RD250

This is a work in progress but as the blog is being written at the same time as I am working (for a change), I thought I might as well publish it to make it a live update of sorts. So do pop back in the future to see when I finally give up and set the lot on fire. We never thought that 2020's race reason would even happen so when we found ourselves at Cadwell park, all be it as privateers and the sun was out, we were all pinching ourselves.  All of the bikes were going well and so something had to give and it was the RD250. 2 laps into race 1  on Chris curve the RD suddenly lost power, regained it then died all together. My EGT and TTO temperatures all looked fine so I wiggled carbs and throttle cables but the engine came back with a noticeable rattle so the clutch was pulled and my race was over. I had a back to back race on the VFR750 so by the time I was back in the pits, Roy Dale had kindly put my bike on its stand outside the van. We had a look to see what the prognos

I wont be giving you another blow for blow break down and rebuild this time. There just isn't the need, you know it already. I will however let you know about any changes of points of interest along the way so here we go and no doubt waffle a fair bit as usual. The bikes strip down was carried out quickly to get the engine out and have a good look in there. The bike had been loosing power towards the end of its last few races (well I had noticed this happening now anyway) so I was curious as to why. A low oil level hinted that the engine might have been running hot due to low gear oil. Everything looked fine inside and the pistons didn't look like they had seen much use at all and certainly not a whole season. With the barrels off I gave the crank an in situ inspection for big end lateral and axial play which was as new. As such I was happy with the condition of the engine and ready to slap it all back together. A new set of pistons, rings and little end bearings wer