Last year as the covid pandemic settled into Australia, I was looking for a new motorbike to purchase to upgrade to from my single cylinder CBR250R (MC41). Most of today’s offering that are LAMS approved aren’t very appealing. I also wanted to get a Motorcycle I could put on club plates, as I tend to only ride on the weekend. I eventually settled on the MC22, famed for it’s great exhaust note produced by it’s four cylinders.

I picked up a 1996 model through Gumtree. Due to the bike’s age, it needed a fair bit of work to get it back into tip top shape.

The original tri coloured fairings were badly damaged and needed to be replaced.

Upon stripping everything back, the bike was in major need of repairs and to be thoroughly cleaned.

Unfortunately I was not aware of the screw inside the fuel switch I needed to unscrew to remove the tap, so a whole new fuel tap was needed.

The first step was to completely rebuild the front shocks. When removing the oil, one fork came out clear, and one came out thicker than mud, indicating it had at least had an oil change more recently on only one fork. All replaceable components were changed, new seals really made a difference. The fork with the extremely bad oil was almost impossible to take apart, so much so that we bent the outer casing. Thankfully we were able to source a second hand one from FB Marketplace.

I mailed my rear shock up to Keo Watson in NSW, who rebuilt it and cleaned it up for me, to a street spec.

When pulling apart the chain cover to replace both the chain and the sprockets, dirt, grime, and grease was everywhere, and needed to be completely cleaned.

Don’t think the oil, nor the filter had been changed in a long, long time.

Whilst it took forever (2+ months, thanks to covid shipping), I was very happy with the new fairings and tank cover from 12K Motors.

To match the fairings, I had one of them colour matched, and the rims painted by a neighbour, a professional truck painter. After putting new bearings in, but keeping the original brake disks, they came up great.

Polishing up the original exhaust worked a treat, but I may look to source a Yoshimura one at a later stage.

I was also able to paint many other things, including the engine covers to really clean up the bike.

A new engine inspection bolt really made the bike pop

All three calipers had new seals and pads installed, both master cylinders were rebuilt, and HEL braided lines were installed on the bike.

I am extremely pleased with the way the bike came out, it now rides like a new machine, and looks fantastic. I’m very much looking forward to restrictions lifting and summer arriving to enjoy this more.

A special thanks to Omar from XCite Bikes, where I purchased all my parts for his help, and my friend Illya for a few pointers, but most of all, a special thanks to my Dad for all his time, effort and patience when helping me restore this.