A trip to the Wreckers with a quick stop by eBay.

Managed to get down to the wreckers yesterday hoping against hope that I would be able to pick up a replacement tank for Silver. As luck would have it they had one, relieved I thought I'd be cheeky and ask if they had an Integra rear seat fairing. So off he went out the back for 15 minutes and when he emerged. There it was. Impressed with the service I received I also purchased new clutch and brake levers and will be going back there when next I go out for parts.

Im actually really glad I managed to find a tank as their was no way Silver's original could be repaired and I wanted to keep Red with as many of its original parts as possible. It will need to be repainted but so does everything else. Once its been cleaned and lined on the inside with a silicone protectant she'll be right as rain, provided there are no nasty surprises when its stripped back in paint prep.

The rear seat fairing was pure luck and something I was hopeful I could get but wasn't counting on. Despite common sense though it Isn't going on Red instead it will be going on Silver in order to turn it into a single seater and give it more of a Cafe Racer feel. The beauty though is if I ever do want to put it on Red its just a matter of unscrewing three screws and taking it off.



The eBay account also got a bit of a workout, found some bar end mirrors which I decided to pick up. I have been told that they come with a variety of adaptors so hopefully they should go on with little difficulty. New hand grips were also purchased since the original ones where degraded and falling apart. Only got one of each since I'm only focusing on Silver at the moment. When work begins on Red, whenever that may be, the plan is to use stalk mirrors and some less flashy grips.



If you are in the Perth area and need parts I would recommend Two Wheel Wreckers. A guy called Luke was the one who served me and was nothing but helpful and at times patient as I tried to explain what the rear fairing l was looking for was. I'll provide a link to there website below and you can grab the contact details from there.

Two Wheel Wreckers

Shop Manual, Owners Manual and some interesting Concept Art

Success!

I have managed to find a digital version of the Owners Manual that would have come with the motorcycle when purchased as well as a copy of the Shop Manual. The shop manual cost $8.00 and the Owners Manual was free. Essential items I'm sure you would agree for working on anything mechanical.  So far they're very interesting reads and will help enormously when it comes to putting the bikes back together... as well as when they're being taken apart.



I also came across some concept work which immediately grabbed me as its something I occasionally get the chance to do myself in my particular field of work. I am really impressed by how simple the sketch is, yet so much emotion is put forth speed, edginess, urban life, etc. The quality Isn't brilliant but if anyone has some high res versions of the Concept Art please get in touch with me I would love to look at it in more detail.



"As a comparison, the final product from a similar angle"

There was also what i can only assume to be the front cover of a product pamphlet which is also striking. Red and Black is something of a signature that I've adopted over the years and here it is being used to excellent affect before I was even born

"I would love to know what this was used for originally"


The concept work and front cover where found on the Japanese Honda site in the "fact books" section. Regrettably I couldn't translate the page to read the context in which the pictures where shown. But Its possible I may figure out a way to do it in the near future. I have provided a link the VT250F "fact books" section in the side menu.

VT250F "Silver" part 01: Well now, what do we have here?

After playing with the bike a bit Dad and I managed to get the silver bike turning over, though to be completely honest it was mostly dad with the help of Start Ya Bastard. Anyway since "Silver" turns over thats the one that will get a majority of attention at this stage.

First things first I removed the hideous luggage rack... and then continued to remove the front cowl, seat, side covers, rear fairing and tank. The tank is completely rusted out so a new one will have to be sourced. The front cowl is damaged but from the looks of it can be saved, even though at a later date I plan to remove this completely and simply have a headlight and the gauges, I still need to get it on the road so repaired it shall be. Seat will need to be recovered but other then that everything looks like its in good condition.

With most of the bike stripped down it was then covered in a fair amount of degreaser and hosed down. Its still dirty from years of sitting in a shed but should polish up nice. In the future it will be stripped back to bare frame so parts can be powder coated and painted but before that happens I want to get it running for a little bit.

We then set about pulling the carburetor out, after a good 50 minutes of struggling and trying to work out how the bloody thing comes out, success! It looks salvageable the main problem is the side linkage (I have no idea what its called) keeps jamming in the open position and doesn't move freely. If that can be addressed there shouldn't be any issues. As a back up though "Red" has a perfectly good Carburetor which we can use.

"The hole where there was once a carburetor"

After that their wasn't a lot more that could be done so I set about removing the hand grips and mirrors since they were rotting anyway. The right mirror it seems had been cross threaded at some point so was simply snapped off. As I'm planning to replace the mirrors with bar end versions this didn't bother me too much. The levers also need to be completely replaced. It was at this point that I decided to sit down and make a list of parts to look out for as well as record the VIN, colour code, handle bare measurements, etc.

"The corroded levers, they look a lot worse up close and since they can be replaced cheaply thats what I'm going to do"

Not a bad start even though the hard stuff hasn't quite yet begun.

VT250F and VT250FII

Ok so I am going to start off by saying this "I am completely new to motorcycles and mechanics in every conceivable way". Good now that is out of the way we can begin this journey in blog form.

For the past month or so I have been saving and looking for a project bike to learn on and eventually modify into something a little more reflective of my personality. My ideal choice was a Honda CB250 which would make an excellent candidate to turn into a Cafe Racer. After missing out on a couple of opportunities I decided to expand my options as to what i would consider. Couple more weeks went by and still nothing came up within my price range.

Then it happened last week I came across an advert online for not one but two 250 cc bikes that would make a perfect project. After going around and having a look at them they were purchased. I am now the proud owner of a silver Honda VT250F and a red VT250FII.



This is the VT250F which for now at least I'm going to be referring to as Silver. According to the guy who sold them to me this one is in better condition then the other. As you can see the tank is rusted out and non salvageable apart form that mechanically everything is there and should turn over fairly easily.



This is the other bike I purchased the VT250FII which ill be calling Red. Really love the fairing on this version as well as the colour scheme with the decals. Ideally I want to restore this to stock condition as it came out of the factory, but we'll see how that turns out in the future. Im told that their is a seized piston but that hasn't been tested yet also its missing a few parts. The previous owner purchased this bike to fix up Silver apparently.

And thats the story so far as things are done ill post it here with pictures and hopefully before i know it I'll have a working motorcycle and be able to start learning how to ride.

Out of interest here is a link to the Wikepedia entry for the VT250F... At the time of writing there doesn't seem to be a lot of information, which is a shame.

VT250F Wikepeda article