A friend of my boss Brian races a Suzuki GSX-R and has an enclosed trailer for hauling the bike to and from the track. Good thing it's enclosed, as it had been raining here for about four days straight. He picked up Brian’s 1971 Triumph Bonneville and his fianceé’s Yamaha (not sure of the model) before heading out to Trevose where my bike had been stored for the last 25 years.
In the meantime, I brought over my money order and met with Albert, the owner of the bike. Extremely nice gentleman. He related the story of the bike to me. He is a builder by trade, and a friend of his owed him money and was unable to pay him. So he gave him this bike. Albert was interested in riding at the time, as he had friends who rode. He told me about this bike and how deceptively quick it is. He could beat his friend’s Triumph off the line up to 85mph! I didn’t even think this 350 could get up to that! At any rate, Albert got busy with work, and one day he parked it in the garage. One thing lead to another, and there it sat for 25 years. His youngest son Andy (who had posted the eBay auction, and whom I met when inspecting the bike before bidding) had swiped the shifter from the bike to put on his ATV a few years back, so that’s why this piece is missing off the bike. Other than that, the bike is as it was when originally purchased. Albert was even nice enough to include the shop manual for the Yamahas of that year. Excellent stuff, everything needed is in there.
So we went over to the local notary, paid my $65 (sheesh!) to get the title transferred, and a few minutes after we got back Brian and Jim pulled up in the trailer. After a bit of ratcheting and securing the bikes, we were off to Hiway Motorcycles in Hatboro. Brian’s friend had just opened the shop, and has about 15 Harleys in various states already there. We unloaded the bikes, parked them in the garage, and now I await an estimate of what it’s going to take to get her running again.
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