A few years ago, after the self-destruction of my XJ550, I was in need of a bike. so into the pile at the back of the garage I went. Therein I found most of a chassis for a CB250RS, in another pile I found the wiring loom. The reg/rec, coil and cdi were still attatched to the frame. A petrol tank that had been in some sort of incident and half-repaired had also arrived with the chassis. After a few hours work I had a rolling chassis with electrics.

Now I needed an engine. After calling around I found a friend in Bristol who had a bottom end he'd rebuilt. I went off to Bristol on a borrowed bike with a big top box. After handing over my £40 and securing the engine in the box I set off. On the way home I stopped at another friend’s house. This being another location where if you look long enough through the piles of ex-bikes there is a good chance you will eventually find something you can use. Luckily it didn't take to long to find a cylinder head that would do the job. Unfortunately it was a XL head which has smaller exhaust downpipes. After another hunt around I found some XL downpipes. Of course they fitted the engine but not the frame. This
problem was soon sorted with the aid of Jethro's magic gas torch, a vice, and a long metal bar.

Some more scrounging around produced a length of pipe and an old tail-can. Hey presto, one exhaust system. All it needed was lights, can you guess where I got them? Of course, ask and the garage shall provide. A few finishing touches, light switches from I-don't-know-where and a seat that everyone said looked the most uncomfortable saddle... ever.
All finished (well it was finished as far as I was concerned, but I was always asked by everyone when I was going to finish it) so off for a MOT, it passed no problems because it was sound bike and everything worked even if it did look like I had pulled it out of the docks.

I took it to the Dragon Rally for a shake-down run and enjoyed chasing Mr Carrick through the North Wales roads on his XBR500. From then on that bike was taken
out, thrashed, crashed and abused around the countryside until I purchased an SLR650. The poor little RS was left in the corner of the garage.

A couple of years ago I returned to my favourite occupation of motorcycle
courier or, as it is known in the new millenium, ‘inner city logistics operator’. Which bike should I use? out from the back of the garage came the CB250RS. So for the next year I thrashed and crashed it around the streets of Cardiff.

Over the years of ownership of these excellent little singles I have never actually paid for one for myself (I paid for one for a friend, buy one get one free). I currently have the makings of 4 and an XL (with RS engine) none of which are running at the moment.

The fun you can have with these bikes far far far outweighs their small size and little cost. I've held off big sports bikes (when the road is bendy enough), worn out one and a half knee sliders going to Castle Combe and back, ridden through all the weather you can think of and put knobblies on to go off-road. I have owned six in total and never broken down yet (well that's cursed the annual rally for me). It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it’s bloody good fun.

Simon Birch.