Even More Motorcycles
Part Three of Spence's motorcycle life...
Part Three
2018 restoration project...
2018 saw me buying a really low mileage (3,600m) Suzuki GT250 L 1973/4, now also restored with all the chrome redone at huge expense - I think around the £1150 mark - but the condition of the metal was as new, just a tired chrome finish. I re-jetted the carbs and cleaned them in my ultrasonic tank buffed them up externally, fitted a new Carb to Airbox rubber manifold, cleaned out the previously resin lined tank that had been done very badly and re-coated the inside plus fitting new glass lenses onto the clocks. It looks stunning for a bike which is around 47 years old and goes really well leaving two trails of smoke under hard acceleration. Haha. A bit embarrassing these days though. But it's a beautiful example of a GT250 from motor cycling's yesteryears.
This too I still own.
The same year I also bought a Triumph 595 Daytona in yellow from a local car and bike dealer. Unbelievably this bike seemed to need very little tidying, as I first thought, until I took it for two new tyres. Leaving the garage I moved off from a stop give way junction and the bike just spun to the ground. I didn't drop it with a bang but kind of lowered it. Let's call it a regaining control from an uncontrolled spin. I was picking it up off its side only to notice OIL was everywhere leaking from the side that it was lying on. What had happened here was from before I bought the bike, at some point a bolt had been glued in to the crankcase, so when it was dropped by me the bolt was pushed through the crankcase. Nice!! Got that repaired properly and I sold it only losing the cost of the repairs to the crank case.
2020 – almost up to date!
Finally, in 2020 I bought a Honda CX500 registered 1978. with a claimed 37,000 miles & no faults but one! A water leak so was sold as a project. Ha ! well .... no faults? when I had my courier bring the bike to my home where I was isolating the bike looked cosmetically challenged, far more so than how it had looked in the photos. I got the bike into the back of the property where I found 12 faults which included running on just one cylinder and faulty electrics to the clock panel meaning it would just all go off. Hmmm, I wasn't best pleased. But the upside the same day I renegotiated with the seller and got £500 pounds back. However the best was to come. After a couple of days that saw me order parts to rectify11 of the 12 things I found wrong on the first day, I couldn't get the left cylinder to work ?? I was looking over the paperwork that was supplied with the bike, only to notice an MOT certificated which showed the mileage in 2008 as 69,000 miles???? What ?? Checked again through all the certificates & yes that's what is showed and some of those in KMH as the mileage. The guy did tell me that he had changed the clocks in February of 2020 and supplied them too with the bike. The clocks he removed showed 33300 and the clocks he fitted showed 37,100. By this time I was going nuts with this guy who I had trusted, but had just duped me into buying a CX500 as a 37,000 mile bike when in fact it has done more to 100,000. This mileage meant it should of been sold as spares /repairs and not a bike with just a water leak. So hence to restore the engine it had to be rebuilt as I could waste money cosmetically, but with a 100,00 mile engine it would still be worth nothing!
To date I have now after the engine complete strip down, replaced everything internally in the engine, repainted the frame and fitted new parts - spending £3,300! not too bad for a water leak eh?
The CX completes the 4 I still have.
So my collection just now is:
Suzuki TL1000R
Suzuki GT250L
Honda CB250T Dream
Honda CX500
All restored and looking in rather sweet condition for all their ages.
Thanks so much for that great story and the pictures Spence and what a fine collection of motorcycles!
If anyone else wants to share their motorcycle purchases and stories we'd love to hear about anything you've all worked on or ridden.
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