Battery box and International press.

I haven´t been doing that much on the bike the last two weeks. Work has started again and I´m waiting for parts. The stanchions, ordered from Germany, hasn´t shown up yet. What did show up yesterday were these babies....

Reproduced battery boxes.

I believe I mentioned earlier I borrowed Janne´s original battery box to get it copied. Well, I did! Not me personally, but my very good friend Tommy at Proswede in hoerby. He is not only a businessman with his own mechanical workshop but also a true motorcycle enthusiast. He has restored a number of bikes over the years and I have seen his "mueseum" and been very impressed with his workmanship. He has a couple of H2:s, Z1:s and many more bikes. All in superb condition.

The story with my battery box started when I was down in Malmoe before Christmas and picked up the engine from Ebbe. I also visited Tommy and Proswede to pick up a few other parts that he had treated. While standing there discussing this and that I saw a couple of guys bending sheet metal in a machine...

- " Wow!, can you make stuff in sheet metal?" I asked.

- " Sure. What do you need? We have it all here. Welding machines, waterjet machine bending machines. We can do what ever you need!" He replied.

I got home and sent Janne´s battery box down to Hoerby together with the oil tank bracket. The battery boxes arrived yesterday. I couldn´t be more happy!

One of Tommy´s employee´s had been working while Tommy was on vacation and ,as he said, "done his best..." I think he did a remarkable job! I asked Tommy for 5 copies and he made 6. You can see the original one to the left in the above picture. Apart from the finish in painting it is almost impossible to tell them apart. Such great precision and workmanship shown from Göran.

Comparison original and copy.

You can see the spot welds are placed exactly according to the original. All measurements are exactly correct. Only the finish in paint differs. You probably will want to paint the box together with the frame anyway.

Rear side of boxes.

Every detail, diameter of the holes, the number of spot welds, brackets etc, etc line up perfectly. It is remarkable what you can do with a water jet machine, welding equipment and some talent.

The bottom side of the box.

The mounting of this battery box to the frame is actually a small mystery. The box have no brackets to hang it onto frame, just the small holed bracket on the bottom and the rubber holder brackets. Here´s what it looks like on the bike.

3rd of May 1970 at Anderstorp.

It is kind of interesting to see just how simple everything seems to be. The battery "hangs" in its rubber straps below the frame tube and is "pulled" down with a spring mounted between the frame and the battery box. The spring is actually the same part number used to hold the expansion chambers to the exhaust port. Clever.

You can also see that this arrangement wasn´t optimal. At this, his first race ever with the bike, "Esso" had to put a rubber tube and some seat foam as extra protection between the battery and the frame. He has also tied some kind of rubber from the battery box to the rear frame tube. Probably in order to stabilize the battery better. The battery went hose is clearly visible here going rear and out over the swing arm. The small fuse box can be seen below the rubber straps. I found a couple of those in the US and they´re on their way home now.

Interesting is also to see that there was no rubber parts on the frame to support the tank! The frame still has this these rather simple, home made, "dampers" in place. I wonder if they still are the originals....?

The number of the battery also tells a story... 12N 5,5 4A. That is the same battery used on the later H2:s. The street version of the H1 used a slightly larger battery with a bigger capacity. Since I´ve been collecting stuff for H2:s a while I had a couple of NOS batteries in stock. I´m not sure Kawasaki used Furukawa batteries but these seem very appropriate to me. The 4A is the correct one according the above picture since the air vent hose passes out to the left as seen from the front of the battery. The only difference with my other battery, called 3B at the end, is the postition of the two poles and the side of the air vent hose. No big deal on this bike!

Old batteries...

As you can see these have never been used, still in their original boxes and has never kept acid. To be completely honest they never will... I´ll get another H2 battery when the time comes. These are perfect for display!

The rubber straps was another eBay find. I knew the part number. Searched for them for a while and finally found two in England at an OK price. I started to follow that particular part number and a couple of weeks later they showed up again. This time in the US, at Partzilla. Much cheaper, so I grabbed quite a few...

The result can be seen here. I´m now officially in the reproduction business of H1R parts! Soon the seat cover will be added to this new venue of mine.

Battery boxes in steel and carton.

I´ll end the story of the battery boxes with this picture of the rubbers, sheet metal parts and the battery cartons. This delivery for sure made my day!

Over to the next topic of the day. International Press.

Even though the restoration is far from finished it has been a wonderful journey. I´ve got to know many new friends all over the world doing similar restorations and a few building replicas both here in Europe and stateside. The "barn-find" also made front page here in Sweden through Classic Bike magazine.

Just after starting this blog i was approached from England with a request to do a piece in a magazine. Practical Sportbikes made a one-page article on the find and initial assembly plus photoshoot.

Practical Sportbikes.

It feels kind of funny seeing your own car-driving-selfie in an article. They must have liked my silly smile in that picture!

After the story was published in Classic Bike with Ola Österlings great pictures, there has been another couple of international articles done. One in the German magazine, Motorrad Classic, and one in the French, Moto revue Classic. The latest addition was actually the  Kawasaki triples club in England that featured the story.

Japanese bike big in Garmany and France.

The Germans found it interesting enough to put it on the front page! I´m sorry to say, but my German is as bad as my French, so looking at pictures will have to do for me. I will post the pages here for you guys who can read the articles. Motorrad Classic first.

Full spread article. 

I think they chose wisely with their first picture. I really love what Ola did here in the old car workshop. The atmosphere is perfect.

Spread number 2 Motorrad Classic.

we recognize the pictures but you can always arrange them differently and get another view on things.

Spread 3.

I guess the text here says: "The story of this H1R is traceable without gaps due to it being lost for such a long time"....?? Or something like that.

Spread 4.

The last pages of the German article is mostly text including "Esso" Gunnarsson´s bio and the story about the bike and the making of it.

The French magazine Moto Revue Classic did it in a similar way. Start off with a nice picture of the bike.

Moto Revue Classic.

"Sortie de Grange" means "Barn find".... We know what that is! I like the term "collectioneur" they use about me. Feels good to be known as a collector AND a Connoisseur! Maybe I should go into the French wine business as well.

Spread 2.

"In front of this pile of scrap metal, Per Olofsson, exclaims, it is going to be a pleasure" Well, that´s true, and it still is! I´m enjoying every bit of this project!

Last spread of  the Moto Revue article.

Here it is stated that the engineers had no choice but to put the engine very high up in the frame to be able to route the expansion chamber underneath it. That is (supposedly...) the  reason the road holding characteristics aren´t that good. They also look forward to me getting the bike finished so they can test that theory for themselves. Yeah, we´ll see ´bout that!

Moving on to the Kawasaki triple club. Thanks to Malcolm Anderson (editor) for letting me post these pictures!

;-))

KTC first page.

Page 2.

Page 3.

Page 4.

Page 5.

Page 6.

I´ll leave you with these pictures for now. Hopefully my next post will be about the front fork stanchions, revcounter bracket or maybe a small piece on one of "Esso´s" first competitions with the bike. I´m still trying to gather material and pictures for the racing history of the bike and the guys who drove it.

Thanks for reading!

/Per