Despite the liberal sprinkling of stainless fasteners, many of Elsie's bolts were tightly seized into corroded steel or aluminium parts. I got away with snapping only one bolt, in the front forks. The problem would have been much worse if the original plated fasteners had been in place. The lesson here is to always oil or grease stainless bolts. The bolt itself might not be prone to corrosion, but the mating parts surely will be. Aluminium, particularly, relies on exposure to air to build up its protective oxide coating. It will corrode in damp nooks and crannies where air is excluded. The resulting corrosion products take up more room than the parent metal, jamming the fasteners.

Because the bike had no wheels or centre stand at this stage, dismantling was harder than necessary. Eventually, I turned the whole plot upside down, just like we used to do with bicycles. This afforded much better access to the grimy underside of the motor and the tightly tucked in exhausts.

The RD250 engine is rubber mounted. Apparently, early models used to fracture exhaust pipes due to excessive engine movement. A pair of tie rods were added under the engine to allow the motor to move laterally, while resisting longitudinal movement. Being one piece, the exhausts are only mounted at the barrel flange and on the cast alloy footrest hangers. The exhausts looked OK at first, but there is a lot of corrosion of the front pipes and the rear portion of each is dented and scuffed. I can't make up my mind what the finish should be on them. It may be possible to fix some of the dents and fill the scuff marks with braze. A decent second hand pair might be the answer as Yamaha's asking price is £350 + VAT, the pair.

This bike has had its fair share of wear and tear of footrests and foot controls. The pillion footrests look like they came off a Honda, so they will be replaced. Gearchange and brake pedals are in need of some attention and are some of the few chrome plated items on the bike. Depending upon the cost of new items these two will be straightened out and re-plated.

The pace of dismantling slowed to a crawl when I attempted to remove the cantilever-sprung swinging arm. The pivot pin carries a grease nipple at each end, but these had seen little use in Elsie's 14 year life. I would have fired up my big gas torch to loosen up the seized bolt, but the plastic rear mudguard is captive until the swinging arm or rear shock are removed. Both fasteners were endowed with the same reluctance to move.

Using my biggest hammer and a soft drift, the pivot bolt was persuaded slowly from the frame. The pivot pin and bolt were completely seized, causing the swinging arm to pivot on the bolt holes in the frame alone. The handling must have been a little iffy. Once out in the open the corroded rear shock bolt also came free. The large-diameter single shock absorber looked a little tired and was weeping slightly.

Both front fork tubes look reusable, at a pinch, but the chrome is pitting, so I shall probably get them hard chrome plated. The front brake, of course, is seized solid, but looks like it will respond to treatment. One of the calliper mounting bolts has lost its corners, so will require special attention with the gas torch and penetrating oil. The disk, itself, looks OK but is remarkably thin compared with my Honda and Guzzi experience. Five millimetres is the figure in the manual, so it looks OK. The forks carry the mountings for a second disk, as used on the 350LC, so it should be possible to make improvements if stopping is a problem.

The wheels are in remarkable condition, looking like they just need a good clean to bring back the factory-fresh look. A clean up, and a trip to the zinc platers should get the spindles sorted. According to my Haynes manual, I have a 350LC rear wheel, which has a better cush drive with a separately mounted sprocket carrier. The engine and frame numbers are right for a 250, so this must be a later addition.

Yamaha get full marks for their wiring loom. Every joint is made with a plastic multi-pin connector instead of those horrible separate bullet connectors. Apart from a little chafing and fraying, the loom looks good enough to reuse when it has had a good clean up. Some lengths will need re-taping.

So there I was, again, with a forlorn pile of rusty and/or greasy motorbike parts to clean and fettle into something rideable. The weather was damp and cold, but with wire brush, scrapers and liberal quantities of gunk, the remains were freed of their filthy coating. Afterwards, most of the dirt seemed to be on my jeans and jumper. Aren't washing machines wonderful?

Suppliers

Rafferty Newman
242, West St
Hampshire, PO16 0HD
Tel: Fareham (0329) 232424

Julian Soper Motorcycles
1335 London Road
Leigh-On-Sea
Essex,
SS9 2AB
Tel (01702) 715727
Fax (01702) 471360

Barrie Rodgers Motorcycles
163 London Road
Derby
Tel: (01332) 347977

Graham Curtis 20th February 2000