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Yamaha R15 rebuild ends after 8 months of sweat: Final fixes & 1st ride

15th May 2025, 14:17 by Utkarsh Chaudhary

The motorcycle fired up with just one press of the button. No stuttering, no lethargy, just crisp liveliness.

BHPian that_sedate_guy recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Part 8: Saigo no ashi (The last leg!)

We’re here. Oh yes, we’re here! It was time to put everything back together (hoping all the while that I wouldn’t end up with parts that should have been fitted somewhere). The bike was solid mechanically and the electricals and peripherals needed care next. Technically, the motorcycle was ready to be ridden but as things stood, it was neither legal, nor safe.

Here’s a list of the things to do that stared at my face

Prep the headlights and assemble the head unit
Fix up the indicators
Repair and fit the horns
Radiator protection
Gear lever position adjustment
Fairing assembly
Graphics

Headlights

Starting with the headlights, the lenses had deep scratches which were past the point of being able to buff out. I tried sanding out some of it but it really wasn’t going in my favour, so I simply decided to give it to a shop nearby. In hindsight, that was a perfectly thought-out waste of time. The guy took two full weeks only to return the lens, simply buffed over the darned scratches.

This was exactly my reaction to it. Picture courtesy: The Mass Effect series.

Decided to do it the hard way. Sat down with a water spray and started all the way down from 220 grit. Progression was to 320, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 grits. The entire process of sanding alone took close to 8 days but I wasn’t taking any other routes. Here’s a glimpse of 320 grit sanding going on.

Finally, after the gruelling sanding process, this was the result, finished at 3000 grit. I could have gone higher, but to be very honest, I had it at that point and so had Mr.P. We decided to move ahead to buffing.

I had an electric die grinding set with me so with the felt attachment fitted and the buffing compound ready, I sat down to work. Half an hour into the job and one of the lenses was complete. Boy, was it a sight to behold.

With this newfound motivation, I started to buff out the other lens and halfway through, I remembered that buffing is just not that simple. What looked like a crystal clear lens from one angle, was still showing ugly lines from another viewing angle. This meant another whole hour of polishing the lenses until the shine was acceptable to my eyes.

With the headlamp lenses done, the major work was over, and I started to make really good progress with the fairings.

Fairing and radiator guard

On went the headlight assembly. Fitted up everything from the windshield to the number plate.

Before assembling the fairings on the sides, I remembered how badly the radiator had been previously damaged by flying stones and debris. I took a piece of perforated steel sheet and cut it to the exact size as the radiator. A coat of paint and the radiator guard was ready. Not too shabby, I must say!

I fixed the guard and the fairings and moved ahead to screwing everything tight.

With the guard in place, I quickly bolted up the fairings and started work on the vent fairings. This was easier said than done because of the two million screw points for the fairings.

Electricals

I hooked up the indicators and switched on the system. Of course, nothing worked. Rewired the connectors and tried again, nope. I tried cleaning and rearranging the wires in the switch. Ended up having to re-solder everything and hook it up.

While it did solve the problem of the indicators not working at all, it raised a new issue. The headlamps would switch to high beam when the indicators were switched on. I spent a good half hour scratching my head before troubleshooting it down to loose connections.

After taping everything up securely, the lights were good to go.

Decals

With the rest of the fairings done uneventfully, I whipped up the stickers I had ordered and my goodness was I irritated beyond belief. They had folded the sticker pack during transit and half the decals were completely ruined. I had to make do with whatever was left and that wasn’t much.

Test ride

I decided to call it a day and the next morning, I didn’t have work, so decided to take the bike for a test. I didn’t wring it confidently because after all, it was a complex sports motorcycle assembled by a guy who convinced himself that he was an engineer.

I rode it for a good 40 kilometres. As the distance racked up, I eased into the bike and started getting comfortable. When I say comfortable, it's just a normal riding posture as opposed to the nervous dog posture. I don’t lean in and carve corners like experienced riders do so I’m pretty sure I did not tap into the potential of the bike but it was better safe than sorry especially since the motorcycle was running for the first time in 8, yes 8 whole months after lying around in bits and pieces for most of that time.

Let’s just say that’s a very, very happy boy inside that helmet.

The engine was smooth, the gearshifts were almost factory slick, the acceleration was back, the unnecessary noise, vibrations were all gone and with them went the rear brake.

Rear brake

Yep, the rear brake was hopeless and had to be replaced at the earliest. I did the entire test with just the front brake, which by the way, was just about as snappy as corporate employees on a Monday. To get it to that state, though, was not easy. I had to wrestle with a lot of sponginess due to incorrect bleeding before long I got it right and working.

Back to the rear brake, pun unintended, Mr. P brought with him a new caliper set he had purchased from Chennai and we got to work immediately.

Out with the old

And in with the new

Filled up the fluid in the reservoir and within two minutes, the system was bled to perfection. I tried closing the cap and it just wouldn’t seal up. I realised that the rubber seal had bulged out and there was no way to put it in place properly. I knew that the seal wasn’t available separately, so I simply cut out the bellow portion of the seal, threw it away and used the flat top portion alone. Did a bunch of testing, and the seal held up perfectly.

And with that, the bike was ready for a nice wash and clean. My bullet was also dirty, so I treated both of them to a thorough wash.

Goodbye

It was finally time for Mr.P to take the bike back home. It was quite a strange feeling, honestly. The bike, which came limping and crying out on the back of a flatbed auto, unable to start and run, is now ready to traverse miles. Took a few pictures of the bike before fitting the rear grab rails.

And with that, the bike fired up with one press of the button. No stuttering, no lethargy, just crisp liveliness. A flick of the throttle and the revs spoke up. Mr.P gingerly slotted the first gear and off charged the R15, onto its maiden voyage to Mr.P’s house at Krishnagiri after rising up from the ashes.

Thanks to everyone who thought this was even remotely interesting and chose to stick to the end and watch how everything turned out. The support and enthusiasm were, at times, the only things that made me want to keep doing it, especially when certain parts of the build annoyed the remaining hair out of my head. Thanks all, once again.

Signing off with a parting shot, one of my favourite angles to view the bike from.