November 2006

The November 2006 Bike of the Month belongs to Paul Pearmain who lives in Pattaya, Thailand.

Many of you probably know Paul from TYGA PERFORMANCE. He started up the company several years ago after relocating from the UK to Thailand where you can ride bikes pretty much all year long.

This particular NSR started off as a standard R type MC21 model and was imported from Japan where it had been raced for a few seasons. The bike was in rough shape and Matt and Paul at Tyga decided they wanted to spruce the bike up with some of their parts from Tyga. The bike was originally redone with their new (at that time) GP250 kit and custom painted in the Daijiro Kato AXO colors where it was used as a showcase for TYGA parts and also ridden on occasion around the streets of Pattaya.

Over the years some parts were upgraded on the bike. The front suspension was rebuilt by Matt Patterson who is the other half of Tyga Performance. Matt rebuild and also revalved the forks to handle the local roads in Thailand while still providing a firm and sporty ride for Paul. The rear shock was replaced with a fully adjustable shock from a SE model and was rebuilt as well. The engine is pretty much all stock except for the usual TYGA bolt on goodies but the standard R model "wet" clutch was replaced with a dry clutch for that classic sound that always gets people attention and comments like "something wrong with your engine?"

The next obvious upgrade was the all new bodywork. Its the latest NSR bodywork from TYGA and is known as the RSW kit. Paul is a big fan of Michael Doohan and one of his favorite color schemes is the classic Rothmans Honda racing colors. Paul decided to go with those colors but using his latest RSW bodywork for a futuristic looking GP500 theme bike. The RSW upper and lower fairing were fit along with a TYGA screen and a matching RSW front fender. The seat is a stock MC28 seat that was plastic welded together for a seamless finish. The tank is also from a MC28 and fits the late model seat much better than the MC21 seat. Finally the bike was custom painted in the beautiful Honda Rothmans racing colors and a bunch of custom made sponsor decals applied too.

This NSR was built up for road use so the bike had to be reliable, easy to ride and of course fun. The engine was kept stock but has been upgraded with the TYGA power up kit that consists of the wire splice mod, the TYGA GP style stainless exhaust system with carbon kevlar silencers, TYGA carbon reeds, TYGA modified airbox lid and some minor rejetting for an honest 62 Horsepower and a trouble free engine that will provide many miles of fun.

The brakes are kept stock on the bike as the NSR brakes really do work very well. The calipers were rebuilt, lines bled and new pads installed. Other nice touches are the TYGA billet rear sets which look great and give a much sportier riding position than the stock ones. The rear fender is a also a Tyga piece and finished in a cool carbon fiber look.

So there you have it, a modern looking NSR with a retro finish paint job for one very cool bike. Paul regularly rides the bike around town and can even carry a passenger if needed. This bike will stay like this for a while but you can probably count on Paul to again change the bike once more in a couple of years.

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 !!