Yamaha RD250F Restoration Part 4

This may as well be called Adrian's Blog now as we are on to part 4 of Adrian from our Oakmere store's�restoration of his pride and joy the Yamaha RD 250 F.

"It was now time for the wheels. An exact colour match on these was the most difficult part of this rebuild as the casting on these 1979 wheels wasn't exactly smooth and time had taken it's toll on the colour. After extensive research, I managed to find what I considered to be an almost perfect match (and believe me the search was extensive). The painstaking task of flatting back and getting rid of over thirty years of grime and alloy corrosion began. This was worth every hour spent on it though, as the finished result, in my opinion, looked great."

"I could not wait for the paint to dry quick enough to fit the new rear sprockets and refurbish the discs. Then the wheels could go back on".

"The brake calipers, if you remember, were seized solid. A little bit of heat and some hydraulics were used to pop the pistons out so that the calipers could be cleaned, flatted off and repainted. The pistons themselves, by some kind of miracle, just needed polishing. The next day after the calipers had been painted I could reassemble the calipers and fit them back to the bike. I chose to use braided brake hoses instead of the standard rubber ones because I think they look better and hopefully will give improved stopping power as this bike is going to need it!"

"I was going to have to use a different front brake master cylinder as I had gone for lower drag bars, instead of the standard height. This meant the standard master cylinder would have fouled the clocks so a newly sourced, front exiting, master cylinder was found and fitted and these assembled a treat. I went for lower drag bars as I feel they look better on this style of bike. However, every single standard part I replaced with an aftermarket part I have kept, so if someone ever wants to put this bike back to original they can. It won't, however, be me."

"So we've now got the fully refurbished engine in the fully refurbished and painted frame, swing arm, forks, wheels, discs, handlebars, brakes all back on and looking sweet. Time for the electrics. The one thing I hate about electrics is that whenever I strip them down I never take a note of where each wire goes. (My advice to you if you're refurbishing a bike: take a note!) I fitted the wiring harness back in and spent the next half an hour scratching my head as to why it didn't work. This carries on for another few hours whilst I start plugging wires together hoping things start to work. Eventually they do! As you can see from the picture this was no small task."

Until next time!

Alex