YOUR CLASSICS
Al Gill shares the experience of himself and his son in restoring a range of bikes from different countries
Readers’ machines – including a collection that errs towards the Japanese, an NSU Supermax... and a Honda CX500
IN THESE CORONAVIRUS affected times I’m re-reading all my magazines and I chanced upon Rick’s commentary in the November issue about ‘quality that’s hard to restore’, regarding Japanese motorcycles. In some respects, he is absolutely correct, in that most Japanese bikes were of superior quality – and, on the surface, it appears hard to replicate this original build quality. But at the same time, there is much that can be improved and much that simply must be either fixed as best as your budget allows or left as is. For instance, Japanese chromework was decent, but never show quality – and one has to be careful when replacing or rechroming parts to not go overboard unless your goal is a ‘trailer queen’ or ‘show stalker’ that never gets ridden or even started.
My son and I have a nice collection of mostly early Japanese bikes, with a ’52
Francis-barnett and a ’71 Triumph Bonneville as the outliers in the group, which includes a 1971 Kawasaki H1A, a 1971 Honda CB750 Japanese-market bike, a late 1969 CB750 with die-cast cases, a 1969 Yamaha XS1, a Kawasaki A7 350SS and a few more really early Japanese bikes, plus a 1975 Ducati 350 Sebring and a 1977 Ducati Regolarita.
Before we start a restoration, we make a decision on whether we are going for nice, rideable, original condition or show quality but still rideable. Principally, we do not believe in owning trailer queens and all our bikes are ridden and occasionally thrashed.
Electrics typically require some work, so we replace all contacts/pins/plugs, etc as a matter of course if we are keeping the original wiring harness, and seats are invariably shot to pieces. We also try to retain points if the bike originally came with points, and only go to electronics when there is no other option. We also try to keep original paintwork even if it’s far from perfect. In fact, we try to keep as much original as possible. A case in point is my 1971 Japanese-market CB750, which still wears its original pipes, seat and much more. Only the paintwork and safety-related consumables (brakes, cables, etc) are new.
In conclusion, I do agree that usually British bikes are easier to restore, if only because of the massive parts supply found worldwide and the fact that they usually had very little brightwork (black was always fashionable) and could mostly be fixed with a pipe-wrench and a bigger hammer, hacksaw or chisel. My current restoration, a 1969 Kawasaki A7SS, is giving me the motions as I search for parts worldwide – and when found, they’re invariably at eye-watering cost. When I needed parts for my Bonneville, they were available just down the street (even in Canada) or by delivery within two or three days from anywhere around the globe.
Al Gill, Edmonton, Canada
‘ON THE SURFACE, IT SEEMS HARD TO REPLICATE THE ORIGINAL BUILD QUALITY OF JAPANESE BIKES’