READER’S SPECIAL WITH BRIDGESTONE!
CMM racer David Trueman on how he stumbled across two beautiful Suzuki race-replicas and the issues he encountered.
Welcome back to our 2020 search for the best special/resto with Bridgestone tyres!
I’m a part-time farmer, well into my 50s and live in what we call ‘Near North’ Ontario, Canada, so that gives you an idea of the geography!
I've not been restoring bikes for that long (not yet 10 years), but before that I was restoring vintage snowmobiles, and now I have 10 classic bikes in the collection including a Honda NS400R, Yamaha RZ500R, a Suzuki RG250 and others. I'd say I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my cars, bikes, etc., (pretty much everything!)... I like my stuff to be pristine.
So, let’s talk about my bike. It’s a 1988 Suzuki RGV250 VJ21 Model ‘J’. The J-model bikes were Japanese Domestic Market only and are getting pretty rare, with parts hard to find. Pistons only come in the standard OEM size from Suzuki (no oversize available), and several parts to these J-bikes are unique, as I was to find out!
I bought the bike in the summer of 2016 from my good friend and fellow bike restorer John B. He’d bought it from the person who had imported it from Japan. John and I are six hours apart and meet up halfway when I buy his bikes (this is the fourth bike I've bought off him). He's got first dibs on buying them back if and when I sell. I think it is all part of his evil plan to have me restore his bikes! That said, John's a talented restoration perfectionist and has an incredible collection. The bike was complete, and from general appearances solid, running and hadn’t been obviously abused or wrecked, with 9800km on the odometer.
The idea was to do a leak-down test and compression test on the engine, clean up the bodywork, give it a good cleaning and I'd be done. However, I go into these things with my eyes wide open. I know how picky I am and I know there are always things that are uncovered once you start a project like this. Sure enough, the engine failed the leak-down test; I couldn't even build 1lb of pressure due to a flywheel side-crank seal leak, and the bodywork (while in good shape for an almost 30-year-old bike) had a some scratches, two small dings in the tank and a lower fairing repair (from the distant past), and a paint job that didn't sit well with me. Yes, my OCD won out and the decision was made to do a full restoration.
I take a lot of notes/pics during strip-down and prep all my own bodywork. I repaired the tank dents and did some plastic welding on a couple of panels, prepped all the surfaces and sent them off to my good buddy Al in the next town, who does wonderful paintwork. I’d gotten a paint match from a local auto-paint supplier using a colour optical scanner to get a ‘Panther Black’, which is a perfect match to the original. Decals came from Mark Olan at Cbdecals.com/rddecals.com (Mark had all the bodywork prior to my ownership and had created a perfect decal kit for it. I’ve worked with Mark for years on projects and his decal kits are top-notch, as is his service!)
Lower fork tubes and triple clamps had suffered badly from corrosion. I re-finished the fork lowers to
their original finish using Scotch-brite pads and WD-40. Once the desired finish was achieved I clear-coated them and the yokes. Wheels were stripped and repainted, as years of badly leaking fork seals and leaking brake calipers had damaged the paint. Wheels got new bearings and tyres, new fork seals, with new second-hand calipers from ebay front and back (lots of corrosion on the old ones). All the usual replaceable parts were sorted with OEM Suzuki items wherever possible (bar grips, levers, etc.). The exhaust pipes were treated to several coats of Tremclad high-heat paint, and while I have a nice set of OEM silencers for the bike (the originals had some scratches), I decided to try a set of Jim Lomas Stainless ones (from The Tuning Works). These JL silencers and the wheel rim stickers are the only non OEM parts, but I like the look of them so I’ll leave them for now. The swingarm was re-finished in a manner similar to the fork tubes and yokes, while the main frame of the bike was simply cleaned up.
The engine was a challenge. Once stripped, I decided to buy a rebuilt crankshaft and found one at The Tuning Works for a VJ21, and due to rarity decided it would be good to have. Sean at The Tuning Works also provided new Suzuki pistons, rings, gaskets, chain, sprockets and carb parts. Once the crank arrived, I elected to dry fit it. I seated it into the cases. It fitted perfectly until I tried the flywheel and it bottomed out on the cases. Sean paid for the return shipping on the crank and gave me a full refund in the belief that he'd accidentally shipped a VJ22 crank.
As we exchanged crank measurements and Sean did some more investigation, it turned out that Suzuki used more than one crank/crankcase combination in 1988 for the RGV250. So we both learned something. Sean was fantastic to deal with through all this and extremely helpful. In the end, I got a full crank re-build kit from Sean (bearings, rods, seals, etc.), and Roy Davies at Bracebridge Machine and Mechanical re-built the crank for me.
My challenges on the engine were not yet over. After re-building it and sealing it all up, I elected to do the leak-down test again. It failed! The side-crank PTO seal seemed to leak, so I was more than a little frustrated. I pulled it all apart, cleaned all the surfaces, got new gaskets and tried again, taking more care on how that PTO side-seal was seating. Second time was a charm and it all worked well.
As the bike went back together, it was all pretty straightforward. Leaking carb bowls were the only issue on the final readying for firing up the bike for the first time. I got a set from Sean at The Tuning Works and the process moved on. I took extra care to prime the oil pump, and used a syringe to feed the oil galleries (crank and cylinders) while the oil lines were getting primed during the initial running. So far, it’s just done a few short runs to heat cycle the engine so I could check for leaks and re-torque the bolts, etc. It will be going in for a Safety Certification soon (like an MOT), and I’ll look forward to giving it a good run. Big thanks to the following: Sean Hadley at The Tuning Works; Mark Olan at AFE Graphics (Cbdecals.com); Allan J for the paintwork; Roy Davies at Bracebridge Machine and Mechanical; and last but not least, my buddy John B at Cranky Bastard Cycles for his advice and encouragement – thank you my friend!