Hi all,

I'm looking for a few owners to talk to for a feature in Practical Sports Bikes magazine. I'd need to have a chat on the phone about the ins and outs of NSR ownership, hints and tips for restorers and that sort of thing. Oh and I'd need a high res photo of you and your NSR to go with your words of wisdom.

If anyone is up for helping, you can contact me through a pm on the forum, by email at gingersgaff@btinternet.com or on 07875 736021.

Many thanks for any help you can give.

All the best,

Gez Kane, Practical Sports Bikes

I put myself forward for this

Just wondering who else is getting involved?

Maybe we could arrange a complete model line up?
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Why do things simply when you can complicate them

As I recall we once had PB come to one of the Llandow meets to do an artical on NSR's and it didn't turn out very well.

I don't think myself or Andy have been involves as neither of us have stock bikes.
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If I have to take the carbs off once more...

Funny you should mention this Rob, I just got off the phone to Gez.

[soapbox]

Fingers crossed for a good article for once, eh?!

I've pretty much given up on bike mags. It doesn't matter what info I give them (and it's been a lot!), they still just seem to recycle the same old crap and misinformation that was circling 15 years ago when no-one outside of Japan knew any better!

Let's hope Practical Sports Bikes magazine restore our faith, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hell, we couldn't even get Performance Bikes to ride either mine or Steves F3 at Llandow. They wouldn't even ride mine down the road, let alone on the track!

No doubt scared of busting the RGV/RS myth they blindly still buy into for fear of realising just how wrong they have been about how good a 2-stroke road/track bike can be for all these years.

[/soapbox]
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Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

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Had a good chat with him about nsr's, mainly about pitfalls of ownership, ease of rebuilding/restoring, availability of spares and cost of spares etc.

If you read Practical Sportsbikes the feature he does is a double page spread called restoration revealed so he was more interested in that side of things rather than performance.

I have scanned a few issues so far and it seems a decent enough read.

Lets hope like Andy said the NSR gets the review it deserves, and for gods sake do NOT offer them a 28.
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Lemon owner and lover

finbar wrote: hints and tips for restorers

I'm trying to think of a polite way of saying sod off, buy an LC and leave the decent bikes to those who want to ride them while the (private at least) prices are still reasonable.
But I can't so I'll just say sod off, buy an LC and leave the decent bikes to those who want to ride them while the (private at least) prices are still slightly reasonable.

Hints and tips for buyers?
In every Ebay dealer advert you see subsitute the followng phrases;

"average condtion" - "built from a box of bits"
"very good condition" - "average condition"
"mint" - "still wet from the paint shop"
"very low mileage" - "requires a full rebuild"
"average mileage for year" - "we have no idea when the engine was last rebuilt"
"appreciating classic" - "you might as well set fire to a couple of grand as buy this bike to make money"
"just in from Japan" - "has been started once in 15 years"
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Restored LC's and RD's!

Remember that time in London Andy? **** me I almost died.
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If I have to take the carbs off once more...

paul g wrote:
If you read Practical Sportsbikes the feature he does is a double page spread called restoration revealed so he was more interested in that side of things rather than performance.

Understood, Paul, but any informed and well written article will be a first, whether it mentions performance or not.

Anyone with even the slightest hint of mechanical aptitude can see the engine design alone is technical simplicity at its finest, and aside from that niggly coolant union in front of the oil pump, the entire chassis is just superbly laid out. Add to that Honda's unbeatable build quality in the late 80's and 90's, if you want a modern classic we all know what the best range of models is. It's just a shame no-one in the media sees it, listens to it, and understand it.
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Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

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StephenRC45 wrote:
Restored LC's and RD's!

Remember that time in London Andy? **** me I almost died.

How that "fully restored" YPVS couldn't decide whether to rev it's bits off at the lights or just stall was a "classic"!

And then, having to flip the footpeg up so he could kick-start it again, only to have it fall down every time he put his foot on the starter... I thought I was going to have to break out the oxygen mask for you at one point!
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Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

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You should have been at the Blue Smoking Barrels dyno afternoon at Projex in Birmingham; a 12bhp RGV250 (no really, it made 12 horse, OK it's a Dynapro dyno and they read a little on the lowside but even so, he rode it there and rode it away!), a dozen Rd boys only one of whom was willing to put their bikes on the dyno and me.
One of the guys there said "mine doesn't run quite right, no idea why", so we said "put it on the dyno and lets see what the problem is" and got the reply "no, it might blow up"....well, that attitude will soon see it fixed eh?

I was initally concerned the amount of bikes there meant I wouldn't get a run, reality was I got a run, a jetting change, another run, a timing change, another run, another timing change and another run. And we still went home early.
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Andy wrote:

paul g wrote:
If you read Practical Sportsbikes the feature he does is a double page spread called restoration revealed so he was more interested in that side of things rather than performance.

Understood, Paul, but any informed and well written article will be a first, whether it mentions performance or not.

Anyone with even the slightest hint of mechanical aptitude can see the engine design alone is technical simplicity at its finest, and aside from that niggly coolant union in front of the oil pump, the entire chassis is just superbly laid out. Add to that Honda's unbeatable build quality in the late 80's and 90's, if you want a modern classic we all know what the best range of models is. It's just a shame no-one in the media sees it, listens to it, and understand it.

He was interested in any pit falls and problems with owning and running nsr's, which thanks to the reasons above are few and far between.

He did ask questions like "what problems do you find with them" Uhm none really, "what about the engines, any weak points" Uhm no, "any particular difficulties with restoring one", not really no. "Spares, they must be hard to find" No you just order them from a dealer.

Had to rack my brains to think of any problems at all really, stuff like exhaust bridge can crack if not warmed up correctly, pgm's can fry if you dont maintain the powervalves and that was about it. He did ask for any advice for buyers, suppose I should have said dont buy one from Fastline

He was a nice fella though and seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, which doesnt happen often

Hello,

As it seems most of you aren't familiar with Practical Sportsbikes and the type of feature we're doing, I thought I'd give you a bit of a steer on what it is we're doing.
We're not testing an NSR on this occasion - this feature is geared towards passing on vital ownership/restoration tips to current or potential NSR owners. As the content is entirely provided by yourselves, there shouldn't be any of the misinformation some of you seem to expect from magazines, based on previous experience. A fair view point - I've seen them under-researched by half-arsed writers, but Gez is one of the best writers we use - we trust him to get it right, and by speaking to owners, it should eliminate the chances of getting it wrong.

Just for your info, Editor Jim is a former MC18 owner, and in my family we currently have an MC21, and have had two MC18s in the past. Fair to say we're fans of them round here. If only I'd got one while they were still cheap(ish)!

Hopefully a few of you will pick the mag up and enjoy the feature. At some point we'll be testing an NSR - when the time comes, we may call on you to help us find the right bike for the test, so someone can write a decent road test on one for once

Chris Newbigging, Features Editor

Hello Chris,

Is "Jim" the same Jim that came to one of our Llandow track days a few years ago?

Irrespective of the performance aspect, it's encouraging to hear that you're actually listening to owners, and knowledgeable ones at that! Aside from a few pretty pictures, the last Performance Bikes "feature" was abysmal! Not only did they refuse to ride bikes offered to them, despite coming to our trackday, but they never used any of the (extensive) information I sent them either!

It will make a refreshing change for writers to listen to informed owners, whether it's regarding ownership and restoration, or performance capabilities at a later date.
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Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

Please keep all responses to Forum posts on the Forum so that others may benefit.

Please DO NOT PM me for technical advice. My time is precious, and you will probably receive a faster response on the Forum anyway.

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