Project Aprilia RS250 Part 2 - Harada And Faster!
Classic Motorcycle Mechanics|September 2018

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
Project Aprilia RS250 Part 2 - Harada And Faster!

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.

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