Arty Farty...

This month the old fool worries about the bike’s cosmetics! What is he like?

- Steve Cooper

Well progress is being made and if it’s not necessarily by me then it’s by my mate Ian Bird, who has been cracking on at a right old pace.

The 500cc H1 engine is now housed within the confines of the 250cc KH250 chassis and if you didn’t know better you’d have to say it actually looks right. And when Ian then dropped in the H1’s air-box and carburettor rubbers, two things were really obvious. Firstly, there’s really not that much difference in terms of inches or centimetres between the 250 and 500 motors and secondly, the KH’s frame has more than enough space to house everything the 500 needs to make run happily. Ian had fabricated then tack welded the new engine plates in place prior to passing the frame onto a top notch welder who subsequently commented: “Well that’s a really neat job Ian, your welding’s certainly coming on.” Nice to know my project’s improving someone else’s practical skills then. As might be hoped the chain line is bang on and double checked using a rather rare and now expensive ARE alloy wheel with an old sprocket.

In theory that should be the hardest part done but as this is a genuine special and I’m being a bit of diva here I want the bike to look subtly different. The KH250 tail piece is obviously the correct one but I really want the earliest squarer and wider unit as used on the 72/73 bikes. A brief mug-up clearly demonstrates it’s not going to be an easy job but when you set your heart on something etc. As I’m obviously now digging myself a fair sized hole here Ian cynically goes on to suggest I run an early style three-sided rear light as well.