Project Aprilia RS250 Part 2 - Harada And Faster!

Last issue we got the rolling chassis and the engine fitted and plumbed up. Now it’s time to get the RS on the road…

- Jeff Ware

So now my RS was looking good and I felt great about the effort I was putting in to the project to make it up to my high standards mechanically.

It’s hard to fill you in on exactly how a restoration goes – as you know, it’d take every page of every issue to give a day-by-day, beer-by-beer, nut-and-bolt commentary but in short, with this bike, not a fastener went on that wasn’t cleaned and torqued to spec, lubed or Loctited where required, and nothing was rushed.

Every fastener was shagged and 90% were replaced with either OEM ones Iluckily had on hand, or good quality stainless or alloy ones.

It was during this final assembly that I wire-wheeled and then resprayed all black chassis parts, like the side stand and bracket, fairing brackets, reservoir brackets, pillion peg and exhaust hangers, basically everything black was re-painted. Painted silver parts were also resprayed and bare alloy was polished up, which was a slow and tedious process. I could not get all the corrosion marks off the frame as I did not want to cut through the clear coat on the frame rails.

Black plastic parts were cleaned up and treated with a rejuvenation gel, which was fantastic, and a new battery went in, along with a new air filter and fuel filter. The fuel tap was rebuilt and, as I was on a budget, I really skimped here and rattle can-sprayed the tank, then fitted some random Aprilia decals I had at hand. It looks okay to me and still a little ‘Tetsuya Harada’-esque!

The fuel cap was cleaned, stripped and resprayed and a new OEM chainguard was fitted along with chain and sprockets.