The First Time

Everyone remembers their first restoration: CMM reader Nigel Kermode recalls his!

- Nigel Kermode

Whenever I read CMM, I always admire the incredible skills of those restoring bikes back to their former glory.

It usually invokes a desire to restore a project myself, but with a severe shortage of mechanical skills, this has always been a bit of a pipe dream. Well that was until 2015, when I found myself with time on my hands and decided to take the plunge. Now I know that if I can do it, you certainly can!

I’m the traditional lapsed biker, however, a few recent visits to classic bike shows reawakened a long dormant desire for the older bikes, but where should I start? Well, the answer came in the form of a bottle of wine on a Friday night… In typical fashion it was after drinking the wine that I saw an imported but non-running Kawasaki H1-E for sale on eBay and I figured a two-stroke would be a simpler proposition for first restoration. I made my bid, the reserve was not met, but the day after I did a bit of haggling and finally the bike was mine.