Voyage of discovery

Nutters gets stuck into reviving the look of his 30-year-old Honda Bros.

It was quite a shock. My Honda NT650J V-twin, the Bros model made for the Japanese market, was in a sorry state. Sidelined three years ago after the MT-07 Yamaha became the number-one bike transport, the Honda had acquired an unfortunate patina of neglect in its many nooks and crannies. I’d bought what was an ‘interesting’ project 20 years ago; although converted into a café racer and having been drag raced with nitro injection, it came with a number of the original parts including the exhaust system and bodywork. Some will find this strange but I wanted my Bros to look mostly original. So the paintwork, including the light-alloy wheels, was restored professionally by local spray expert Michael Pocock, and missing details replaced. The engine sounded surprisingly sweet and crisp and the result matched the bike’s reputation – a lively and flexible sports machine that was great fun on A-roads. Many will know that, even though Honda UK didn’t import the NT650J because its sophisticated specification – including an alloy beam frame and single-sided swingarm similar to the RC30’S that was also launched 30 years ago in 1988 – would have made it too pricey. But lots were brought from Japan as grey imports and the Bros became a popular despatch rider’s mount. Mine clocked up another 40,000 kilometres (it retained the original Japan spec clock face) with regular servicing – oil changes and filter, tyres (Bridgestone BT45 and later BT-023) brake pads and fluids, plugs, fork seals chains and air filter – with only one or two large items needing attention. These included the exhaust system (replaced with a restored SH item acquired through ebay) and the front-end after a maniac car driver hit the bike head-on after I’d pulled up outside a line of traffic. Motoliner in Aylesford straightened the fork legs and the headlamp assembly was replaced with OE parts from the long defunct BAT Motorcycles. There was nothing wrong with my Bros: it still handled as well as my MT-07 but the riding position, which was increasingly heavy on my wrists, made it more of an occasional ride. So much so that I realised when it had its MOT last year that I had clocked just 120 miles in the year. Clearly the time had come to freshen it up. Its true condition was revealed when I removed the centrestand and exhaust system – it was rustier than an old barge: hence the shock. Further investigation showed that the finish of the liquid-cooled engine looked like it had been acidattacked with lacquer bubbling and peeling off. It looked horrible.