Picking up the Kawasaki H1R.... And bringing it back home to Stockholm.

Last Saturday was the big day for the pick-up of the Kawasaki-racer. The owner, Anna Maria Pettersson, met me at her son´s house where the bike had been sitting since I last saw it in the barn.

Now it was time to load it i my car and get it back to Stora Essingen in Stockholm where I live and, by coincidence, Esso Gunnarsson also lived during his racing days. The bike, sort of, returns home!

Volkswagen Sharan up to 2010 is an excellent car for motorcycle enthusiasts! Just remove the five rear-most seats and you have a small truck!  I love it!!

All the parts that had been found were easily loaded into the car. Great care was exercised not to remove any dust or dirt. I was pretty sure myself and maybe some other people would be very interested in documenting the "Barn-find-status"

The three expansion chambers, the front brake drum plus the box of parts disassambled from the engine.

There are not very many parts on a racer like this. When I pick up other triples the car usually gets quite full with all the street-legal- stuff needed on an ordinary motorcycle. Rear-view mirrors make them too high, rear fenders make them too long etc, etc...

What was really nice with this find was the extra crank.... One of the conrods are shot, but that´s an easy fix!

The tank and top fairing resting nicely on the parts box. The engine secured behind the passenger seat. Such a little gem!

It was time to say Good bye to Anna Maria and start the (not so) long journey back to town... I´m pretty sure we´ll meet sometime in the future. Both her and her children are all very interested in following the restoration up close. You are more than welcome to!

The bike loaded and Anna Maria saying Good bye for now..... 

Well, I can tell you, it was a very happy man driving his car from Mariefred to Stockholm that day! One of the most sought after triples in the world sitting right there in the back of my car. Wonderful, absolutely Wonderful!!

Happiest man on earth or just a tru nerd with his rare find?!

I actually felt real good when we exited the freeway and turned on to Stora Essingen where we live. The bike returned home! Getting it offloaded was no big deal at all. Our daughter, Wilma, came out to see here father´s latest acquisition. She is used to me bringing home rusty old bikes and bits of this and that so this one barely made her rise an eyebrow until I explained what it is.
-  "Chill,  Dad. Cool bike!"
That´s a very nice verdict....!

Wilma holding teh front fairing. It is surprisingly light! 

Once the bike was offloaded from the car I couldn´t resist putting it back together. Just to get the general picture of what was ahead, what might be missing in parts and to see what it actually looks like. It is a very nice way to start getting to know your project, getting a feel for it. You find out a lot just by crawling around trying to fit pieces together that you really have no idea about. Like a big puzzle in 3D.

The bike has a nice, stable stand. Looks to be the original. Once the bike is on the stand getting the engine into the frame is not that difficult. Getting the small rubber parts on the engine bolts between the frame and the engine was not, so I left them out. There will be another time when I will have the plesure of dealing with them...

Engine in the frame and the seat in place! 

Now I could have a closer look at the engine... Some severe rust on axles and primary drive. Shifter linkage not moving a lot. Carb slides move free and had the covers on though. I´m planning on letting my friend Ebbe Parnestål in Malmoe restore the engine for me. More about that later...

Rust, rust and three expansion chambers...

Getting the chambers in place was not too bad. Well, that´s easy when you don´t have to worry about twostroke oil leaking out of the exhaust port! You can see damage to the right chamber from an accident. That will need to be taken care of. One of the toughest things to deal with is probaly the rust on the axles and the dry clutch housing. I hope I´ll be able to fix it.

Frame and crowns. Lots of dirt and rust... 

A little bit higher up in the frame, triple trees, handle bar and the instrument. Just one revcounter,
that´s it! All you need to keep track of your power output so as not to overrev the engine and damage it. As you can see there is a lot of work needed here also. The rubber mount for the revcounter is broken. I need a new one! Anybody got a spare to sell?  :-))

OK, lets put the tank on... First time I see it with the tank in place! Wow!! Now it suddenly looks very potent and hungry. This will be a very, very nice build, that´s for sure.

Tank with original paint....

The original seat cover is still intact. Approx 1 cm of padding goes beneath it (for comfort) and this is what it all look like...

Comfy seat, grass and hay included!

Time to get the fairing on.... Just another pic as a naked bike.

Naked bike, such a small thing!

The fairing seems to be in quite good condition. There is a slight mismatch in colour between the tank and the fairing/seat. I will have to research that a bit more. The fairing goes on with just a couple of screws and a rubber band (that is missing, of course...) so a bit of wire fixed it for now.

Now, It looks like a racer!

There are some damages to the fairing as well, but all-in-all I´m very happy with the condition of the plastic parts. They are a bugger to deal with and I´m no good at it! The top fairing isn´t really fitting nicely to the green and white part. May have to address that also...

Front view.

I´m really surprised over how extremely light and thin the fairings are on this bike. No doubt Kawasaki did their best to make a real good racer.

Here´s another nice angle of the bike. You can see the stand, the very special foot peg rubbers (only used on the racers...) and the stinger pipes from the chambers. Imagine the sound......!!

Side view. Comfy seat, for sure! 

Well, it´s time to roll it in to the garage and on to the lift... But I cannot spare you this view of the "cockpit":

The "cockpit" of the H1R.

Imagine running down the track with the revcounter straight up at 9000, going 255 Km/h towards a sharp 90-degree turn..... Yikes!!

Now it rests on the lift until the next thing happens. We´ll see what the future brings for this old fighter...

Hemma.

This all took place last weekend and during the week nothing happened at all, except for me working and getting stranded in Oslo due to the major computer fuck-up in Swedish air space last Thursday.
Now it´s another weekend and maybe someting cool will take place.
We´ll see...