Honda-SOHC

Hi guys.

Quick backstory here. My then girlfriend's daughter went very quickly from being a non-rider to a Yamaha 600 rider. She was only 17 or something when she embarked on this. Think it was less than a year later she was on the 'big' Yamaha.

Anyway. To start off she bought a 125 locally. Being experienced with bikes (ie have had loads in bits for 30 years and never even sat CBT) I was asked to give it the once-over.

I didn't know anything about the bike but it seemed modern to me (ie wasn't behind a shed rusting to bits) and I had a quick spin on it. She (well her Mum) coughed up £600 for it which seemed quite high to me and that was it. Well not quite. It sat idle for months while she passed test and I had to revive it once she was road-legal as it wouldn't start.

It wasn't great cosmetically having had the typical budget re-spray: Non-standard colour with an attempt at decals. The engine also had some shiny black paint on it. Not very well done.

So while she had it the only repairs I recall doing were: re-welding frame at centre-stand pivot as she got caught out by stand flapping loose one horrible winter night; making a side-stand from Honda parts (CM185 iirc); replacing speedo cable; swapping clocks-pod after she'd had a bump.

Next incident was she had a big bump and bent the front forks so Francis, as she called him, was retired to the base of the local bikers' club that she and her fiance were members of. Despite their collective wealth and knowledge of bikes no-one managed to get Francis mobile again and he was shifted to my barn to be resurrected.

Not long after that her mother and I split up and some time later he was retrieved by the owner and her man in a hired van.

So the rebuild never really got off the ground but I always wondered what would happen with it.

Well fast-fwd a couple or three years and the young couple are now married and off to live in NZ (possibly) so had to have a major clear-out and donated Francis back to me, along with a pile of parts she'd bought to rebuild him.

I picked him up on an old trailer I have and hope to get him roadworthy and perhaps re-spray the 'tinware'

I've got loads of pics from various stages of the story above but prob best to start with the ones of the day I collected it.



   

Francis returns to my barn after owner gives up on him