get racing before the end of the racing season but I also had an idea of what I actually wanted to ride which would be un-achievable in that time.

I rolled the RD off the van and lent it  against the wall of my garage.
I spent a lot of time just staring at it for those first days with no clear idea on where to start. This wasn't a simple case of getting a bike going and MOT'ed this time. This was new territory as a machine as well as a purpose.

I'd better go get that racing licence whilst I'm at it....

Plenty of work to come.