Project NSR

Everything looks better in Carbon fiber Well not exactly a correct statement as I have seen plenty of bikes ruined with carbon effect decals and the like but it is hard to deny that a good bit of carbon fiber here and there helps make things look pretty exotic. As it happens I decided to spank Jap4performance 's website before coming home so had lots of shiny carbon fiber bits to fit to my bike. Some of it is very complicated and well made by Tyga performance. Other bits are fairly straight forward but look substantially better than the original. There was only one panel I had to drill to get it to fit other than that they were all straight swaps. This one isn't too wordy as the pictures do the talking. The stock clutch cover is pretty cool as it is with it's Honda racing logo.  This will be staying in my kit box with the rest of the part removed. Clutch pressure plate looks like new after a quick clean. The Tyga cover looks great and w...

The NSR came to me dressed like it had hurriedly jumped into the first thing it could find on the factory floor. The bike was supposed to be a Red white blue but had the forward fairing from a blue white red bike, a fiberglass mudguard and what bodywork it had was tatty. The bike was in need of a respray which left me the tough choice of "which colour?". After much procrastinating  I chose to stick with the Blue white red. This would require the wheels to be powder coated white to match but as per the rest of the bike they were in need of something regardless. Fairings I had been offered a good price on a respray but it was on the condition the shop was quiet to do the work and this was very slow coming. In the mean time I managed to get a full fairing set from xx-moto for just £350 sprayed in the factory blue white red. This wasn't something they originally offered but on describing what I wanted they were very helpful, sending photographs as things were ...

A week off work gave me some time to get into a quick strip down inspection of the NSR to really get a good picture of what I have gotten myself into. But hang on, I have a [purple] smokin' hot 250cc 2T pocket rocket of joy. Lets fire this thing up!!! I put the ignition card in with a click that brought life to the LCD display of the PGM IV unit and simultaneously disengaged the steering lock: something that had stumped the importer initially with no battery connected and a bike that only wanted to be pushed in circles. I wheeled the bike out of the garage, tuned the fuel to reserve and put the choke on. With the ignition briefly off I gave the kick start a couple of slow pokes to prime things then clicking the card back in and gave her a sharp kick making her immediately rasp into life. The tick over rose then slumped into an uneasy stumble quickly, so I disengaged the choke and felt the bike settle down. Hovering my hand about the throttle the bike continued to burble a...

Where did all this come from anyway? Well that is a good question but for the time being at least you are going to be finding out where this project has already been as this blog is a little way behind so I will try not to spoil things. Lets start from the original plan. That being to buy a  2 stroke 250 sports bike to fill that gap that I missed out when I was starting out on bikes. The hope with this machine was to give me a fun bike that I could fettle and tweak whilst my trusty VFR800 RC46 remained my main work horse. It basically came down to a short list of the NSR250 MC18 (late model) and 21. There was also the wild card of a VJ22 RGV250. I have been a bit of a Honda rider of late and the Suzuki was the one that got away when I went GSXR400 instead but my riding history is for another day. This was not an exclusive list however. It was all a matter of what is available now? Many other bikes like the KR1S were getting rare so a bit steep and the the only TZR that really ...

On the 21st of June at 8pm I was stood, on hold to the bank whilst Cal frantically rewired his trailer in a farm courtyard. 2 hours drive from home I was facing the very real prospect of having to unload my as yet unpaid for bike and go home empty handed and defeated. The bike in question is the Honda NSR250 MC28 SE. I came across this bike a month earlier on eBay and had put a low bid in, you know, just in case. Unsurprisingly I was outbid and all was forgotten until a fortnight later when the seller emailed me with tails of wow from a line of crap ebayers and as a result was prepared to take the hit and sell it to me for this low bid. Well the chance to own the much talked about MC28 with its smart card and digital PGM4 ignition for the the price of an MC21 was not going to be missed!  I met my good friend and colleague Cal at work where he had kindly offered to help me, with the use of his trailer, to go pick up this new bike as I had no trailer of my own and the bike was u...