January 2005

The January 2005 Bike of the Month belongs to Herdie Hernandez from Manila City in The Philippines.

Herdie was in the market for a small, rare grey market bike last summer and searched all over. After a month of searching he found this MC18 model for sale. He fell in love with the bike right away and knew this is the bike he wanted where he then bought it right on the spot.

The MC18 ran fine and did not really need any major work. It had some usual wear and tear and needed a bit of attention but was otherwise fine.

Herdie contacted his friends at Benito Sy Motor Shop in Manila to help him out with getting his new NSR into tip top shape. They pulled the entire bike apart and everything was all cleaned up. Many parts were sent out for chroming or polishing including the the swing arm, rear sets, levers, side stand, top triple clamp, clip ons and more.

Herdie was having some problems to find new and aftermarket parts for his MC18. After some time spent surfing the Internet he came across Tyga Performance who helped him out with a big order.

A new Tyga seat was fitted and custom painted to match the stock colors that Herdie loves so much. The rest of the bodywork was then also repainted so that all the paintwork was shiny and new. The stock colors were Kept and new stickers were ordered. A new screen and Tyga GP front fender really give the bike a nice fresh look.

Herdie decided to have the top end rebuilt for maximum power with his new Tyga race pipes. Performance was also enhanced with the Tyga airbox lid mod, Carbon fiber reeds, rebuilt carbs that were rejetted perfectly. Brakes were improved with HEL Stainless steel brake lines and EBC sintered pads. Other goodies include a heavy duty clutch cable, Daytona steering damper, DID gold chain and Metzeller tires.

Herdie is still not finished with the bike, he has a complete suspension on order from a SP model and will probably add Magtek wheels too. Herdie did a great job on his bike with the restoration, making some nice upgrades yet keeping the bike era correct to preserve the bikes character. Nice work!!

Every month I try to feature a different NSR in this section. Above you can check out the featured Bike of the Month and past Bikes of the Month. Do you think your NSR belongs here ? Then send a few pictures and some information and maybe we can feature it here. Mail me here. Cheers !!