April 1974
I had moved to Hamilton in 1973 and met a chap called Ian who had also moved north from Christchurch. He owned a motorcycle but due to a car accident he had been unable to use it for some time.
Some of his "friends" had used it and it was in very poor condition when he decided to sell it. Fortunately I heard of this and bought it for the princeley sum of $150. It looked like this..
At the time I was learning a great deal about engine reconditioning from my friend and landlord Chris Bowden, and together we undertook a complete rebuild of the powerplant.
I was at the same time working with a painter of some repute, and he was assigned the task of updating the paintwork. End result was this..
Camera of the day was a box brownie, so lack of clarity is just a sign of the times.
As I learned to handle the bike I also began to modify it in the "cafe" style that was favoured at the time by those of us who could not afford a more "sporty" machine.
Clipon bars, chrome headlamp and separate speedo - albeit a Japanese universal type - all heading in the direction of the type of motorcyle we wished to own.
Final stage was to begin replacing the heavily valanced 'guards with smaller alloy units.
That was as far as it got when I sold it to head overseas.