Back to the beginning- continued
As Gary dismantled the bike he took pictures of the parts, gradually filling a series of boxes in the garage. By this time he had a good idea which parts were good and which would need replacing or renewing.
“The first call was to David Silver for all the rubber parts, badges and gaskets. Another box of parts was despatched to RJS of Hoddesdon for chroming, including the exhaust downpipes, flanges, handlebars, rear brake pedal, and a whole host of brackets and bolts which are hard to find these days. John of RJS is a bike fanatic took a lot of care of these precious parts.
 “The frame and other metal parts that were originally painted went to a chap in Chelmsford who shot blasted them and painted them in two pack enamel. I considered powder coating but opted for the original look of paint.”
While all this was going on, Gary cut out the wheel spokes and hand polished the hubs, a job he described as soul destroying. “Next time I’ll get them aqua blasted for sure.” The hubs then went to Hagons for new rims and stainless steel spokes.
The correct petrol tank was sourced at DK Spares – a goldmine for
spares for CB250/350s. They also supplied him with a pair of good
rear shock absorbers.
What DK and Dave Silver couldn’t supply mostly came from eBay. A genuine tool kit and carburettor pistons with diaphragms. A seat cover from Canada, and a rare chrome rev-counter cable bracket from the USA.
After cleaning out the petrol tank, all of the parts that needed to be painted in candy gold and white went to a friend, Peter Rivers.
“The paint came from RS Paints in Hertfordshire (base coat silver and candy gold). Peter spent a long time preparing the petrol tank, due to the number of imperfections it had acquired over the last 39 years, but the end result was well worth the wait as the finish is stunning.”
Then Gary’s attention turned to the engine. “I checked the compression and found the right-hand cylinder to be around 120psi. It should have been 150psi. When I stripped the top end everything measured correctly, but the bores needed deglazing.
“New piston rings came from Piston Broke who told me that CB200 +0.50 rings are the same size as standard CB250K2 items. The valves and guides were OK, but I decided to regrind the valves nevertheless.”
 The camshaft and rockers were pitted and replaced by used K3/4 parts from DK. Rumour has it that
the K3/4 model camshaft is a
milder profile than the K2 so Gary intends to get the original restored
by Phil Jay Camshafts. The engine cases were polished while they
were apart and the clutch and
gearbox inspected.
Eventually the bike was ready for reassembly. A few new parts were used, indicators, coil, points, and points-base plate for example. A
set of replica silencers from David Silver Spares were fitted after a
few adjustments had been made. A new throttle cable in the correct colour was sourced from Venhills
in Surrey.
Now up and running, the Honda
was plagued by carburettor problems. Which were finally fixed by a couple
of Keyster carburettor kits from NRP
in Manchester.
“I ended up spending more than intended, but it was worth it. Just listening to the exhaust as I work it through the gears makes it all worthwhile. I rarely take it past 65mph – a speed my other Hondas reach in first gear. It’s a relaxing bike to ride round Epping Forest on a sunny Sunday morning.” And we assume he’s humming that Mungo Jerry song as he goes along.
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