pics of and info about my RS200

[PB1]

As mentioned on the thread in the new members section, just a few pictures of the new-to-me RS200. They make it look better than it actually is really, although the closeup of the exhaust and rear wheel shows what it's really like. Most of the chrome is slightly pitted but polishes up so it looks reasonable, but the real problems are very rusty exhausts and rusted wheel spokes, although the rims are not too bad. These are going to be be the most expensive items to correct and, with what I've already spent, almost makes the bike uneconomic to restore - I can't see it being worth more than £600 even in A1 condition.

However that's not the point; what I want out of this is have a smart looking and fun bike to ride, not a perfect show bike or an asset to make money on, so I think it will be a conservative rebuild keeping costs down where I can, and having some fun doing all the work myself as well.

The bike has only done 5,400 miles from new but has suffered 25 years off the road in a shed. I notice that It still has it's original tyres!

Options I'm considering:

1 - To repair what's there and clean up as much as possible to keep it 100% original, warts and all. It would be mechanically sound, clean but scruffy. Cheap and cheerful option.

2 - To replace all chrome, new wheels, new paintjob as original, make it A1 condition in original spec - most expensive.

3 - To sort the wheels and exhausts, clean up the rest to an acceptable (to me anyway) standard, repaint in CS5e Purple/White.

4 - Or to Cafe it and make a mini-replica of Hornix's white/red/black masterpiece.

Decisions, decisions.... Anyway, this is how it looks at the moment. Any comments are welcome, including bad ones!

Cheers,

Mike

[drewpy]

I think it's worth keeping as smaller CC bikes are becoming sought after, especially 2 strokes. not much difference to the rd except for twin carbs and front brake i think.

[skik]

i done my old [1980] sr250 on the cheap.just bought hammerite paint for head and spokes,wire wool and autosol for wheels,shocks,engine,ect.i just took my time and done it wee bit by bit.

[drewpy]

turned out nice, well done

[PB1]

That does look good skik. I like the idea of spending not much money and cleaning up as much original stuff as possible. I'm not in any hurry as the Honda is on the road and going well at the moment (famous last words....) so I can take my time with the RS200.

But I am a sucker for shiny spokes. I've read the article on respoking in this months CMM and if I use my existing rims it looks like I could respoke each wheel for about £50 each. I'm not sure of my ability to do it from scratch - what do you think of doing it one spoke at at time to preserve the wheel's trueness more easily? Is that possible? Or is it a stupid idea?

[skik]

That does look good skik. I like the idea of spending not much money and cleaning up as much original stuff as possible. I'm not in any hurry as the Honda is on the road and going well at the moment (famous last words....) so I can take my time with the RS200.

But I am a sucker for shiny spokes. I've read the article on respoking in this months CMM and if I use my existing rims it looks like I could respoke each wheel for about £50 each. I'm not sure of my ability to do it from scratch - what do you think of doing it one spoke at at time to preserve the wheel's trueness more easily? Is that possible? Or is it a stupid idea?

if the existing wheels ar'nt pitted that much then yea.ive never done it before but i guess if you do it one at a time making sure you torque each one to spec should be easy enough.good luck and let us know how you get on

[drewpy]

threading the spokes is fairly straight forward, I used you-tube to do mine.

its truing them up that I bottled it and sent them to Bill the wheel.

[Gunblaster]

I think that has the potential to be a really nice bike, I had a RD 200 in 1972, the RS is as rare as hens teeth, I don,t remember seeing one before, do it up bit by bit, I think it,s lovely....

[Airhead]

in march 2011 I had my wheels built with stainless spokes for £120 (2 wheels)

http://www.manchesterxtreme.co.uk/

Forum member NEO had his done there more recently so perhaps an update on prices?

[Campaman]

I used to have a RS200 when I was around 17, it didn't have the full seat like yours had, mine had a single seat and a rear rack which you could either put on a seat pad or the top box that came with it.

At the time it made a lot of sense as most of the people that rode bikes under 250cc hadn't passed there tests so didn't need the pillion seat, I actually passed my test on the RS200, so then the seat pad actually became useful.

I say its got to be worth keeping.

[PB1]

Yes, don't get me wrong, I intend keeping it, it's just the question of what level to restore it to, whether to repaint to a more preferred colour choice (preferred by me that is) and how much to spend on shiny stuff.

Re-lacing the wheels with stainless in one go, as opposed to doing it spoke by spoke keeping the wheel intact, would certainly let me clean up the hubs properly and if I could get both done for around £120 then that could be a good option.

I did a test clean and de-rust of one of the silencers yesterday and there's shiny steel under the rusty/flaky chrome.

[Airhead]

_{silencers can be re-chromed too}

[PB1]

I had to sit down when I found out how much silencer re-chroming was. It was nearly as much as I paid for the bike. This afternoon I bought a pair of RD200 silencers off the bay, which seem to be in pretty good condition. They are 87cm long, the same as the RS ones, and the bracket fixing points look right, so I bet they are the same parts. The only issue might be the pipe size where the castle ring screws on. If not, they can always go straight back on eBay.

[Campaman]

I think you will find a lot of the RD200 bits will fit engine and drive train wise as the RS was derived from the RD but with a single carb instead of the RD's twin carbs, it was more of a commuting / touring bike with the covered shocks and forks.

[PB1]

Well, that's one of my possible options for rebuilding out of the window.....

I'd bought a set of Ace clubman bars thinking I'd try them, and if I liked them, I might do a white/red/black era cafe type bike. While I'm still modifying the RD200 exhaust threaded end rings to fit the RS200 downpipes, I thought I'd try out the new bars on the Honda to see how they felt.

I spent a bit of time fitting them, getting the cable runs nice and smooth, then took it out for a ride. I got about 8 miles from home but had to turn round and come back. My wrists hurt like hell, as did my back, and my left thumb (which I broke 30 years ago and now is a bit weak) was so painful I couldn't use the clutch after a while. I think my big mistake was thinking that a 56 year old body could ride a bike with dropped bars and rearsets like it could when it was 17! The standard bars are now back on the the Honda and the Ace bars will go back on eBay.

So now it's down to rebuilding it as standard (and I quite fancy this as they are relatively rare) or rebuilding to standard spec but with purple/white CS5 type paintwork.

[PB1]

Shiny secondhand RD200 exhausts now fitted (see the thread "RD200 exhausts on a RS200?" to see the modification needed) and they do make the bike look much better:

I've also solved the problem of what to rebuild it as. I now have a second set of side panels and fuel tank in the original colour, bought from eBay. This means I'll keep the best set as originals, and repair and spray the other set in Purple/White. With a gloss black or silver headlamp shell (or maybe I can find another one of them too?) I can swap colours whenever I want. Might be a bit tricky with the V5 and the DVLA though.... I'll have to think about that bit.

[PB1]

Just a bit of an update on what's been happening with my RS200 after a few months of being being away.... I've been collecting parts together ready for the rebuild and now have 2 complete sets of painted parts (and some spare headlamp ears), one set in original red metalic and the other in primer. I've also now got a new set of spokes to rebuild the wheels, found a friend of a friend who will soda blast engine parts and wheel hubs for me, have most fixings sorted in stainless and bright-zinc, and so am more or less ready to get on with it. I've also collected 2 spare complete engines along the way, which is handy.

I've been using the bike on and off during the summer and it really is a great bike. I've spent some time fine tuning ignition, carb settings and oil pump and the bike is running spot on. I really do think it is the equal to, or maybe even better than, the RD200 up to 50mph; the bike really flies and is great fun. I'll often use it in preference to the CB400SF

I've got a couple of projects to finish off in the garage before I start, but hope to get going on it soon. I'll try and post some more updates and pictures as I go.

[Sacha]

Nice! Sounds like you'll do a fantastic job... not that she looked bad in the pic above.

[dt502001]

Nice little bike to start a resto on should clean up nice with new spokes and the blasting.

[blackhat250]

Ah " good to hear from yeh again , looks like you"ve got the resto Bug "big time", with all them spares,,, lookn good . keep us updated,,