Description
14 Page – PDF Download – Complete Series – Honda CB550 K3
“Manual Labour
Cornish reader Malcolm Hart has been a motorcycle enthusiast for more than 20 years but is a novice in the workshop. How hard is it for the layman to restore a Seventies classic?
Over the next few months we will be following Malcolm’s experiences as he gets his fingernails dirty for the first time.
The time had come to try my hand at bike restoring. I’m one of the hated fair-weather -only- bikers who does a measly mileage each year and pays a cast amount for it in tax, insurance etc.
I had recently sold a Triumph 900 Trophy and Suzuki GS500E. But I still hankered after having something in the garage that I could fire up on summer days.
Now, to give you some idea of my age, I started motorcycling in 1974 on a Puch 50 moped and can hardly remember a time since when I’ve been without a bike. I’ve always taken an interest in the growing classic scene and can relate to most things that are said about biking from the mid to late Seventies onwards.
Living in Cornwall is pleasant and peaceful – I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else – but you try finding a decent Seventies motorcycle to buy at a reasonable price down here. I know I could have travelled up the line to buy, but I was determined to try and find something closer to home. Local papers were scoured each week and bikes that might have been suitable were earmarked for a phone call.
Needless to say there were a few false starts, one in particular was an ad for a Honda 400-4. It stated, ‘original, very good condition’. The word classic was also mentioned.
What a shock when I went to see it! The bike didn’t look capable of leaving the seller’s driveway. It did run, granted, but had an aftermarket scat, the exhaust pipes were rotten and sprayed with silver paint…”
14 Page – PDF Download – Complete Series – Honda CB550 K3
