50-Cent!

Young Jack Watts returns to CMM with a restoration love story that cost a pretty penny!

- JACK WATTS

You may remember me, a 17-year-old with a passion for restoring old bikes! For CMM you may have seen my Honda Express restoration and CR125 overhaul – here is my latest: a 1979 Honda Z50R. I really do think this is my favourite so far. In fact, I like it so much I keep it in my bedroom. It took a lot of persuading my mum, but eventually she caved in!

I got it from some motocross friends of ours who had kept it in the family for 30-odd years and had been passed down the generations. They own a private motocross track so the little Honda got plenty of regular thrashings and abuse from family and friends. I did hear that the poor little Z-R ended up being in a game of moto-football, which got quite out of hand!

Being the oldest machine out on track, the Z-R became unloved and lived in a damp container at the track. Soon, the little Honda was forgotten until one day the container was opened and the state of the bike was revealed: flat tyres, covered in crap and it wouldn’t run. No one could be bothered to mend it so they came over to me at a motocross meeting and offered me the bike, thanks to them seeing what I’d done with my Honda Expresses.