RD250

Cadwell was going quite well till race three where I decided to use a tyre wall to retard my progress off the exit of the hair pin... I did get to watch the rest of the race from the side lines and collect my thoughts which were rattling around the inside of my now distroyed Shoei NXR helmet. Not long later I was in the back of one van heading back to the pits then another home to fix the bike and my pride. What broke? Aside from collecting a lot of Cadwell parks grass and soil in my fairing, things were not looking too bad considering. My screen had exploded which was a given and the throttle cables were split open and bent round although not severed. The rear fairing stay had punched through the fairing in a neat round circle which meant the fairing got out of the way whilst the bike slid which saved the paint and only needed a simple repair. The only other thing to really touch down was the end can which was now quite...

This bike isn't going anywhere [fast] without an engine rebuild so in I went with a Haynes manual and a can of WD40. Before we get to into this: For those who don't know me this is not a step by step guide on how to strip and rebuild an engine. It is more a ramble about stuff I did interspersed with pictures. It is meant to be entertaining as well as filling in the gaps those hazy grey areas in the manual like to leave. f you want a step by step guide; go buy a manual. Stage one was to attack everything with the can of WD40 and stick the engine on my work bench (it was loose in the frame anyway. The next step was to close up the garage and go drink tea and play forza till I got good at racing (never happened). With a night to soak, things were a fair bit easier with no rounding off bolts which makes a pleasant change.  The heads and barrels are held on by some funky bolts and nuts respectively. Remove these in a pattern that doesn't stress things out then p...