What bikes have you bought twice?

[ride4now_imp]

Ok... I was finally able to corner the infamous Rick Brett in Ft. Myers yesterday and seal the deal on this 1970 Kawasaki H1 500. It’s an original survivor with 16000 miles on the clock. I owned my first one in 1973-74 while in college, selling it to buy a car (what a dumb move!). Rick purchased it about 10 years ago from the original owner and shipped it to England for a thorough cleaning. It spent about 8 years there and the last 2 years at his place in Michigan. He brought it down to Florida in anticipation that I’d actually come through and buy it. He’s a pretty big deal in the Kawasaki Triple Collectors universe. Google his name and you’ll see. A nice guy too! I put a few miles on it and had forgotten that all 5 gears are UP, neutral is down. I noticed that drum brakes really don’t work very well and that the bike was a bit smaller than I remembered. Interestingly, I hopped on the CB while squaring everything away and it felt BIG after getting off the H1! I also forgot that it really needs to rev... it lugs really badly at lower rpms, but once the rpms pick up, it jumps like a bat out of you know what. I’m looking forward to cleaning her up a bit more (I like clean bikes...) but will keep her pretty much as found. She’s a survivor and I want to keep it like that.

Here’s Rick and I sealing the deal...



Here she is on the trailer for the trip back home.



Next to her stable mate here in Florida. I will eventually bring her back to Georgia...



Here’s a shot of my original H1 back in the day...




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