Took my old bike for it’s MOT at Lea Motors this morning. Got talking to a chap who’s restoring a 1960’s lambretta, he took quite a shine to it, as does another chap who turned up on a late 70’s Honda cx500 that he’d bought new.
Eventually the MOT chap came out and he also took a shine to it. He had a lovely race bike in the workshop and runs a GSXR1000 on the road.
Well the bike passed no problems with lots of compliments. So I took it for a little ride around in celebration. It feels so “soft” compared to my scooter. The suspension is very soft, the brakes, well, I have to ride it as if it has no brakes as the front especially is very ineffective… It is lovely and smooth though and the soft suspension and large 19" diameter wheels soaked up the speed bumps much better than my scooter does. It impressed Lambretta guy outside the MOT station by starting up with barely a whiff of starter, it was warm though, but even when cold it’s very easy to start. I love the old girl.
Looking at the mileage between the two MOT’s I’ve only done 200 miles on it in a year . About 100 since I got it back up here in Herts with me back in May.
yes nice bike… just sold my 1973 gt380 (2 left) and that always started firts or second kick…no starter…even after nigh on a year of inactivity…the new buyer loved it…the other two are in need of a bit of work…
am good…had op a week ago and am trussed up like a turkey but feeling better every day…just got 12 months of waiting and maybe 2 more ops and loads of physio.
its the physio thats the pain in the butt get yourself someone motivating that doesnt mind seeing you in some pain… i still need more but havent summed up the courage nasty business! :w00t:
How do they get like that? I always treat bikes as just a form of transport. They get cleaned and serviced regularly, but they aint ever going to look that good again when I’ve finished with them. Not without a back to metal restoration and a shed load of new parts.
Yeah he seemed like a great guy. I tried to get a pic of my bike next to his race bike as the contrast between the two was cool, but it came out all blurry. I’d taken the car there for an MOT before but it was the first time there with the bike.
Yes the Honda is a yank import. It was originally in Wyoming. The first owner bought it in 1974 for $1200 (I have the original sales receipt as well as loads of other docs). He seems to have ridden it not very far until about 1976 when it went into storage. I got in contact with him and he said that it was in his workshop until 1994 or so unused and had a screen, rear carrier and the original 4-4 pipes when he sold it to the son of a friend. Only the rear carrier now survives. I’m not bothered about the screen as it doesn’t need one anyway and I’m sure it was ugly, but the pipes being cut off was gutting. The original owner chatted to the bloke he sold it to and he said that they were rusted so he cut them off and discarded them, he then sold the bike to get a car, neither of them knew it’d been exported.
I don’t really know what happened to it after then, but it was imported into the UK in 1996 and I bought it in 1999. When I got it it had horrible home made 2-1 collection boxes on each side and harley end cans.
It took me ages to find replacement 4-4’s. The original spec ones are like gold dust, virtually impossible to find in decent condition. I saw one set go for over £1000 on ebay a few years back, given that I have an agreed valuation of £1500 on the bike that’s a LOT of money. Unfortunately the bike despite it’s rarity in this country is not worth a lot of money. I thought about selling it a while back, but I couldn’t bring myself to as the money would quickly disappear and the bike is worth more than that to me, a lot more.
. About 100 since I got it back up here in Herts with me back in May.
get yourself someone motivating that doesnt mind seeing you in some pain… i still need more but havent summed up the courage 
nasty business! :w00t:
