Yamaha RZ 250 project. How it all came about.

The attraction and passion for powered 2 wheelers has been in my blood for as long as I can remember. Maybe its because when I was little, all we had in the family were motorcycles, or my Dad's stories and pictures of riding British bikes.
Anyway all the history between the machines and I will probably be another blog altogether.
Around 3 years back I was on the hunt for a Honda CB4 when I happened to visit a gent named Rohan in Nawala, he had a wonderful collection of old, rare and powerful Jap bikes; among many CB250 Hawks were a couple of CB 400 classics, CB 750, Kawasaki 1000 and stuff. In between were a couple of 2 stroke Yamaha RD 350 LCs and a RZ 350R ypvs; Mr. Rohan would praise the bikes and tell stories of how he used to race the bikes in his day. I never took too much interest though.
With work and family commitments my involvement with motorcycles had thinned out until I decided that it might be fun getting a bike and restoring it together with my 14 year old eldest son Devon. In trying to figure what to get I thought back of a bike I was very fond of, a Yam TZR125 94/95 model which was the last series of that range and came with certain extras. I remembered teaching my wife Jackie to ride a motorcycle for the fist time on that bike and that bike held lots of memories for me. While looking for this particular model is when I stumbled upon a for sale ad on www.ikman.lk of a Yam RZ 250 R; it looked like it was in very good condition and the seller assured me that it was in running condition but needed a new CDI unit.

That's where this project starts from.

On the 20th of August 13, my friend Rajee and I drove in his pickup truck to Kandana and struck a deal with the seller, paying only a portion of the committed price as he was to hand me the documents later, we loaded the bike in the back of the cab and headed back home.

The bike originally belonged to Abans Ltd., an organisation in SL, that had given the bike to one of its AGMs together with the transfer papers which he had lost together with the revenue license. The AGM had in turn given the bike to his subordinate - the seller, to repair and ride. Long story short, the bike has gone from hand to hand, garage to garage. It was seen at one time outside a garage weathering the elements for some months.
The transfer documents were however re drawn and given me by Abans and the seller had to update the revenue license from the date of first registration which cost a tidy sum.
I lodged the documents for transfer in the second week of September for a normal transfer whick takes 1-2 months; hopefully should get the new registration book sometime soon.