1980 Yamaha SR250 Build

[andrew]

Amazing work. Do you have any more pics of the finished bike?

[SteveG001]

Next on the list was getting the Tank and mudguards painted. The tank was a bit crappy with a few dents, scratches and general rust. The mudguards were pitted and the chrome beyond saving. Both mudguards were rubbed down to remove the old chrome, the front guard was also cut down to get the look I wanted. The tank was rubbed down to bare metal, filled and rubbed smooth.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/110920127351024x768.jpg

The next bit took about a week. The tank and guards had four coats of grey primer applied (rattle can from Halfords). They were rubbed perfectly smooth between each coat to remove any orange peel. Next was four coats of the orange top coat (rattle can again) and rubbed smooth between each coat. You end up with them looking dull orange form the wet and dry, but this disappears when the lacquer is applied. I stuck the stripes on and applied two coats of lacquer. The mudguards looked almost perfect with no orange peel, but unfortunately the tank had to have petrol resistant lacquer and this did orange peel a bit. I had to wait about two weeks before I could remove the orange peel on the tank with rubbing compound.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/050920126841024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/120920127361024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/060920127011024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/170920127511024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/170920127501024x768.jpg

I was lucky enough to be able to find new tank badges and a new stainless petrol cap:

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/28092012778.jpg
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[SteveG001]

Andrew, no more pics at the moment, I'll try and get a few in the next couple of days - if the bloody sun comes back out to play.
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

From a boring bastard point of view, what kind of performance are you getting out of the bike? MPG/tank range?
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[andrew]

After seeing the end result it makes me want to buy one and do the same.

Honestly mate, a lot of the stuff you see people do on here is a bit meh but you've ended up with a bloody cool looking bike there mate.

Where did you get the seat from out of interest?

Andrew

[SteveG001]

Hi, Shaggy, I haven't had chance to measure the fuel usage yet but the book says 70mpg with a range of about 170mile. It may be a little better than that now due to the amount of weight I took off the bike, but not much more. Top book speed is 89mph, but I've only taken her to 80 so far. She sits at 70mph to work on the motorway nicely.
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[SteveG001]

Cheers Andrew, the seat is from ebay (Thailand) and was made for a Yamaha SR500, but with a bit of adjustment to the mounts I got it to fit.
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[P.]

I keep coming back to this thread... I really like that bike.

If you don't mind, any idea of the total cost?

[andrew]

[SteveG001]

Andrew, Paddy, The bike cost £425 to buy from Autotrader. I was lucky to get one so cheap as the price of second hand bikes seems to be going up (old ones anyway). There are still a few cheap ones out there but it's a matter of keeping an eye out. As for the cost of the build, it was not cheap, I would say about £2000, but I spared no expense doing it as it was a bike I wanted to keep, and I wanted it to be as perfect as possible. I doubt the bike is worth what I've put into it, but I wasn't building it for a profit, just the pleasure of owning a bike I'd had in my mind for a long while. It could be done cheaper, but anything that could not be restored to perfect condition was replaced with new parts. I replaced all the lights, all the cables, all the wires, the seat, the exhaust, the shocks, the spokes and tyres, the nuts and bolts, seals and gaskets, bearings and bushes, levers and springs, the clocks, the grips, well the list is pretty endless...
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[SteveG001]

Next I started with the clocks, lights and bar switches. The original clocks were beyond saving, I don't think the last owner just dropped the bike, it looks like they rolled it. The tops of the clocks were scratched and dented - how? Anyway, new smaller clocks with built in LED idiot lights were installed. This looks much neater, the old ones were big and ugly.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/DSCF09981024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/010920126491024x768.jpg

I installed a new headlight as the old one has a scratched and dented bucket and the chrome ring was rusty and dented. The new light looks like the old one but is quite a bit lighter, probably thanks to newer materials.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/010920126601024x768.jpg

The old indicators were big nasty plastic things that had seen better days, in fact the back left had what looked like an orange quality street wrapper taped on to replace a missing lens. I managed to find some smaller chromed bullet shaped lights that I felt matched the period of the bike. The picture below also shows the new horn, it's bigger than the old one and a bit noisier.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/DSCF10051024x768.jpg

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/220920127601024x768-3.jpg

The bar switches were just generally tired looking and unreadable. I painted the bottoms gloss black and polished the uppers. I found some new switch decals on ebay, and they were looking much better.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/070920127131024x768.jpg
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[P.]

Mate, I wish I gave as many shits as you, all my bikes bar my TL are tatty. This just keeps getting better...

[SteveG001]

Cheers Paddy, I've got to pop out just now, but I'll try to upload more of the build later.
____________________
Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[Radis]

That is an amazingly good build you have done there! Looks lovely - well done!

[SteveG001]

Cheers Radis
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[andrew]

I like those clocks.

We need more pics of this bike, think i might use the money from selling my trackbike to buy an sr, would make a quality summer cruise.

[SteveG001]

Thanks Andrew, the clocks are also backlit and glow blue in the dark. Next I stripped down the brake and clutch levers. The lever posts were wire brushed, primed and sprayed gloss black, the levers were replaced with new ones and I installed new stainless bolts and chrome cable adjusters.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/080920127151024x768.jpg

I also got hold of a more suitable set of bar grips:

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/DSCF13081024x768.jpg

The seat needed a bit of adjustment to the brackets to get it to fit. I also dropped the front tank mounts a little to get a flatter look through the tank and seat.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/131020128021024x768.jpg

I found a guy in the States that sold Yamaha stencils, you just stick it on and apply several thin coats of white spray paint and then peel off. You can see the stencil on the pic below along with a new Lucas copy rear light (to replace the massive old plastic one) and a cheesy new number plate. The Mexico bit is about the bike being styled after the old ford escort Mexico paint scheme. I've since replaced the faded plastic screws holding the number plate on with new ones.

https://i623.photobucket.com/albums/tt313/SteveGreen123/251020129221024x768.jpg
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[RhynoCZ]

Great project you've got there.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[SteveG001]

Thanks RhynoCZ, I'll try to add more later.
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[qarka]

This is really nice mate, cracking job. Much better looking than my tatty SR500...
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Previous - Sinnis Apache - Honda Bros 400 - Yamaha SR500 - Honda Transalp - Kawasaki ZX-7R - Honda CB-1 - Honda 929 Fireblade - Honda NTV650 [b]Current[\b] Honda CB500

[SteveG001]

Hi qarka, cheers mate. The SR500 is a great bike and very hard to get hold of, I'd like to rebuild one someday, but my next bike build will be (hopefully) a 1970's Honda CL360.
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Build it, ride it, clean it, oil it, lock it, maintain it, love it. Have it.

[mol_74]

That really is a smart looking machine, Fair play!

[chriswoerdy]

i have been looking for fuel tank for a year can anyone help???????????????????????????????????????????email chriswoerdy1@gmail.com