RD250

 Post Mallory park, I had a problem: The bike hadn't broken and I didn't know what to do with myself... ...Time to sort out some of those little niggles.  One of those little niggles was the rear fairing stays. Apart from being a ticking time bomb of fragility, they also get right in the way of my knees. As a result the fairing was starting to suffer and I was constantly conscious that I might knock one off, ending my racing weekend. I decided to copy a bracket idea I had seen on another bike using some 12mm steel bar and 20mm box section. Ideally I have used tube but nobody local to me stock any and I wasn't going to wait for a delivery. The bar was cut to length, drilled on either end and tapped for an M6 bolt. I made sure to drill as deep as the bit would allow in order to reduce weight as best I could. This bracket was going to be a lot heavier than what I was replacing. The bar was test fitted and markings were taken for where the box section arms ...

As things continuously vibrate themselves off my bike it was clearly time for my exhaust to drop off.  Which it did.  The plan During my one and only full trip round Pembry race circuit in Wales my left exhaust bracket cracked through as you can see on the right. Thankfully my fairing caught the exhaust resulting in little damage and a functional machine so no major problems there. Now back home and post some discussion with Andy Green; I had decided to make new mounts that should survive a little better than what I had. The straps on the pipes were something the previous owner had used and I had cobbled some sheet and rubber spacers together to marry them up to my frame. The solution proposed to me was to use tubular engine mount bushings in some steel tube that would be welded to my frame. The exhaust would then marry up to these bushes via some split box section . The box section would be welded to the pipe via a stress spreading sheet that would be we...

A comment here and a chance encounter there and I had managed to replace my rear caliper after just two race meets. Here's how & why... It is probably pretty telling that the best picture I have of my red Brembo(ish) caliper is captured with the bike on its side. The Yamaha Aerox caliper was very cheap at £27 new with pads and worked just fine as a low cost Brembo rear caliper alternative. It had three flaws however: It was red. I kind of liked the way it worked with the accent red stripe but was getting mixed reviews from others. Risk of damage to the bleed nipple in a fall. The pads had all but fallen apart. Clearly colour and pads are easily fixed with paint and a quick order to EBC which was on the way anyway. A chat with Andy Green (we have lots of these) had come to the conclusion that a bleed nipple banjo bolt and a blank would reduce the risk of damage easily. It  was whilst looking into other sources of this very cheap caliper for another racer that I spo...