March 2003

The March 2003 Bike of the Month belongs to Mr. Yamashita of Japan. His bike is a beautifully restored and custom painted 1988 MC18 NSR250R.

Many people have e-mailed me over the last couple of years about why there are never any early model NSR 250's featured as the Bike of the Month. They are great bikes, but due to there older age many have broken down, rotted away, were destroyed or heavily damaged in races or just simply victims of poor maintenance. Hence the lack of early model NSR models until now...

Mr. Yamashita had previously owned a TZR250 until that bike was wrecked in an accident. A couple of days later, by luck his friend sold him this NSR for a great price of only 450 US dollars. However, the bike was awful looking and the engine did not run, plus lots of work was necessary. Click here to see a picture of it when Mr. Yamashita brought the NSR home on the first day.

First step was to get the engine running. The carbs were pulled apart and given a thorough cleaning and rebuilt. Still the NSR would not start and much work was still needed. There was no key, no kick starter and all kinds of electrical problems. After many hours of hard work, the NSR finally started but was running rough and backfiring.

The engine was pulled apart and rebuilt, a new flywheel replaced the rusted flywheel, new battery and the PGM unit was swapped for another unit in better shape. After that, the NSR was running like a charm, but it still looked bad.

With the NSR running perfect, it was now time to fix some other major problems. The front forks were in terrible shape and were pulled apart, cleaned up, rebuilt with new seals and oil. The bent handle bars were replaced with after market clip ons. The old, damaged mismatched wheels were replaced with the correct wheels and freshly painted. New clutch lever, speedo cable, sprocket and the rear brake were rebuilt. New brake pads all around were added. The bent rear sets were replaced with stock rearsets in much better condition. The stock pipes were retained and cleaned up, the end of the pipe's body was replaced with stainless for better looks, lighter silencers were rebuilt and added with custom stays plus many other little parts.

The final step was to get this beat up looking NSR to look as nice as it was running. A used seat, lower cowl, front fender and all new stay and brackets were replaced. The stock upper was repaired along with the gas tank and prepared for painting by the owner. One of the rear brake lights were removed and the remaining hole filled in for a different look.

Mr. Yamashita was a big fan of the "Lucky Strike" Colors and there are plenty of those bikes running around in Japan, so he decided on another color variant of the famous design in green (Menthol??) All work was performed by the owner himself and the paint looks absolutely great !!

Total cost of this project was less than 1,000 US Dollars which included all the parts and materials. The goal of this project was to restore this NSR while building a custom machine without breaking the wallet. I think he succeeded and did a great job. More of this bike and Mr. Yamashita's Website can be found here, FILLER KOHZY Another NSR saved !! More MC18 NSR's coming soon !!

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 !!