CMR Samples & Rides
The following are examples of the work I have done restoring motorcycles over the years. Unfortunately, I didn't always take time to take pictures.
As you can tell, I don't feel hide-bound to original equipment. If its a reasonable period modification or improvement, it works for me.
Also, in cases where the original part is outlandishly expensive, I usually go with something that's "close-enough". In addition to these,
I have restored: 68 Matchless G15 750, 67 Triumph TR6C 650, 57 BSA DBD34 Gold Star Roadster, mid-60s Honda Dream & Super Hawk 305s,
several 77/8 Yamaha TT500s, vintage MXers, and others of lesser repute.and
* Early 60s Matchless G80TCS Typoon. Before I understood about using original equipment, ie Honda 750 fork & BSA muffler. Not too bad for a 1st effort tho.
* 1966 Matchless G12CSR 650. Norton Commando disk brake front end. Better modification, lotta help from good friend on this effort. He was my motorcycle swapping buddy. He usually did all the grunt work of dismantlking & cleaning up everything. Then traded to me at that point & I scrounged up missing parts, reassembled & got it running. We made a good team. Haven't heard from him now for a couple few years. Am afraid he has passed on, I miss our swap sessions & bench racing.
* 1968 Triumph 650 Bonneville, first Triumph effort, yellow paint probably not a good choice. Extra chrome came with project. Traded or sold to an old sidekick. He still tells me how he really liked it.
* 1965 Triumph 650 Bonneville, more original than previous effort, went with vanilla paint.
* 1963 Matchless G3C 350 Trials model. This is probably some of my best work, wish I still had it. I sold it to pay for college.
* 1972 Harley Sprint 350. Started life as electric start enduro model, but I gave it a British makeover: A65 seat, custom exhaust, alloy front fender, & basic black.
* 89 KTM 500 watercooled stroker. Previously ridden by desert racer. I used it as a trail bike & it was absolutely the most bullet proof, effortless, fun dirt bike I ever owned. Of course, I replaced the seat cover with basic black. I rode it all over the Mohave desert around China Lake/Ridgecresr area for a couple of years. Can't remember why I parted with it but wish I had hung on to it now. Always have my eye open for another one even tho I am way over the hill now.
* 1959 Enfield Indian Chief 700. It was mostly complete. I remember when I pulled the primary off, it was full of stones & pebbles. The inspection plug on the top was loose. Turns out his young daughters had made a game of putting them in there. Good thing I wanted to polish up the case & check out the clutch. Had to go with vintage Harley rear fender as original had been chopped.
* 1976 Yamaha RD400 with 1/4 fairing & new "sticky" tires. Boy are these things quick! I came close to getting a couple RZ350s on a trade once. The deal fell thru, can't remeber why but still looking. Have R5 & RD350 projects as a consulation.
* 89 Kawasaki KLR - first modern "dual sport" machine I owned. Used it on some pretty hairy Arizona trails & back roads after I realized my 90 R100GSPD wasn't cut out for the Zone's rough back roads & forestry trails.
* 97 ATK 605- really serious "dual sport" machine. Got it after riding KLR for a while. Wanted something more serious. Added Exhaust & KTM Speedo. Rode it all over the Zone. Many fun rides. Went back to GSPD when moved back to crazy Cal for work.
* 1953 AJS M20B 550cc Scrambler/TT machine. Chatted with Dick Mann at a swap meet over this bike. He was looking for Matchless single parts & I had decided to part with all my twin stuff. He was really a regular guy & one of my motorcycle heros.
* 1960s Velocette MSS Scrambler - setup & raced in AHRMA by previous owner. Let it get away via a hard luck story for a couple of beat up fugly BMW airheads. Still have them collecting dust, Wish I still had the Velo.
* 1968 Montesa Cappra 360 set up as a Flat Tracker. Sold it to a guy at Hollister & he threw the chain & tore something up. I saw it a a swap meet later but decided once was enough. Wish now I got it back & converted back to a John Desoto replica MXer.
* 1984 BMW R65LS - nice little perioid factory cafe. Fixed up for daughter.
* 1980 Honda CBX 1050. Tank decals, paint, seat & suspension mods. Never really was comfortable with the way it handled at speed (twitchy). I think there was just too much weight on the front end from that huge motor.
* 1971 Bultaco 175 Lobito. Neat little bike that I got from a guy who had a bunch of Metralla stuff that I wanted badly but just couldnt afford at the time. He even had a watercooled top end that I guess was a factory racing item. Closest I came was an Ossa 230 Wildfire (I think thats what the were called). It was a great little back roads racer. Should have hung on to it, turns out they are really rare.
* 1974 Bultaco 350 Alpina - did a couple of these, this was set up for trials when I got it, but had all the orig. parts. Turned out really nice in its original garb.
* 1975 Bultaco 350 Pursang - Pomeroy replica w/74 swingarm. Unbeknownst to me AHRMA had specifically excluded this for no good reason other than politics as near as I could tell. IMO, that kind of stuff really hurt that organization. I quit them shortly there after.
* 1969 Greeves 360 Challenger - decent original condition. Got the last of the parts I needed from Frank Conley in Carmel before he went to the big Greeves place in the sky.
* 1956 Harley Davidson KH - decent restored condition. Traded a whole lot of work & a BSA Catalina desert sled for it. Mostly cause I had a K model when I was 16. What a dummy!
* 1977 Hercules 250 6 Days - 7 speed, had to kludge a few things due to scarcity of parts.
* 1970 Hodaka Ace 100B - really clean little enduro. I fixed one of these up as a dirt bike for my kid brother back around 70. Not sure how he survived hanging with his border line psychotic brother (a mix of PSTD & adrenaline junkie) in those days.
* 1975 Honda TL250 - near new with non-trials seat for trailing. Just had to clean the carb to get it running. Sold it along with 360 Bul to a guy in Vegas.
* 1973 Husqvarna WR450 Desert Master - clean desert bike that didn't run but just needed a few parts & TLC. Couldn't find a correct tank for less than a small fortune so went with a Clarke.
* 1995 KTM 620 Duke - clean super-motard style scooter. It was really sexy & I lusted after one for several years. Ended up being a really bad luck machine for me. They had weak starter gears & the magnets in the rotor were literally glued to the flywheel. As you can guess both were wrecked when I got it. Was supposed to just be a dead battery & of course the seller pretended he was Schultz from Hogan's heros. Parts for KTMs are not cheap but at least they had been upgraded to deal with the initial design weaknesses. To add insult to injury, the seat wasn't tightened down & blew off going over the San Rafeal bridge. No way to get at it & I'm pretty sure it had been run over a hundred times anyway. I rode it in the mountains a couple of timse after I got it sorted but seemed like just as it was getting really fun it would go on reserve & you had to find gas in a panic. I kept waiting for the next shoe to drop with it so shortly thereafter decided to cut my loses & run.
* 1974 Rickman Montesa 250 MX - super clean AHRMA racer. It was a work of art with a VR engine. The guy I got it from had a pair. This one was his racer, the other was in pristine original condition, a living room bike.
* 1973 Triumph 750 5-Speed in a Champion Frame & Glass. Boyer, Mikunis, Super Trapps, Disk brakes, 750 Honda front end, Yamaha rear. Neat, traded from an old flat tracker out of upstate NY.
* 1974 Yamaha MX250 - minty mostly original. Traded the above Hodaka for it at a Harley shop of all places. I guess they thought it would make a good conversation piece. I guess its possible that some Harley riders rode dirt bikes. Owner had insisted his son start out on vintage MXers before he allowed him to transition to the modern stuff. Hope he made it better than I did.
* 1978 Yamaha TT500 - have done several of these (SR,TT, XT). This was one the nicest, excellent original condition. All it needed was an exhaust & KN air filter, & the usual (sprockets, chain, tires, etc). These are absolute minimum essential mods for these engines along with a VM Mikuni. Usually the original carb is hosed up & the pumper diaphrams were unobtainium along with petcock donuts.
* 71 Husky 400 Cross - nice racing shape for Sportman Open AHRMA. It was my On Any Sunday Steve & Malcolm bike. Thought it was a keeper but then a guy offered me a huge pile of B44 parts & in a senior moment I let it go. Never could quite get the hang of that old Husky hop anyway.
* 74 Suzuki TM400 - low buck Decoster replica MXer. Added chassis bracketry, heavy flywheel, good shocks & dampner kits made it really work well. Otherwise these engines with their huge switchlike power hit were incrediably hard to ride.
* 03 Suzuki Vstrom 1000 - fully farkled, took several long distance rides. Reliable, fun good back roads & highway, not so good off road. Lowered it a couple of inches & made it much more manageable. Custom graphics.
* 92 Yamaha TDM 850 - Yamaha early attempt at Adventure bike. Only sold US 2 years but very successful in Europe. Was able to find some nice parts for it but never really got carbs sorted for Delkevic exhaust. Carb access was a nightmare. Homemade bash plate was ugly but functional. Proved to be a much better road bike than adventure. Just too big & heavy.
* 05 BBR Honda 200 - Started life as CRF150 which was highly modified with BBR parts. Fun little dirt bike. Had a hard time finding a large front knobby for the sand. Finally found a vintage Carlyle that was hard as rock but worked great in sand.
* 02 BMW R1150GS. Had to have one of these after I saw the Ewan McGregor & Charlie Boorman round the world ride videos. Rode it once to TX & back. It was just too big & heavy & could never get comforable with it. Amazing to me that they managed to ride it over such rough terrain. Traded it for the FJR.
* 03 Yamaha FJR 1300 - Gen 1 FJR sport tourer. Took one long trip. Was a speed machine. Crusied effortlessly at 80+ on the superslabs. Beat the heck out of ya on rough roads tho. Did a bunch of mods to deal with redirectring engine heat from that big 4 cylinder.
* 75 Honda CL360 Scrambler - mint, better than orig condition. Just needed final assembly & diagnosing a cracked spark plug cap which gave me fits. Sure acted like a carburation problem. After much profanity & several times taking the carbs apart, grabbed the plug caps to see which cylinder was dropping out & found the crack the hard way.
* 93 BMW GSPD - Last one of several of these I owned & setup for adventure touring. Was machine I talked my brother in law into buying to ride to Missoula for a BMWMOA rally. I reworked it for all the farkles I preferred. Did a 6000mi tour & decided to downsize/modernize. Had tried a too large R1150GS & settled on F800GS. It was fun but a little buzzy at 80mph freeway speeds + small fuel tank. After looking for a lighter replacement but couldn't find anything that seemed better. Decided to wait for the 700 Yamaha Tenere or Versys 300
* 73 Yamaha GT1 80 - completely refurbed as kids dirt bike. New sprockets & chain, tires, seat cover, crank seals, piston & rings, modified for premix only, some OEM parts included. SOLD
* 01 Suzuki DRZ400S - upgraded E model suspension, extra motard wheels with adv tires. DOT knobbies, DG exhaust, after market header. K & N air filter, opened up airbox, rejetted appropriately. Fisher wide seat, Clark 5gal tank. Vector digital speedo. Happy Trails alum panniers & mounts, pannier top bags, rear rack, K/S kit. Sold to a young blood enthusiast, he was jazzed.
* 80 Kawasaki KDX175 - Personal trail bike. New top end, reeds, seals, after market headlight, speedo, Bark busters, nu chain, sprockets, tires, cables, air filter, throttle & cable, nu ignition system......Wrong tank but decent graft. Sorting out the igition gave me fits. I finally got it sorted about the time I sold the above DRZ. One of the buyers young friends came along & wanted to buy iy. I really hadn't had a chance to ride it yet but the frustration of the ignition system & the puppy dog eyes the kid gave caused me to let it go.
* 2010 Triumph Thruxton with many goodies, black 1/4 fairing. Just too uncomfortable to ride for any distance, despite lusting after one for years. Even tried a Corbin seat to no avail. Traded for real nice 73 Guzzi Eldorado.
* 84 Honda VT500 - factory Vtwin street tracker, nice (runner). Sold to an old buddy who really enjoys it. I wanted the black one anyway.
* 80 Yamaha XS6502F - mild street-tracker. Whiz bang paint by a pro experimenting on flames. This bike has been a continual PITA. Thought I had it sorted several times & swapped to daughter for an old Funduro that I had given her years ago. It had some issues with carbs so she replaced them with a Mikuni kit. Then it fell off a lift & broke a turn signal + Not sure where its at now.
* 73 Honda SL350K2 - Nice mostly original condition with a few cosmetic blems, new tires, sprockets/chain, seat cover, fork seals, battery, rubber stuff, after market mufflers, etc. !2k orig miles. Motor runs great after many trials & triv. Used rust remover in tank & it turned the rust in a serious goop which took forever to get cleaned out. Should have coated it. Traded for 72 SL125 & 77 CB750A
* 2013 BMW F800GS - fully farkled for adventure touring. Delkevic & Pelican bags among other things. Had a salvage title, what a pain selling. Had to take a serious loss on it. Glad to finally find a buyer. Never again.
* 07 R1200R farkled for Long Range Touring. Not as good protection as an RT but much lighter. Rode it to Maine for a lobster dinner but got chased out by the hurricanes that went up the coast that year. SOL on the lobster. Sold to a retired miner that had a bad OTJ accident & was lucky to be alive. Lost an eye but still riding. Kudos.
* 72 AJS Stormer 370 - vintage original MXer Raced one back in the day. Traded for 2014 Yamaha FZ09.
* 74 Suzuki GT550 - cleaned up, painted tank, redo seat, got every thing working, etc.Traded for 2014 Yamaha FZ09.
* 98 BMW F650 Funduro - well used but still solid, hard city bags, tall windscreen, after market exhaust, K & N filter, etc. SOLD
* 2017 Versys 300X - Low miles, setup for short distance adv riding. Factory bags, Delkevic exhaust, etc. SOLD
* 2015 Suxuki Vstrom 650 (WeeStrom) - Low miles, setup for long distance adv riding. Caribou bags, Akrapopvi exhaust, etc. Great little engine but missed big bore power, went back to R1200R. SOLD
* 2014 Yamahha FZ09 - Reworked per personal preferences. Taller windscreen, large footpegs, centerstand, rear rack, upgraded sequential turn signals, factory comfort saddle. Too fast for this old guy. SOLD
* 70 Montesa 247 Cota - nice ARHMA trials bike (runner). Traded + cash for Suzuki X6 basket case.
* 76 Hodaka Thunderdog 250 - back in original setup as enduro bike. Installed knobbies. Removed street gear pictured (runner).
* 72 Honda SL125 - Decent orginal condition. All there. Made a dirt bike out of it. Will keep all OEM in box. SOLD
* 2018 Royal Enfield Himalayan. Set up for adventure touring & backroad. Just for taking it easy around the back roads. TRADED on Tiger 800
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