PROJECT: APRILIA

I love motorbikes. I’m lucky enough to work with them all day, every day, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Over the years, I’ve had quite a few projects like this RS250 restoration and I have learnt what to look for in a project bike, what works well and what doesn’t. I’ll admit that I do have a soft spot for old two-strokes, but the thing that drew me to this 1997 Aprilia RS250 was actually the fact that everything on it was original.

It was in a pretty ropey condition when I got it – everything was rough, but it was all there, all original and I knew that everything could be cleaned, re-plated and re-painted, so it didn’t matter to me what condition it was in. I know when people are buying modern bikes that they like to see aftermarket performance parts and that quite often increases the value of a bike, but with the