I unwrapped what I had been sent, and decided to ‘mock up’ the bike to see what was there and what was missing. It was important to get a sense of what I was working with; what was good and what was not.

To my absolute dismay I was truly shocked at just how bad it was.

It was that bad I just put it away in disgust at the back of the garage believing it was a lost cause, but a couple of days after I’d calmed down I began looking for parts. A lot of parts!

And so it began - my mission to build the ultimate 1988 RM250, better than the one I’d bought almost new all those years ago.

I began a crusade to find everything I needed and spent six years collecting and storing to eventually do this build. A vintage parts contact that helped me with my 2000 and 2001 Suzukis got in touch after I advised him of the bike and what it needed, and he told me he had some almost unobtainable body parts (they are completely obsolete nowadays). A week later a box arrived containing a number of genuine Suzuki bits. They included a fuel tank, seat, airbox, and a whole set of plastics - all brand new, original unused Suzuki parts.

I began to amass an awful lot of bits: exhaust (unobtainable) , more genuine Suzuki parts, cylinder and piston kit , crank, every single gear for the transmission, and countless other components.

Pictured here is what I had in Sept 2017

I eventually decided in 2022, That eleven years was long enough, so the build began!

Here’s the work in progress: