Getting it roadworthy

At the end of Y2K I left the UK to work abroad and I left the bike in the UK for three years until I returned.

I finally had time and money in 2004 to start work on the bike again.

I addressed some of the practicality issues;

• Fitted a more robust RGV250M steel subframe
• Converted a RGV250M fuel tank to use.
• Relocated the engine oil tank to the rear subframe for more oil capacity
• Fitted an alloy instrument and nose fairing holder onto the nose of the bike

As I had now lost touch with Chris Wain, this work was done by Paul Ridgard of  Derby Road and Race Ltd. I knew Paul well as he had previously done a lot of engineering work on my championship winning 1966 Suzuki T20, and his quality was always top notch.

Getting there

The photo was taken just as the bike had been MOT'ed for daytime use. You can see that the exhaust has been modified to take a Harris titanium exhaust to reduce noise (only a bit!!).
A Yamaha-Aprilia 'Yamarilia' seat unit has been fitted in place of the slabbier lighter TZ seat as it was cracking very badly with engine vibration. I mated this to the RGV250 fuel tank by fibreglassing and filling the front section.

I adapted an Aprilia Falco oil cooler to keep the engine temperature down a little. A RGV250 nose fairing was also adapted to fit. The photo's below show the bike in its unpainted form, with some initial outlined ideas for a nice paint job.

Interesting mix of colours!

No electric start fitted -It took a lot of pushing to get it running