Rothmans Resurrection - Bringing The Ultimate Barn Find Back To Life

So last year, another member on here and myself got wind of a bike that had been sitting for a while, and discovered it was available. Needless to say, he jumped at the chance. The first post in this thread are the pics taken by the previous owner of the bike as it sat. Overall looks pretty solid, but definitely will need some work to get it back to fully operational status :)

Very awesome :)

We actually had the bike running the first day he brought the bike over. We did a quick carb clean (more on that later) and valve clearance check, new battery and it fired right up :) Gotta love a Honda :)

After that, the parts started coming off...

They did seem to clean up OK though :)

Nice!  Very cool. 

Looking forward to following this. Hope you plan to keep posting. Great find!

The bike is actually pretty much done, I'm just now trying to gather up and document the whole process. Some things will probably be out of order, but I'll add notes about what we did :)

This was the first pic I took of the bike on the lift the day it showed up...

The mismatched black and gold wheels needed to be corrected. White wheels suck to keep clean, but they seemed like a better fit for this bike. Another RC30 rear wheel was put in place while the gold rear was sent off with a VFR750 front for powdercoating.

So the bike was flipped around on the lift, and the front end taken off. The bike's owner cleaned up the top triple clamp and fork bottoms. Race Tech fork springs were added, as well as SKF forks seals from Jamie Daugherty. One of the oddball things about the RC30 is that the forks have compression and rebound damping adjustments, but no adjustment for preload. :wacko:  That was fixed by adding a set of fork caps from a GSXR750. We'll probably have to give the bike some anti-rejection medication from this point forward for adding Suzuki parts, but they're both Showa.

While the front end was off, the steering head bearings were also replaced. The refinished upper triple clamp and fork legs definitely look a lot better now :) And, there's adjustable preload!

The RC30 is formally known as the VFR750R. Since it's a VFR, it's also susceptible to the traditional wiring issues :)  We found a crispy stator connector and starter solenoid connector. No problem, just needed a custom VFRness made up, and also got the stator connector kit at the same time :)

Speaking of wiring, at some point the temp gauge must have been disconnected or replaced and some custom work was done to the wiring harness with wire nuts :wacko:  That was also sorted out.

After the front end was back together, it was time to flip the bike around and get to work on the back.

All the rear end parts were taken apart, cleaned, greased, and reassembled.

The cooling system was also gone through, replacing the thermostat and radiator cap mostly due to age. All the hoses were checked and seemed OK, but the radiators needed some fin work. That definitely took some time, but they should flow air a bit better now.

I wish I had a fraction of the skills (and garage) required to do something like that.

Great find and looks like a very thorough job. :beer:

The bike didn't have turn signals on it when he got it, so we were looking for something better than the huge factory blobs, but less tacky than the typical stick on winkers. I sourced a set of Chinesium knockoffs of the RVF style turn signals, similar to what the JDM RC30 came with originally. The rears mounted up OK with a set of unobtanium original brackets, but we had to figure something out for the front since these are surface mounted on the NC35. I ripped the stalks from a set of 3rd gen blobs, and used those as spacers. Seems to work OK.

Now all that's left is the shakedown ride, so hopefully I'll have pics of the bike to post tomorrow of the bike out in the wild :)

Just beautiful. Lots more pics please.

Looking good!

The orderly placement of the parts for the brake rebuild made me especially happy. Lol

Seb, did you see the carb pic? That one took a bit more time :)

Road test is complete :) I didn't want to put too many miles (KM) on it since it's not mine, but it runs every bit as good as it looks :)

Road test is complete :) I didn't want to put too many miles (KM) on it since it's not mine, but it runs every bit as good as it looks :)

And it looks damn good...

Beautiful.

Well done! :beer:

It's a '88 with KM clocks but big headlights and no J-spec frame badge...where did it come from?

But in any case it is a beautiful bike and lovingly restored!

Ciao,

Love it.

And the rebuild process - so meticulous and clean.

I envy your skills.

Thanks for sharing. 

It's a '88 with KM clocks but big headlights and no J-spec frame badge...where did it come from?

But in any case it is a beautiful bike and lovingly restored!

Ciao,

The only clue to the bike's origin is the headlights, they are the large globe style which points to the Italian market. Looking at the bottom of the tank, it was originally standard colors. I had heard stories of the all white "ghost" RC30's which some had converted to Rothmans livery, but this tank was once blue and white. I have no clue where/when the bike was converted to Rothmans paint, but it's definitely a professional quality paint job. Jim Granger did some touch up/repairs to the bike several years ago.

Fantastic find and great restoration job!

Rollin

It's a '88 with KM clocks but big headlights and no J-spec frame badge...where did it come from?

But in any case it is a beautiful bike and lovingly restored!

Ciao,

The only clue to the bike's origin is the headlights, they are the large globe style which points to the Italian market. Looking at the bottom of the tank, it was originally standard colors. I had heard stories of the all white "ghost" RC30's which some had converted to Rothmans livery, but this tank was once blue and white. I have no clue where/when the bike was converted to Rothmans paint, but it's definitely a professional quality paint job. Jim Granger did some touch up/repairs to the bike several years ago.

I take it it doesn't have a 17-digit VIN?  If it did, it could only be a Canadian bike starting: JH2RC302...  Check Rick's RC30 site if you're keen to do more sleuthing.  I had thought most markets had "big" headlights, apart from Japan and, er, New Zealand?  There are some other clues hidden on the bike, but you'd have to have access to the back of the headlights, and the back of the instrument cluster (might be too late for that!)

Ciao,

That is probably the best looking RC30 I've ever seen. Terrific work.

Are these links permanently broken, or will they be rebuilt?