Wednesday, March 18, 2009

My Honda CB250rs Motorcycle Restoration.



I started the ardous task of clearing out my garage yesterday.
It has been used as a bulk storage area for the past few years.
I uncovered my old Honda CB250rs motorcycle today, it had
been buried beneath boxes and bags at the back of the garage
since 2007.It was still running when I stored it away, but the
m.o.t & tax were up on it. It also had developed a rather annoying
oil leak from the drive sprocket engine seal. That job requires a
complete engine and gearbox strip to fix properly. *sigh*.I had
meant to restore the 28 year old little thumper, but had two
other bikes already on the road so really did not need it at the
time.I know the CB is a basic & old little thing, but I had fallen
for its charms years ago. They really are a great little bike,
hit 85 on a good day, handle like a dream and definately ooze
character (and oil).Anyhoo I scrapped the original registration
so need a new frame, V5 and reg. I secured one in Feburary
for £50 complete with year's m.o.t. Yesterday I degreased
the replacement frame and swingarm, in preparation
for painting tomorrow. Today had me clearing out my garage,
and uncovering my old donor bike. The fun starts tomorrow.

Degreased, sanded and painted the frame & swinging arm yesterday.
Fully stripped my donor bike, minus the engine. I could not remove the
siezed rear engine mounting bolt. (I have three skinned knuckles to
proove it). That's a moot point however, as I'm using another spare
engine I have. Little F**king Miffway lent assistance! (well sat in her
cage looking bemused, probably stoned on paint fumes?) I also took
the time to start cleaning up all the various fastners and components.
I have two other lock-ups that are crammed with bike bits, so it will
take a few days rooting to obtain the very best parts to use on this build.
I must have over three CB250rs's in bits at this stage. When the m.o.t's
and tax were up, and they needed a major stripdown, I just took them apart
for spares. Two years ago I had one "RS" that the frame around the footpegs
collapsed from corrosion.I bought it cheap for parts, but the owner lightly
tarted it up with a brush to conceal the rust. I'm using the motor from that
particular bike in this build.
Hopefully it will look like this when completed!


I'm currently about a third of the way through my build.
My time this past week has been taken up with sanding,
cleaning, degreasing and polishing. Monotonous stuff.
Today I located all the extra components I require for the
rebuild. I also cleaned and sanded the engine, and gave it
a first coat of engine lacquer. Tomorrow I should make
considerably more progress.(hopefully)

These two following images are from last Tursday and Friday.Thursday seemed to be the most productive day, as I assembled all the major components onto the waiting frame.The engine, front end,forks and wheels were installed. Friday had me installing the carb, cables, brakes, drive chain,electrics etc. Then I had a weekend break and got stuck in again on Monday.I finished the wiring and reinstalled the exhaust and another battery.The afternoon had me finally fire the old girl up after a three year hiatus in my garage.She started at the second push (I jump started it on the nice hill outside my garage).The old fuel was still fine,as I had the petrol tank full to the brim to avoid any evapouration. So Tuesday had me just going over everything,safety checks and then a 30 mile round trip blast (which is not entirely recommended on a brand new frame up rebuild, in case anything goes wrong) but she behaved perfectly.So a completed bike rebuild in a week worked out just fine I'm happy to say. And importantly it has turned put to be the cheapest rebuild I have even accomplished (about £85 all told, including the frame, V5 and M.O.T cert for £50).I still have some polishing work to do, some paint touch ups and I'm also planning to re-spray her in a month or so.I have a few spare body kits lurking about. One is a rather fetching metallic blue and black colour.But the replacement V5 lists the prior bike as being red, so I just rolled with that colour scheme.(I had the red body work lying around too)That motor is really torquey and sweet. A trip to Rykas cafe in box hill is on the cards this weekend.......they do the nicest burgers in the South West, and as many of you guys already know, its a popular bikers meeting spot.

15 comments:

  1. Are you sure Jimmy Hoffa isn't buried back there, Andy? ;)

    I've got to work on my bike, as well. Now if we could only get Jay to get a bike. We'll start him off slow, though....a Vespa perhaps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's some slag-heap eh?

    Jay on a bike?

    He would probably stop off at the "Blue Oyster" by mistake!

    ReplyDelete
  3. A Vespa would rock! I could paint my helmet like a troll head.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That would seriously rock my friend!
    Just imagine Brauno pottering to work from
    San Antonio to New Braunfel's on his Vespa!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll admit that the notion occurred to me last summer when gas was $4/gallon! However, I'd never survive the commute with all these good ole boy pickup trucks and Hummer-driving soccer moms. You'd have to scrape me off the pavement daily. Imagine the stench!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It would be a risky proposition, commuting after what you told me about the quality of driving in the area! Stick to the jeep mang!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Use your Vespa for kirb crawling of the evening and weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Is that a Motad 2-1 exhaust I spy?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yep,indeed!They are pretty much the definitive replacement exhaust's for CB250rs's.As you probably know,any bike with the original 2 into two system,is usually very low mileage.As
    they rot off the bike within a year or two of reasonable use.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well a year on and the CB250rs (Betsy)is still going fine,just shy of 1000 miles up since last year.I bet its going to be a hassle getting a m.o.t, the testers hate checking old bikes and universally always fail them on silly reasons....
    like the brakes are not as good as the R1 I just checked...etc?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi mate,
    (Possibly stupid question...)Did you need to re-jet with the 2-1 motad on there?

    ReplyDelete
  12. No,it supposedly has the same back pressure as the original, yet narrower baffled 2 into 2 system.I have never experienced any flat spots or bad carburation, so it works well as a bolt on replacement system. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello good evening

    Needed help, I have a Honda CB250 RSF.
    I wanted to keep the bike original, and do not know the the original color of the bike and the parts used at the time
    If you send a picture to give me a help in the restoration
    You can send your email to send you a picture of the bike and we can talk about the matter in question.

    Best regards
    Eurico Santos
    Portugal

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hello good evening

    Needed help, I have a Honda CB250 RSF.
    I wanted to keep the bike original, and do not know the the original color of the bike and the parts used at the time
    If you send a picture to give me a help in the restoration
    You can send your email to send you a picture of the bike and we can talk about the matter in question.

    Best regards
    Eurico Santos
    Portugal

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nice cheap build. I have a couple of these ones going to be a tracker type thing, the other I may restore-depends on how the tracker goes.
    Trying to get a CB250rs Group going here:

    http://cb250rs.myfreeforum.org

    ReplyDelete