Part One

Welcome to Project NSR Mini. The goal of this project is to rebuild this little mini bike that has been neglected severely. I was fortunate enough to pick this beat up old mini bike for an excellent price. I plan to transform it into a cool and custom mini with improved performance and looks. This bike will be built for the street with high performance in mind.

Part one shows you how bad Project NSR mini really is. This is the first picture after bringing Project NSR Mini home. It does not look too bad in the picture, but believe me, this bike was really beat up and in bad shape.

First step is to get this mini running again. Luckily for me my good friend Larry made it out to Japan again and helped big time getting this bike ready. This picture shows how dirty everything is after removing the old cracked bodywork.

Fortunately for me, the engine was in much better shape than I had originally thought. However the carburetor had flown south permanently and a replacement was swapped in from another NSR mini that was sitting on my balcony.......look closely and you can see the new Posh Big Reed Valve kit.

The replacement carb needed some minor cleaning and we installed a new Idle Jet and slightly larger Main jet too.

After cleaning up and rebuilding the carburetor it was time to fit a brand new K and N air filter. The previous owner had discarded the stock airbox so I thought this would be a simple solution.

New fuel lines and a fuel filter were added for safety and protection from tiny debris for longer engine life.

The old gas tank was rusted way beyond repair and was thrown away. A spare tank from another NSR 50 was borrowed and actually suits the 1992 black and red colors rather well.

The gear box oil was flushed and changed, a new Kitaco Heavy Duty Red clutch cable replaced the frayed and damaged old cable. Finally it was time to start up the little bike after filling up the tank and checking the oiling system. Great News !! It started right up on the first kick. We were both amazed. The bike smoked for a while then after a few minutes ran pretty well. The bike was finally running but not as well as we had hoped.

After some adjusting of the carburetor and some rejetting we had the bike running pretty good. We took the bike on a couple of super short test runs around the block and then it happened.....the bike suddenly would not rev past 4,000 RPM.

After a while the bike would rev freely to the 12,000 RPM redline, moments later it would not. Larry immediately suspected the CDI unit. This NSR was using an old Daytona CDI that was in rough looking shape.....could this be the cause of the trouble ? More on that later.

While we were taking the NSR mini on some short test rides around the block we noticed a lot of drag and friction from the rear. It was hard even pushing this little bike which normally is pretty easy to do. The rear caliper was completely seized up and needed to be rebuilt or replaced. Not to mention the chain was severely rusted.

Another major problem with this bike is the front forks. The inner tubes have quite a bit of rust of them. I will try to sand them down and clean them up a bit. But to be honest I think it will be necessary for a replacement set. Future plans will see a new custom upper triple, clip on handle bars and much more.

The gauges on the little NSR mini show 7,116 Kms. That is not too bad. I have purchased a new Kitaco speedometer and will be installing that in part two. The foam around the gauges is garbage and will be replaced soon.

The bodywork on this mini is toast !! The lowers were thrown away and were held on by coat hangers. The upper is cracked in two places, the screen is almost impossible to see through and needs to be replaced. Amazingly the rear seat is still useable but will probably be dumped in favor of a RS type seat.

The stock rear sets of the NSR are much better than most other mini bikes, but still leave a lot to be desired. I hope to replace these old damaged and withered rear sets with some cool modern trick ones soon. Other modifications coming soon will be a rear hugger fender and improved brakes too.

New tires are needed badly plus all kinds of small details. The bike is very dirty and will be cleaned up very soon. That is about it for Part One of Project NSR Mini. Stay tuned for Part Two as I get this little mini into semi respectable condition. To be continued...........

Part Two

Special thanks to Larry for all his help with this bike while on vacation in Japan. He helped me out big time and made me realize again how fun these little bikes really are. Part two coming soon !! Thanks Larry !!