Project XT250

Last updated: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:30:00 GMT

I passed up on a non-running early '80s Yamaha XT250 project bike just last year. The price a touch on the incredible, the seller... not so credible. This year, fortune smiled on me. I think.

I had enjoyed rebuilding the DR200, much more than I hated having to do it. The results were fairly pleasing, and the exercise positive on the whole. Shortly before the final assembly and run in, I'd stumbled across the excellent TT250 Project. I went so far as to contact the author via Kiwibiker and thank him, later asking him for some advice on a couple of potential bases for a resto of my own. Nothing came of those resto plans, though.

Fortune smiled in her funny way this year, when my good friend Martin mailed me to tell me that he'd had an entirely characteristic autistic moment and invited a third party along on our planned assault on the 2010 Capital Coast Adventure. Without consulting me, or checking how many motorcycles I might have to lend out.

Said third party had a restricted license, and no bike of his own. So, a 250cc or under trail bike, limited budget. Sounded familiar. I love it when a plan comes together.

Sadly, our CCA turned out to be doomed. A short, brutal ride, with a vaguely dissatistfying and premature end.

Yes. That's what she said.

But we had fun, and we had beers. And I'd probably do it again, and be entirely less grumpy about it all. And I now find myself the proud owner of a scruffy and broken '82 XT250, and NZ$1000 "resting"my bank account. What to do? Well, fairly obvious.

She came to me via TradeMe, the eBay of the south. As you might expect, the photo was more than flattering, but I've no complaints; the price close enough. Once purchased she came to me courtesy of Captain Transporter, in decent time, at a decent rate.

The bike arrived with slightly bent and misaligned bars, one rear-view mirror held in loosely with PTFE tape, rust, rattly plastics and, the only real worry, a binding throttle. That's pretty damned dangerous in the wrong hands. I have bone wounds to prove it. This last most likely due to both the tight throttle cable and the cracked throttle tube. Oh, the other thing it came with was a fresh warrant of fitness. Yeah, well, it exists and it wasn't on fire, so I guess that passes NZ's stringent fitness tests.

Post CCA 2010 (which we've since dubbed the Cirque du Fail) and you can see some arithmetic going on. Add new bars and risers, because you wouldn't believe how tall the guy riding it turned out to be. Add new grips, under which the cracked throttle tube is glued and taped. Subtract one indicator. Subtract the arse end of the front mudguard.

And finally a grab-bag of other shots, to complete the picture. A few dents and scrapes on the tank. Some rust here and there. The rider and passenger footpegs are bent on the right side, which not-so-coincidentally would match the damage to the bars and the throttle tube.

That's the state of play. She's languished at the back of the garage for the last three months, getting buried under the sawdust of my last project -- my son's cabin bed. That all but done, time to turn back to the ole XT.

The engine's sound, if a little leaky. A compression reading comfortably above 140psi (and breaking the gauge in the process -- sorry, John!) isn't to be sniffed at. Carburation's all to pot, so a rebuild there is in order. A few things to straighten, some plastics to repair, the rest is all spit, paint and polish.

The budget's capped at NZ$1000, because that's what was left in the pot after we "prepared" it for its last outing. Should be do-able, if I'm prepared to get my hands dirty and do the spitting, painting and polishing myself.