If it has the fully adjustable front forks (blue anodised adjusters?), remote reservoir rear shock, magtek wheels and a dry clutch you're probably most of the way to an SP. External paint won't help too much as it may have been resprayed, however if you look under the seat you may be able to tell if the rear unit is from a Rothmans bike. It may also be possible to run the frame # through Honda to check. A picture is worth a thousand words, so if you post it up, it might help.
SP (blue topped) forks
remote res shock
dry clutch
white magtek wheels
SP (L marked) barrels and heads
all panels o.e. Rothmans Honda
Frame number MC28-1000001~1006013
NSR250R3R stickers on the rear subframe (paintcode id) and under the rear number plate.
If all that's true it is to all intents and purposes a Rothmans SP.
But supposedly the only way to really tell if your bike left Honda as a Rothmans SP is to ask Honda Japan. I don't know how or if you really can, but people have said you can find out from them. _________________ Please do not PM me technical questions, if you can't find it on the Forum start a thread
Yeah, I've heard that claimed twice now, but neither times has it been substantiated with a scan of a certificate, or even details of exactly where and who to talk to!
More than likely someone at a Honda dealership telling the enquirer what they wanted to hear! You're probably as much as an authority really Fontyyy!
Mine's a genuine MC21 Cup Noodle SP you know! _________________ Andy.
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And even if it did leave Honda as an SP the chance of a lot of it remaining as it left the factory are slim indeed. A glance on Yahoo Japan or a wander around Red Barron in Bangkok will show there are more bikes in pieces than put togeather, let alone still togeather as they left Honda.
What do you call "the bike"? How much can you change before it's another bike?
Both my NSRs have had their wheels, barrels (multiple times), bodywork and petrol tanks changed. One of them has had an entire motor and the forks swapped out as well.
That's just me, I'm one person without a garage and the 4th owner of my '28 in the UK, it was in Japan for 9 years before it even got here, is there anything left unchanged would probably be a better question than is it a genuine whatever it is.
And looking at Rich's problems with his almost certainly untouched, very low miles Rothmans 21sp (could be the tidiest and most expensive example in the UK of what should be the most sought after model) a genuine bike is the last thing you want if you want an NSR to ride.
You want one that's been used, unfortunately used means damaged, repaired, bits swapped, parts robbed and so on. _________________ Please do not PM me technical questions, if you can't find it on the Forum start a thread
Yep, the Rothmans MC21SP has been an expensive experience so far.
£5000 to buy & > £1500 in new crank / seals / barrels / pisons / rings / front + rear brake cylinder piston kits / speedo cable etc
Plus there are marks of it being on its side at some point in the past. _________________ Rich
MC21 Track Bike / RS250 NF5 'Spencer', NX5 'Cadalora' & NXA 'Aoyama' / RS500 / Two Brothers Racing RC30
where as my pentax was an unmolested and absolutly mint when i got it.3200 kms and first uk owner and only owner as i will never sell it.there were no hidden horrors with it,its had stuff replaced but thats through 0ver 10 years of me using it properly _________________ ive seen more tarts than mr kipling
My MC21SE was allegedly even lower mileage than that Si, zero UK owners, and only 2 years old when I bought it. Yet when it finally became time time rebuild it (crank seals were dead) it was immediately apparent to the guy who did my crank that it had already been rebuilt! The bodywork was custom painted at my request, but I now don't for a minute believe it was otherwise a mint 2 year old low mileage SE as sold.
There are no doubt some out there, but unless it was new, you cannot be entirely sure of anything. That's not to say there aren't good used bikes though, quite the contrary, as I think the majority of (later) NSR's will have been well looked after by their owners, and possibly even "restored" to a point. I also think that the vast majority of them will be sold in the genuine belief that they are good bases to work/play with, unlike a lot of the trash the Suzuki and Aprilia boys have to contend with. While being a rarer JDM bike can sometimes (used to) be a pain in the ass, it also has it's benefits that very few of them apart from the MC16's and some MC18's seem to have been in the hands of the spotty 17 year old butchers!
I think Rich's MC21 is an unusually extreme example, but most NSR's (like 3XV's and VJ23's) are always at least few hundred quid more expensive than a UK VJ21/VJ22/RS250, and that's good news for us regardless of whether you are selling, keeping, or even looking for an NSR, as the ham-fisted heathens will almost always buy the cheaper bike to f**k up yet more! _________________ Andy.
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Thank you all Very much for all the information. It appears it is a Real one! They are hard to find here in the US. But, before spending $7000. USD I want to make sure !
Thanks again to all of you!!
Indeed Andy, your crank is probably the biggest shocker of the lot and you'd have been perfectly justified in believing the claims of the importer.
But I do think Rich's bike stands a very good chance of being exactly what it claims to be and wheather it is or not the point still stands it's a very tidy Rothmans SP.
But it'd be very surprising if any 17 y/o bike had remained up on two wheels for it's entire life and anyone who's seen how they rack and stack the bikes in Japan either for export or just storage will not be surprised to see many don't make it here scratch free, even if thats how they leave their final owner in Japan.
After all every £4k+ "minter" you see in a dealer smells of paint!
The thing is, if today you go and buy what looks to be an early 90's NSR 250, freshly imported from Japan with something like 2000 miles on the clock there are several possibilities;
1; it's exactly what it looks to be and hasn't run for 10-15 years.
2; it's a tidy bike with a few '000 ks wound off the clock.
3; it's a box of bits.
or a combination of the above.
But there's one thing you can be sure it's not, it's not a 2000 mile old mint NSR that's been started up and run a good amount in recent months. _________________ Please do not PM me technical questions, if you can't find it on the Forum start a thread
christ andy i bet that was a shock and im hoping to have a full f3 rebuild on my engine at some point,when the job fronts better.and the diference between my 2 pentax was easily visible to see which one had the english owners and which one was just me owned.but saying that my se i was first english owner but the jap fellas had made a mess of the panels just ask dan,but the chassis,wheels etc were mint . _________________ ive seen more tarts than mr kipling
To be honest, although it was a surprise, I didn't really make much of it. I'd had the bike about 12 years already by then, and had good use out of it!
Had it let go within a year or a couple thousand miles though, I don't think I would've have been quite so dismissive of it! _________________ Andy.
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i imagine back to the importer and rammed up their ar*e and the reason i want mine fully rebuilt is it must be getting ready as shes 17 years old now _________________ ive seen more tarts than mr kipling
I've seen SP's both ways here in the States either molested to the bone or untouched, pristine examples. Not much in between. RDunkin if you need a bike looked at here on the west coast let me know.
Easy to tell how much of it's life was spent here as opposed to Japan. I love it when I look at one and the owner tells me it's been in the States since new and I see all kinds of oxidation on the frame and engine, which is a dead give away that it's been in Japan for years. Plus the Japanese love the bright color anodized pieces(you know the pink stuff that's supposed to be red, lol) so easy to tell if a bike has spent a lot of time in Japan.
Hey Fontyyy my bikes are geniune and pristine and I ride the hell out of them. No sense having a rare bike in my living room with just me appreciating it.
fontyyy wrote:But there's one thing you can be sure it's not, it's not a 2000 mile old mint NSR that's been started up and run a good amount in recent months.
I think that was exactly the problem I had Fontyyy, regarding the crank seal. Out of the shop, the bike started OK, same for the first several runs. Then it just became harder and harder to start. Guess the continued use just ragged the degraded seal more & more.
Having learnt the hard way, if I was buying another £5K to £6K so called
minter NSR from an importer, I'd insist on either the engine stripping first for inspection or a warranty to replace problem parts after I've stripped the engine.
The low mileage some of these bikes show when imported should not be trusted. _________________ Rich
MC21 Track Bike / RS250 NF5 'Spencer', NX5 'Cadalora' & NXA 'Aoyama' / RS500 / Two Brothers Racing RC30
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and only owner as i will never sell it.there were no hidden horrors with it,its had stuff replaced but thats through 0ver 10 years of me using it properly 
. 
No sense having a rare bike in my living room with just me appreciating it.