My XS250 to Cafe Racer - Restoring my first bike

[RusselZiskey]

People might wonder why anyone would want to spend the time, effort and (lets face it) money required to restore a bike that was underpowered and sometimes unattractive as a 1980 Yamaha XS250 Special. In my case it's not because of a long search to find the ideal project, it's not because it was ever the best bike around. It is simply because it was the first bike I ever owned. It was the bike that I bought before I had a license, rode illegally for a while and finally used to get my license. It was responsible for that first feeling of freedom you can get when you leave the confines of a car that surround you with glass and steel and feel the wind as you move. So, for those sentimental reasons, and a feeling of owing it a debt after neglecting it for so many years, I chose to restore it.

Like so many other projects, it will start fairly standard as it needs to pass inspection to be registered. Once that is done some time in the future, it will be transformed to the cafe racer that it could be. Having said that, there's no reason not to do a few upgrades along the way.

I have read many of the member's project forums here and can't promise to update them as well or as regularly as others. It's likely it will be not much more than photos of progress. Having started it in May 2011 there is a bit to show now, but it is a slow going hobby that I get to work on occasionally. I keep getting interrupted by having to go to work...

Also, I am no mechanic. I'm actually a professional nerd, so you will likely notice the standard of my work won't be quite as high as other projects here. But I do enjoy it...

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[RusselZiskey]

"In the beginning" .... or "after years of neglect"
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[RusselZiskey]

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Slightly more than neglect, what you see is the result of parts scavenging to repair my second motorbike purchase, which was in better condition at the time. Over time, that second bike would need as much work as the first, but choosing which one to restore was easy. Only one of them was my first bike...

[RusselZiskey]

This is my second bike, a 1978 XS250. This is where many of the parts missing from my first XS ended up.
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[RusselZiskey]

Starting the restoration.

It has made things slightly easier that the bike to be restored had already been cannibalised for parts. It wasn't much more than a frame already, so stripping it down did not take long.

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I thought I'd get away with leaving the steering head intact, so next was to remove the original paint. Paint stripper was a good place to start.

1st application:

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2nd Application:

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[RusselZiskey]

I wasn't very happy with the result, so I opted to have it sandblasted and primed.

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I read a bit about spraypainting online, so I knew I would need a method of hanging the frame to paint it what would give me access to all angles. This is what I came up with, made from a bicycle hanger pulley system and a bolt to pivot on.

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[RusselZiskey]

I couldn't just spray at the frame and let the overspray go everywhere, so I rigged up 2 curtain tracks at a right angle and hung 2 cheap tarps. A bit of left over pool fencing completed the spray 'booth', for the fiddlier parts.

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Here's the painted frame, back on the other star of this blog - the orange and black trolley.

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I was actually quite happy with the result, being my first attempt at spraypainting from a gun.

[RusselZiskey]

One of the most important tools I've used has turned out to be the polisher. It's a bench grinder with polishing wheels (with stripping/polishing compounds), clamped to my bench. 1 wheel for stripping, the other for polishing. The rags all around are to catch some of the mess made during polishing.

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Some early polishing results:

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Before: xsblack-1207.jpg After: xsblack-1213.jpg

[RusselZiskey]

The fork tubes were beyond repair, the rust was way too deep. The best I could do was a used set from ebay. I was surprised when they arrived with the whole triple tree. I started to polish the forks, thinking it would look great to have them all shiny. I wasn't happy with the result i was getting so I painted them.

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[RusselZiskey]

Bikes can be quite dirty to work on. Grease and oil everywhere. Wouldn't it be great if there was a machine that could do all the cleaning for you? Well, I thought I'd have a go at exactly that. I had a 'spare' dishwasher from a place I used to work. All it needed to get it working was a slight modification to the door catch. I rigged up some hoses, a tap, inline filter (for the big bits) and a water container as a recovery tank as I didn't wan't to be wasting degreaser.

Well, the mechanical parts worked brilliantly. It took in the degreaser/water mix from the tank, heated it, washed the parts in it and pumped it back out to the tank. It was good to see just how efficient dishwashers are, it didn't take much water at a time.

What didn't work well was the degreaser. It foamed up and made the dishwasher leak. I need to find some non-flammable (I still want to use the heater element) non-foaming degreaser. If anyone knows of any please let me know!

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[RusselZiskey]

More photos...I have a lot of work ahead of me...

Reclaiming the engine from the other (2nd) frame.

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[Chaos-incarnate]

Try adding a bit of vinegar. You know those carpet cleaners you can hire, and you buy the bottles of cleaner and defoamer? You can use about a quarter of a cup of vinegar in place of the defoamer. Might work for you too.

[RusselZiskey]

Starting to look at the engine...

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[RusselZiskey]

Might be worth a try. I did have some old, leftover carpet cleaning defoamer. I threw in about a cup of that. I think it helped, but still lots of foam.

[RusselZiskey]

Over the Xmas / new year break I started to feel like I should have something to show for all the months of work, so I decided to start a bit of assembly, as I wait for engine parts. The wheels alone represent days of work, polishing, wire brushing, painting. I was very happy with the result as I've always like these wheels. I know cafe purists go for spoked wheels but that's just not in the budget. In fact, this whole resto has been low cost from the beginning. Instead of buying new I have opted to restore original parts as much as possible. No new nuts and bolts so far, but every one that goes back on is polished to better than new shine.

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[RusselZiskey]

I also wanted to get the back wheel on, to make it start to look more like a bike, so I had to start on the brakes. I had already bought the rear pads online, so it was time to fix the rear calliper. To get the piston out I had to rig up a master cylinder on my bench, on a temporary setup of handlebars in the vice. I connected the brake hosing, filled the resevoir with fluid and loosened the bleeder on the calliper so i could operate it by hand. The piston felt seized to start with, so I pushed it back in with the piston tool I've only ever used on my cars before and worked it out with the fluid pressure from the m/c and in with the tool a few times to free it up. Pumping the brake handle gradually pushed out the piston so it could all be cleaned. Having spent a while getting this to work, my Dad suggested I should have just use the air compressor to push it out. Would have resulted in a lot less brake fluid everywhere!

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[RusselZiskey]

A few in progress shots of the reap calliper. I couldn't find any masking tape, so electrical tape masked off the bore for painting.

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[RusselZiskey]

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[RusselZiskey]

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And that's where it's at now. This week I will finish the front callipers, just waiting for the right pads to arrive. When I finally find some piston rings (anyone know where to find them?) I can start on the engine.

Does anyone recognise the other XS250 in the background? A new friend for mine, and a future project...

[HotelBushranger]

I spy an old friend Good luck with the build mate, nice to see another 250 getting some love!