I'm steadily moving closer to what I think is the best part in any bikes life. Hearing it come to life the first time, whether it's a full resto or just a service after a winter lay up, feels like such a momentous occasion. In the scheme of things it isn't really a big deal and I should be looking forward to riding it more than I am to just kicking it over for the first time.

First job is to get it back on it's wheels so I can roll it out to give the engine a blast and degrease. The front tyre was the first job. A Pirelli City Demon, hardly very sticky but well up to the job. Nothing much more to say about it other than it's done. I will pull both wheels later to balance them. I blasted the brake back plate, cleaned and drained the front forks and re-installed the front wheel. The forks need new seals and dust caps but they will be fine for now. I've also cleaned and painted the top yoke, polished the bars and lubed all the cables.

The carbs were next on the list. They both got a blast with the soda gun and a liberal soak of carb cleaner just to get them apart. The right carb came apart easily but it was a fair bit grottier than the left. After a clean with a blast of air it went back together without any dramas. The left was a different story. After removing the main jet I had a struggle to get the emulsion tube out and as a result nearly stuffed the thread in it. A bit of careful working the jet in and out has sorted it but I'm not really happy with it. I think that I'll get a rebuild kit to put on the shelf for the next clean in case the thread strips. My tip for life with a two stroke - always plan for the next rebuild.

I'm waiting on a few parts to arrive from Yambits.co.uk before I can go much further. I've haven't used them before so I'll let you know how I go. I needed a new carb to airbox 'Y', oil tank filler tube, rear cush drive rubbers and fork dust seals. I also ordered a fuel tap kit, a fuel tank cap seal kit and front sprocket lock washers just to put on the shelf. As I said before, always planning for the inevitable.

I always have a bike on the go. Usually it's one of my kids, sometimes a hire bike for my business. Lately I've managed to get one of my own projects to the lift. My Yamaha RD250A probably hasn't run for ten years. It's sat lonely under an old bed spread, patiently waiting for me to rediscover it again. I call it, 'It' not 'She' or some other anthropomorphic ( had to look that one up) reference. That's not to say I don't have some weird overly sentimental attachment to it like you would with your dog. But they are all machines. Beautiful, elegant, exciting machines, but still machines.

I bought the RD for $500 from my cousins wife, after much pestering, about 25 years ago. After a bit of tuning (points, timing and carb clean), it started nearly first kick and did an indicate 90mph (remember this is from 1973) on my first ride. Fantastic. I rode it for the next few years fairly often, but as is often the case family becomes front and centre and riding bikes has to take a bit of a back seat and eventually it was parked up. But not forgotten. All these years I've pulled the cover off now and then, and blown the dust off, pumped up the tyres and moved it somewhere else because we need the shed for shearing sheep or something.

And that's how it came to be on the lift. We needed to store some furniture in the shed where it lived and I pulled off it's cover, blew the dust off, put air in the tyres and wheeled it to a new spot in another shed. This time it was parked amongst other bikes which had been accumulating due to a new business that I'm involved in (more on that another time). This meant that I saw it every day instead of once a year. Eventually I could stand it no more and I got my ass into gear to finish a customers bike on the lift ( not a bad thing, I'd had it for 6 months) and wheel the RD on.

And that's where it is now. These photos are from when it was first rolled into the daylight again and on the lift. I'll keep posting as it progresses which should be in time for the Australian Spring. I'll also start posting pics of my other bikes as well as those of friends, enemies and anything else that seems interesting. More later...

...Anticipation.

...been working on my RD