With Bridgestone motorcycles in 2008
1967 BS 175 Dual Twin Just a few days before Christmas 2008 my son Simon rang regarding a 1967 175 DT Bridgestone for sale on eBay at Grenfell for $150. He was keen to do a ‘father-son’ restoration. Although I was a little wary of this project, he won the bid at $150 and we went off to Grenfell to pick it up. Well what a sorry looking bike it was, lots of missing and damaged parts. Not long after he bought it the old ‘house/children’ situation was having the same effect on Simon as it did on me and he asked if I would take over the restoration. I sourced parts from USA and having spent a couple of thousand dollars on re-chroming and NOS parts the bike was ready to assemble. My spray painter son-in-law Steve came to the rescue and a not-too-bad restoration began to take place. The bike is now on VJMC club rego and goes well. I thought after this marathon effort that would be the last of my restorations – well little did I realise that the ‘BS’ disease was taking hold. 1966 BS 50 Sport (pre-mix) In August 2009 just after I returned from a 3 month locum at Royal Darwin Hospital Pathology Department, I spotted a black Bridgestone 50 Sport for sale on eBay. The last 50 Sport I saw was in Brian Collins’ showroom in 1968. I just had to have this bike. Very few of these survived as they were virtually a ‘throw away bike’. Bridgestone manufactured 82,200 of these between late 1964 and sometime in 1968. Having won the bid I convinced Therese that she might like a weekend away in Victoria and we just might have to take the trailer. The restoration on this bike involved a complete disassembly and re-paint (courtesy of my son-in-law). I was able to source NOS parts from Certified Parts Corporation (CPC) in Wisconsin and with the help of John Somerville (Bultaco Metralla guru) we re-built the engine. The little beast managed 35 mph with my 86 Kg on it. This bike won ‘Best Other Marque’ trophy at the 2011 VJMC Rally in 2011. 1967 BS 90 Mountain (pre-mix) In November 2009, I displayed my BS 175 DT at the Cooma Motorfest which coincided with the annual Snowy Ride. A chap from Adelaide who was participating in the Snowy Ride said he had a BS 90 Mountain to sell (and guess who bought it?). With the help of the local freight company in April 2010 the blue BS 90 Mountain joined the BS 175 DT and BS 50 Sport in the shed. Once again a full strip down restoration was required. Steve did a great paint job on it and NOS parts from CPC and chrome work from Electro Plating Technology (EPT) in Queanbeyan did the trick. This bike won ‘Best Single’ Trophy at the VJMC Rally held at Warilla in 2012. 1967 BS 90 Deluxe (pre-mix) Once again eBay got the better of me and in June 2010 I spotted a very sad Black BS 90 Deluxe in Cowra. This bike had been bought in a farm clearing sale. It was missing a head and cylinder not to mention the other parts. The ‘tail’ was cut off with