October 2002

The October 2002 Bike of the Month belongs to Troy Sumitomo from Orange County, California.

Troy had previously owned a RVF400 and just loved the look of the Pro-Arm suspension. While checking out E-Bay a few years ago he found this beautiful 1996 NSR250R SE for sale. He decided he had to have it. The seller was in his area and he went down and inspected the NSR in person. The bike was immaculate and looked even better in person than the pictures.

After winning the auction he picked up the bike and rode it home that day. The paintwork is flawless and was painted just three months by a professional before purchasing the bike. Although the pictures do not show it well, the orange is a 3 stage candy, blue a 2 stage metallic, the red a 2 stage metallic, and the white is a white pearl. All decals are high quality vinyl clear coated and hand rubbed. Wheels are powder coated orange.

One of the obvious things you notice are these inverted forks. Troy had owned another NSR for a very short time with inverted forks ( he bought the NSR from Mike D`Agata former March 2002 Bike of the Month ) after quickly selling that bike he knew he had to have some kind of inverted set up on this NSR too.

A perfect set of forks from a GSX-R 1000 with 100 miles on them were purchased and custom made to fit. The 320mm floating discs are made by Brembo for the RC30 and bolt onto the stock NSR wheel. Calipers use stock CBR 929 Nissins with EBC pads and stainless lines for more than enough braking.  A front fender from a Ducati 998 was modified to fit along with custom decals and painted to match the Repsol paint job.

Troy was lucky enough to operate his own machine and prototype shop. This came in handy for the GSX-R 1000 fork conversion. GSX-R triples were heavily modified and the whole set up works rather well.  A Brembo master cylinder was also added for a increased stopping power.

The rear tail lights are very interesting and were also made by Troy himself. They were turned from a plastic billet and custom lit with HP ( Hewlett Packard ) Pihrana LED's. The turn signals are mounted in the middle for a super clean look.

The engine of this NSR is nearly all original. Jha 500V racing pipes with Carbon Kevlar silencers unleash the full power potential of this NSR. Carbs were set to match the pipes and provide the best performance.

Future plans are in the works for more engine work and to make this bike even faster. Now with the stiffer front suspension it was necessary to do something with the rear so a Ohlins rear shock was installed. Click here for even larger image (150K)

Troy has even more plans and parts waiting to be installed including custom fabricated rear sets which he is now in the process of designing and making, repainting the frame and components, and fabricating a few custom parts from carbon fiber.

Who knows what could happen next with this very trick and cool NSR. Troy has big plans for building his ultimate ride which he really loves riding when he can find the time. Be sure to say "Hello" if you spot this wild Repsol colored NSR in Orange County. Click here for even larger image (160K)

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 !!