Jonno.

So I get her home in the van; what a mission almost dropped it off the plank getting it into the van and getting it out.

What can I say, it looked so bad but I knew it could be so good. I had been spending literally every minute I should have been studying working out how much it would cost to bring it to perfect condition. $2000 max I reconed.

After posting on KB I knew the Rectifier was fucked, so I couldn't really ride it without fucking up the battery. Someone suggested disconnecting the RR and I did and it was an awesome five minutes. I decided not to take it too far as I lived down a 500m hill at a good 30-40 degrees at the steepest part; a mission to push even the FXR up and I can barely get the NC30 up my driveway .

I decided to take the plunge and take off the fairings, knowing they wouldn't go back on for a month or two, if at all (new ones maybe). So I re arranged my garage and figured out how I could fit in my two bikes and a pit bike. The garage would never be the same (see pic ).

After buying a new windscreen (brand new OEM) off trademe for $40 and new mirriors (aftermarket) $50, I was feeling good. Until I took off the fairings to find no radiator "reserve". Fortunately I had checked the radiator which had fluid in it so all that entailed was trying to find one and fitting it. I finally found a new mastercylinder for $70. A lot cheaper then the 150 the wrecker quoted me, especally when it wouldn't have even fitted .

Cycle treads had a sale and I brought some Oxford hot grips for very very cheap (due to a printing error). Also some indicators which although smaller still had the original square look so I was happy.

So now my bike is lying in pieces; sub frame in one corner, fairings in another and airbox and carb in another. After going to Spectrum motorcycles and showing them the receipt he told me the previous owner had taken the cheap route and gotten a second hand RR instead of a new aftermarket one (another hundred dollars). They offered to exchange it for an aftermarket if I paid the difference. I agreed (even if it was a bit expensive I had 150 dollar credit).

After loosing the receipt (the joys of having a toddler ) I went in and he remembered me and exchanged it with a new one. To date I had spent $300 and a bit of time.

So I strip the subframe down as it's got a little surface rust and where the RR mounts a lot of rust. Paint it up and put it on. It started to look like a bike again .

I took the carb off and after having a fierce battle with all of the screws I inspected and found it was pretty good. I drilled the slides to 2.5 mm and one of the previous owners had already added another .5mm washer to the needle. The main jets were factory for 89' so I contemplated changing them to (118/112) instead of the 110 all round. But it seems to be running fine (off of the plugs) and has gone fine for 20 years. Probably change it at some stage.

After taking off the crank case I found out the joys of valve clearances. The virgin time had to be the hardest, but I think I made it even harder. Firstly I only had imperial feeler guages with metric conversions so I didn't have exacts and trying to find out if it was in spec was also "definitely", "could be" . I finally got a set of metric guages which helped quite a lot. I finally figured it down to 1 shim that needed changing and after trying to get another to fit without ruining that one I ended up buying one. Only this one was a size too small and to get shim a to fit I had to change it with shim b and change shim b to the new one I brought. The only problem was finding shim b. So anyway I got this sussed and now I was on my way.

Please note this was a very shortened version as I lost 2 shims for what I can only describe as the worst time of my life. One shim I lost at night, after probing the whole area and cursing myself for not covering the engine, after draining the oil I took off the sump and clutch cover only to find it the next day a few cm away from where I dropped it next to the valve spring . The next one I covered the engine for but still managed to loose it. I looked for a few hours, convinced it wasn't in the engine. Alas after taking the sump off, again I found it sitting in a pool of oil

Lesson: cover everything, not just the gap!!!!!

I fit everything back. Buy a new oil filter, new oil, new rad fluid, new hose for rad overflow, breather tube. Not cheap! So to date I had spent close to $500 and a loooooot of time. I had taken the brakes off and cleaned and painted.

So I did an oil change, lubed the chain and flushed the radiator (ew), and was ready to take her for her maiden voyage (well second, without a rego and not quite complete, but such is love .

Now I actually have a working bike in my garage with only a new brake lever and fairings away from my dream bike.