Aprilia RS250 MK1 Restoration

Dale

Coast to Coast
Hey there.

My younger brother Adam has wanted an RS250 for a *long* time now. On the last weekend of November last year we went to look at an RS250 that was for sale. On arrival, we were greeted by a pretty tatty looking bike, but it was a rare MK1. The guy didn't know that it was a MK1, so never told us, and we hadn't seen pictures of it.
I took it for a ride - everything was passable - and the barrels had recently be renikasiled with new rings.

We came home with it, and my brother was excited like a kid on Christmas Eve. He went riding it all over the neighborhood, and asked if he could keep the bike at my place. He lives in an apartment. I was happy to help - Ive got tons of space for bikes. Not much else, but I can make an exception for a bike any day. He was happy with the bike as is, but I just couldn't let a beauty like this not live up to its potential - so the next Monday when he was at work I sent him a pic of his bike stripped down. He said "Well I hope you can put it back together again!". I said it will be done by his birthday on the 30th of December. This became the premise for a four week full restoration. No brother of mine was going to ride a piece of crap like that.

So here it is complete. I made the deadline. It was a great feeling handing the bike over to him on his birthday.

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Here is a brief overview of the restoration:

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This is the bike the day we got it. The photo makes it look a lot better than it actually was.

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All the bodywork had homemade (badly) inkjet printouts cutout and stuck under clearcoat as example...

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The first purchase - Bridgestone Rubber

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Exhausts had more repairs than original metal!

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We found a guy who was selling off some spares and got decent Arrow pipes for a MK2. Did a bit of grinding and filing, and modified the brackets to fit the MK1 - then sandblasted and powdercoated. Also new head gaskets, springs, stainless bolts etc... My brother cleaned up the Cans beautifully.

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This .....

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Became this:

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Parts like this:

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Got treated to satin black powdercoating

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Our other brother Greg fixed and polished up the rearsets

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The wheels were oxidised and blemished - was going to powdercoat them but the bearings and seals were still perfect, so we tried polishing them up instead, and it worked very well ...

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My brother degreased, cleaned and polished the engine casings and frame.

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Every last component was thoroughly cleaned and all plastics soaked in silicone for more than a week...

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Gaskets were made:

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Every bolt was replaced with stainless cap screws

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Forks rebuilt

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I made up vector artwork and had vinyl decals made up:

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And a bunch of other stuff was replaced, fixed, fitted etc...

And then came final assembly.

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It was a lot of work in the time frame, but very rewarding to see an old beat up bike transformed back into what it should be!

Dale
 
That turned out beautiful. Looks like a blast of a little bike!!
 
Very nice man ! That bike was my dream bike for years as a teen ! Looks like it set you back a fair bit ?
 
Thanks guys. Its a seriously quick two stroke machine. The powerband kicks in at 8000, and its at 13000 in a blink.
 
WOW!!!!!
An outstanding resto of an outstanding machine!
I am definitely going to work a banana swingarm into one of my builds.
Kudos to you, amigos.
Pat Cowan,
Vintage Motorcycle Fiberglass
 
Thanks for all the kind words guys! It was a joy to work on this bike for sure.
 
Thanks guys.

Question: Ive just completed another 250 two stroke racer, its kinda half restoration and half special - do you think its a good idea posting the build here, or do you think its just too irrelevant... this really is a cafe site, and variants like bobbers and fighters - and the restoration section is more just that - restoration.... maybe in the show and shine section? Thoughts?
 
Well, having roamed around there seems to be alot of 2-strokes floating about, why don't just throw it in the Specials section?

Gotta compliment your restoration too, it didn't looks half as bad as some Aprilias out there, but now it just looks better than new. :)
 
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