Project CB250RS Restoration/Rebuild

Fitting Eric’s Fuse Box

Eric’s fuse box arrived yesterday, so I decided to fit it this evening.



So, off with Eric’s bits again!



The socket on the right is the connector for the fuse box. On the left is where it slots in.



Hooked up and ready to bolt on.



Bolted down, so I double-checked the fuses inside. They look almost new!



Done for the evening, so all the bits go back on.



(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

He will be getting a battery fitted shortly (already bought), mostly waiting on lights now.

Not a bike to attempt a first start on at night before I get the other muffler, but might give it a go once I've got the ignition switch connected and I can find my earplugs!

 

Why a CB250RS? Here’s why…

When I was quite young, I rode pillion with my mother, both on a Honda CB125 and – you guessed it – a red CB250RS!

While Mum hasn’t been around for over 15 years, she was a keen photographer. Not only do I still have the memories, there are still a few photos around that she took on road trips up and down the East coast of Australia.

Here’s one she took at a stop along the Pacific Highway about 30 years ago – that’s me on the left!



As far as I can tell this is now part of the Old Pacific Highway – possibly in Raleigh, New South Wales.

You know that meme where adults stage photos to recreate their childhood pictures?
I’m totally gonna do that with this one and any other touring pics of me I can find when Eric’s finished!


(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Definitely planning on it for this one! Closest road sign I could find on Google Street View is about 7 km North on the new Pacific Highway.

 

Them’s The Brakes, Eric!

Eric’s front brake controls were looking a little unfinished, so I decided to order a spare master brake cylinder.



The spare arrived on Friday. Here’s what it looked like.



Thankfully it was relatively cheap, and I only needed the mounting bracket and bolts to put on the existing cylinder.



I figured I may as well fill it while I was at it, so out came the screws.



All look to be in good condition as far as the threads go!



I happened to have some DOT3 brake fluid left over from working on my car.



Checked the label on the back and sure enough, it meets J1703 standards as well!



Topped up but didn’t bleed the front brake – it was raining and I was cold!



One final shot from the riding position.



(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

What can I say? I like working on bikes!

 

Tensioning Eric’s Clutch

Inspired by replacing Jack’s clutch lever, I picked up a clutch tensioning screw for Eric while visiting the local bike wreckers today.



So of course, I had to fit it as soon as I got home.
Here’s the clutch lever as it looked when I started.



Under the cover, you can see there seems to be something missing.



Eased the clutch cable out.



Screwed the clutch cable tensioner in, being careful to line up the slots so the cable would go in easily.



Popped the cable back in easily enough.



I then backed off the inner screw and tightened the locknut. This took a bit of fiddling!



Finally, I popped the cover back on.



Now it’s a race to see what arrives first – Eric’s blue cousin that I bought this week, or the last of the parts I ordered from Japan. My money’s on the blue one!

More on that when one or the other arrives…

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Eric, A Parcel From Japan And Bruiser

I picked up my parcel of parts for Eric from Japan this morning before work.This evening near the end of my work day, I got a call from the transport company about the blue CB250 RS from Adelaide asking it could be delivered tonight. Of course I said yes, I’d be home tonight!

First up, the contents of the parcel, plus the battery I still haven’t installed!



So of course I had to install something from the box of parts before the other bike arrived. I decided to install the indicator relay.



The rubber loop on the right is where it should be. Plugged in the wires as they were nicely colour-coded on the relay.



I put it back in its place but forgot to get a photo of that, as I noticed the rear brake light switch wasn’t connected and decided to fix that.



Next I attached the fuel tank strap.



This one has a key that works!



Next up I started on replacing the steering lock, as this came as part of a matching set of locks with the tank strap and the helmet holder.



The face-plate had to come off to get to the screws for the lock.



I put it on the seat for safe-keeping and was just about to tackle the screws for the previous steering lock now that they were accessible.



The transport guy had arrived with the blue bike!


After thanking the driver before he left and giving the bike a once-over, I settled on the name Bruiser, as this bike is blue, black, brown and beaten-up-looking!

By this time it was fairly late in the evening, so it’s off to bed so I can get up early and go pick up a red one tomorrow morning…

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Fetching Scarlet, Relocating The Gazebo And Charging Bruiser’s Battery

After Bruiser arrived on Friday night, I got up early and drove 2 hours down the highway to a place called Yanderra to collect my latest acquisition – a red 1980 CB250RS. The weather was great on the way there, so I didn’t bother taking a tarp to cover it with. Halfway back it started raining and I returned to Canberra with a rather wet bike, who I decided on the way back shall be named Scarlet.



She seems to be missing a few parts but the seat is very good condition and she has the front half of both mufflers. She even turns over, although I haven’t tried to start her yet. Apparently the previous owner had her running a few years ago.

All the wind and rain here lately has meant the my temporary bike shelter in the form of a kit gazebo has been somewhat bent out of shape. Rather than taking pictures of a sad-looking gazebo, I decided to relocate it to a slightly less windy spot and build a floor. After crab-walking the gazebo sideways, much shovelling of dirt, shuffling of bikes, laying of pallets and parts of an old wardrobe, hammering of nails and re-shuffling bikes, I’m pretty pleased with the end result.



From the left, we have Bruiser, Eric, Scarlet and Nix.

Despite starting Nix to make her easier to move I couldn’t let the weekend go by without tinkering with at least one of the bikes, so I decided to top up Bruiser’s battery and see if it will charge.



My trickle charger showed the battery as already charged as soon as I turned it on – this is typical behaviour for this charger for a completely drained battery, however.



I put the bolts and caps from Bruiser’s battery in a plastic bag to stop them getting lost.



Looking at the battery box, it seems he’s had a somewhat hard life.



The side panel covering it hasn’t fared much better.



This crack may not look too bad from the outside but it appears that no expense was spared repairing it!



His seat and tank have definitely seen better days too!



Bruiser’s engine doesn’t turn over with the kick-starter, so he is primarily going to be a parts bike - he was bought from a scrap metal dealer so I wasn’t expecting to get him running.

On the plus side, all the specialised mounting bolts and nuts that were missing from Eric are there, he has fully intact instruments, all lights, both mufflers and a full set of matching locks, all of which work apart from the steering lock. More on that later.

As it was cold and wet, I packed up for the day. Hopefully the gazebo will remain upright and this week will have better weather!

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Swapping Bits Around And Basic Electrical Checks

Scarlet came with the correct ignition switch, although it appears to have a non-standard key.



The dash seems to be a speedo and tacho from a CB250N. I bolted it on loosely anyway just to test the connections – it might work well on Eric as part of a pub/cafe racer conversion!



After charging Bruiser’s battery for 24 hours, I popped it in Scarlet.



There was just enough charge to check the neutral light.



I’ll charge it for longer later or replace it with the fresh battery if necessary.

I decided to try the right panel I originally bought for Eric on Scarlet and it looked pretty good!





Next up I put Scarlet’s battery in Bruiser and connected the charger to test the lights.Once again, the charger said the battery was full when it clearly wasn’t. I may need a better charger!



I was able to confirm that the neutral light, head and tail lights all work. As the battery was too dead for a real test I didn’t get photos of the headlight and tail light in operation.





As installing the battery meant removing Bruiser’s seat, I made sure the bolts were safely packed away.



Next up I fitted the spare rear indicators to Eric’s side rails, hooked up the wiring and slipped the rubber cover back over the connectors.



The indicators could use a clean and polish but for now I’m going for completeness.



While the indicators came mounted on side rails they were pretty rusty. I figured it was quicker to swap them onto Eric’s rails than to try cleaning the spare rails.



After looking at the logistics of fitting a few more parts and thinking about what to do next, I packed up for the night and went in out of the cold.

(copied from my blog post of the same name)

 

Thanks for the tip Murdo! I'll give it a try when the time comes.

 

Looks good! I'll give it a go on my KLR650 first then, she could use a bit of a polish.