Living in an apartment definitely has it's disadvantages, chiefly the lack of a garage. Whilst my bikes have been secure and undercover, it's no place to work. Even at 9pm the humidity and the mosquitoes are a nightmare. So I set about reducing the bike into plastic boxes and shipping it upstairs in the elevator. This was probably much to the relief of the other residents who look at me oddly when they see me working on bikes (as they lift shopping bags out of their silver Toyotas - each to their own I suppose).



At this point I decided to bin off the 2T pump and tank etc and go premix. I also decided that this was all a stupid idea and that I'd never do this again (which I'd told myself last time I built a bike). The boxes of junk were then lined up between my desk and the door onto my balcony - the fairing, wheels, exhaust pipes and all the rest were out on the balcony. And then the air conditioner broke. Unable to fix it I had to call the repair man, which meant a visit from him and the building manager - cue more odd stares (and no doubt wondering: "What's wrong with this foreign guy?! Why can't he just buy a silver Toyota instead and be happy with that?").

I wasn't about to just sit there and stare at it (not yet anyway), so I dragged the engine onto the balcony, got the toolbox out and got stuck in:



Initially things were going ok and then I had a look in the exhaust ports and saw the state of the pistons. Shortly after I had the top end apart (including one ruined power valve shaft because, too hasty to read the books/not be a gorilla with a spanner, I didn't realise it was left-hand thread and snapped it) to find that the nikasil on the bores was ruined - holes in some places, and other bits lifting off. About now I contemplated heaving the whole lot over the railing and down into the swimming pool below, but decided that would probably seal my eviction from the building so thought better of it.



At this point I realised things were definitely going to get expensive and I started to have doubts about how worth it it all was. Sure I could claim the noble cause of saving one more NSR from the scrapyard, but really... On the bright side the crankshaft appeared to have a bit of life left in it (as yet the bottom-end hasn't been stripped further), and Tyga had a few OEM pistons kicking around. And Rome wasn't built in a day, and it was nearly Christmas.

Time to spend some more money.