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1980 CB250RSA Hawaiian Blue Project.

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McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Nice bike Ash, at the Station  where I worked a young PW used to commute on her learner motor cycle.
She turned up after passing her test on this single cylinder Honda it was a 250 RS aside from splashing out on a new bike she would wax lyrical about how nippy & economical it was compared to my 750GS. It had a good turn of speed in traffic iirc methinks it had a disc brake being a strangely skinny bike for a 250 - multi valve possibly as well - it was a long time ago!

Just looked at your photo 4 valves in one cylinder. Have you taken a before photo or was it in too many parts?

AshimotoK0:
I met the guy I got the RS from in the pub Monday night and he gave me three bags of spare parts. Evidently, he had a donor bike at one time. Some useful stuff including three cylinder heads and cam covers, CDi etc etc. They don't look bad in terms of the camshaft bearing surfaces and the rockers look OK too but two heads have one valve seat insert removed. Not sure how you would obtain and replace a valve seat but my mate Graham Curtis is bound to know. I have NOS head and covers complete anyway and that's what I will be using along with the NOS barrel. There is also a spare cylinder barrel plus the one on the bike. Among the spares were a couple of the cam chain tensioner main assemblies (evidently rare unobtainium NOS) and one looks to be in great condition and I reckon I will be using it plus a few cam-chains, one of which I suspect may be unused but I need to investigate this further to be sure. Also a set of clocks, which are much better than the ones on the bike.

We unloaded the bike at my mate Rogers warehouse today, photo'd it along side it's temporary mate .... a Beezer C15 and then completely stripped it, apart from removing the swinging arm from the frame. Removal of the swinging arm  is going to cause me problems I suspect because I think the bushes are seized...certainly the long bolt won't turn, although I haven't  put too much welly on it yet, as I didn't have a full hex impact-gun type socket where I was working today. Surprisingly none of the fasteners both on the bike and already taken off by the P.O. were chewed up and should replate fine ....  It has the hex type screws instead of crosshead JIS screws an the case covers (as favoured by Oddjob on here).

There was no air filter fitted but Mickey and his mates had attempted to make one  ;D.

One surprise was the state of the fork stanchions.. a quick rub and they look pretty good .. I was budgeting for a rechrome but I don't think it will be needed now.

Overall, the frame looks fairly solid as the rear end was caked in grease as was the swinging arm ... I believe these can rot quite badly.
Not sure what happened to the headlamp unit ... it's probably still with the fairing in the pub blokes garage that I still need to pick up (has broken screen ... not sure what type of fairing it is ), I won't be refitting the fairing anyway or the engine protection bars. I did get the headlamp frame though, in the bags of spares and the indicators too.

One bit of damage is a crack in one of the front  alloy footrest hangers, so I need to find one or get it welded.

I got a super condition crankshaft assembly and gearbox etc from DK but they lost the gearbox and decided to refund me after 10 days. However, it was bought on my wife Cathy's eBay account and she pleaded with them for me and it mysteriously turned up the day after they were going to issue a refund.

I only found one camshaft in the spares ... One lobe has a pit and the the flanks look a bit worn but the journals look to be OK. Maybe a job for Newman cams or find a decent replacement. IMD sell a new one for just under £100, made in Japan but its for the XL250 and pretty sure that the profile will be wrong for the RS.

The bike didn't have any exhausts (he may find some once he searches harder but bound to be grotty I reckon so not too bothered if he finds or not ) but my new replacement silencers, which Brituro made me have arrived at work and look to be excellent quality and faithful repro's of the originals. I think I will get him to make me a set of downpipes, as they already make those as well.

I got a spare front wheel c/w disc  (and a front wheel from a BSA Bantam ? ) with the parts but the pair of wheels I got with the NOS cyl.head etc., as freebies, look really nice and the spokes will replate great I reckon so I will be using those. They have nice tyres too that look like they have never been used. I was about to cut them off and bin them both until I looked at the date codes, which are late 2019.


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McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
It will be interesting to see the project progress.👍👍👍

Laverda Dave:
I think the seat has been recovered at some point Ash as it should be quilted with a heat welded pattern but overall it sounds and looks like you have a really decent basis of a bike there especially with the spares you have gathered. The alloy wheel rims were known to rot from inside out so maybe worth taking the tires off to check the rim. I had stainless spokes fitted to my original rims after getting them vapour blasted and the hubs blasted and powder coated gloss black. I tried to rebuild the master cylinder but it never worked properly and it proved impossible to separate the white plastic reservoir from the base so I bought a reproduction reservoir without the white plastic part. Piki makes the vinyl insert for the cast footrest hangers.

AshimotoK0:
I stripped the master cyl last night Dave and managed to get the clear reservoir part separated and the bore on the alloy body doesn't look bad on it. It has  an O-ring that retains it and pretty tough to separate. I also got a spare pattern one without the clear plastic section in it, which looks fairly new apart from on the outside brake fluid has leaked and stripped some of the paint.
Yes the seat cover is not original. I have another seat with about half of the original cover fitted so i know what the cover should be like.
Thanks once more for all of your help. !980's bikes are new territory for me   :)

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