RD250

The bike wasn't ready, neither was I for that matter, but it was time for my first race of the 2016 season. It would also be my last... Friday Afternoon The bike and a lot of spare parts that would be essential in making the bike go were bundled into a trailer for the drive to Snetterton race circuit in Norfolk. Camp setup is always a pain but having to build the bike as well would make my Friday even longer. Thankfully we had opted to share half of a garage which would prove to be invaluable for nearly the whole team that weekend.  I had to: Fit a borrowed exhaust, see if the bike even starts, tune the fueling, get the bike through scrutineer,, learn the race track, more to the point learn how to race, maybe actually sign up to race? I had lots to do and that doesn't even take into account sorting out my own needs for which a good supply of beer and BBQ would need to be prepared. I had managed to get the wire locking done the night before on the bits ...

quitly ignoring the fact that we have already looked at the engine rebuild, lets go back to stripping this thing and talk about some little bits. As I received her I had: A rolling bike with an engine and fuel tank. She lacked carbs, front brakes, throttle and a chain amongst many other little details. The previous owner had braised on foot peg mounts, ignition mounts, fairing mounts and had sourced a tail unit which saved me plenty of work but I still had a great deal to do and in not too much time. I stripped the bike right down to nothing which wasn't hard as the bike was basically tacked together. The frame had already been mostly delugged and didn't need much tidying up at all. After tidying what little needed doing; I rubbed the frame down and painted it matt black. This not only looks nice but it is also really easy to touch up when it gets scratched. For those parts that I wanted bare metal; I hit them with the sand blaster. The engine rebuild, If you ...

Armed with a mates sand blasting cabinet I try to make my RD look a bit less crusty Sand blasters are great at removing crusty old paint from bits and in doing so they also rough the surface up a bit which is good for paint adhesion. If I were to paint I would need to give everything a really good clean after blasting. Or, if you prefer bare metal, you get a nice satin finish which looks great on my stock top yolk. I only took some sandpaper to the old handle bar mount to give a little contrast. I did have the option of a soda blaster but I considered it too weak to be effective for this job. The heads and barrels were also pretty grotty and needed a good going over with the sand blaster. Unlike the top yolk, which was pretty straight forward, the fin of the heads and barrels were a right pain in the ass to blast. This was not helped by a number of factors: The sand blasting cabinates gloves were in poor shape with one palm almost completely missing. I did eventually get a ...

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...

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 4...