July 2003

The July 2003 Bike of the Month belongs to Dave Booth from the UK. He has built himself one of the most amazing NSR250's ever !! Super size click here (308K)

So the story goes like this...One of Dave's friends bought a tuned up RGV and Dave took it for a ride. He was instantly hooked on two strokes after that. Dave needed a small, fast and light two stroke replica like his friends bike and searched all over.

A few years ago, Dave remembered looking through an older issue of Fast Bikes magazine and read a report about two stroke bikes, he really liked the "all new" MC28 credit card bike and wanted to have it. According to Dave, the MC28's (and other models) are extremely rare and hard to come by in the UK. One day after months of searching all over he was flipping through a local free ads paper, he checked out the used bikes section and was surprised to see a MC21 for sale there. He called up the owner and arranged a time to meet him and the bike. When he first saw the bike he knew he had to have it, but the bike had been stored outside for some time and was in need of some serious TLC.

Anyway, this MC21 was purchased for a nice price and made it's way home to the new owner. Dave began by completely pulling the bike apart and stripping it down. The frame, swingarm and Mag-Tek wheels were powder coated Satin black. Numerous parts were replaced and chrome plated.

As you can probably tell Dave is a big fan of Moto GP racing and Roby Rolfo. The colors of this bike were based on his machine. Dave decided to contact Tyga Performance for his needs and ordered a full Tyga GP250 body kit custom painted in his Fortuna colors, a few other custom decals were added later by Dave. This bike had to perform as well as it looked so it was fully derestricted with a HRC box and Tyga stainless race pipes with carbon kevlar silencers. The engine was freshened up a bit and the cases were blue printed, the pistons were balanced and lightened along with cleaner ports and refinished exhaust ports. A HRC cylinder kit was installed, carbon fiber reeds, HRC spacers and reed stuffers, rejetted carbs with the stock airbox, modified lid and Daytona Turbo filter make some serious power for this lightweight two stroke monster.

The inverted front forks are borrowed from a Kawasaki ZXR250RR Ninja and work very well. The stock MC21 stem was pressed into the Ninja triples for a clean look, the ignition switch was relocated to the helmet lock at the loss of the steering lock. Braking has been improved with a Discacciati radial pump master cylinder and custom reservoir, larger 296mm discs, MC28 calipers with custom brackets and HEL steel braided brake lines for true one finger braking.

A new Renthal gold chain and new sprockets were installed, Tyga rear carbon type hugger fender, Tyga rear sets with HRC rear reservoir, custom finished gauges that match the new racing colors, Bridgestone BT090 tires, Antlion billet clutch lever and various alloy or titanium bolts have been used extensively through out the restoration of this amazing NSR.

Dave is not finished with his bike, his winter project will see a fully tuned up and rebuilt front and rear suspension of this bike. Dave really wants to thank Matt and Paul at Tyga and Mark Turner at Track and Classics in Stockport for their help. Dave recently picked up another MC21 and has some cool plans for that NSR too. Talk about NSR addiction !!

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 !!