Last updated on January 12, 2019
Restoration by Kris Stainwright — West Oz
Kris was inspired by the CR450R that graced the cover of Issue 24 and has been going all out to find one for himself to restore. He is ready and waiting for pre ’85 racing to take a bit of a hold in Western Australia but at least now he has the bike ready and waiting.
“I thought you might like to see my latest project. After seeing Robin’s CR450R I thought I just had to have a go too. Never thinking that I would ever find one for sale I sort of guessed it would be a safe promise I could make to myself!! Ha, no such luck, found one and completely fell in love with it — spent far too much time and money too!
I have always intended to race the bike as I have a firm view that “these bikes were built to be thrown down a track every now and then and not sit in a museum”. Pre-empting the pre ’85 movement here in WA, I set about the resto. Most of my time effort and money was spent on the safety aspect ie. brakes and suspension, as the original shock was beyond repair and notoriously bad to boot. I had YSS make me a brand spanker. I will have to wait until I race for the full verdict but it does feel very good.
Front forks were set up as per Cycle World recommendations and all bearings and linkages were overhauled or replaced. The motor is another story all together and a long one too. Needless to say it was a bloody nightmare!!
All in all I am pleased with the bike but still have a few finishing touches to add and a few more teething problems to iron out.”