Nothing special here except to me but I'll introduce you to mine.....
http://s1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc506/farmall400/tojo/
I bought this H1F in '91. A friend of a friend told me this guy had an H1 he couldn't find a buyer for so he was going to junk it for scrap price. I went to look of course. It had sat behind the garage for a couple of years in Illinois weather after his wife had thrown it out of the garage. Rusty, corroded, spray bombed root beer color over the rust, grease and dings, chain was adjusted all the way back with 2 inches or so of slack, center pipe had been hit hard and broke one of the ears/stud off the head, bald tires, bent handlebars, yada-yada-yada. I offered $50 and his wife said ok. Told him I would be back the next day to get it.
My brother drove me up in his old Cutlass along with some tools and the necessary chemicals/cleaners/oils and a battery I borrowed from another bike. The guy wanted to know when the truck would be there to get it. I told him I planned on riding home. He laughed. After a couple hours it coughed to life and the guys wife thought I should pay more since it ran. I laughed. I rode the deathtrap home about 35 miles in an Illinois summertime thunderstorm.....smiling all the way.
My now wife and I were living in sin at the time and she did not yet know about me/junk bikes/etc. She went to school days and worked second shift at IHOP and was just leaving when I got home on the pile-o-kawi. She laughed. By the time she got home from work it was stripped to its smallest part (except for the engine which was just removed from the frame). She asked me if I knew how to put it back together and I told her well, I have a manual
I worked in a fabrication shop at the time and ran a tubing bender. I brought the whole motor in to work with me and for the cost of a Dr Pepper one of the welders built a new ear on the exhaust flange, tapped it and put a stud in. He said it would hold forever and so far he has been right. Shortly thereafter I took a job as the parts manager at the local Kawi/Suzi dealer. The new parts I bought were the FPP pipes, tailight lens, Pingel petcock, tires/tubes, carb parts and gas cap. I rode it for a year with the crap body parts, struts, front end lowered, etc just because I liked it that way. I had less than $500 in the bike.
A friend of mine who was a SEAL broke his back and his wife bought him an airbrush to pass the time while he recuperated. Turns out he was pretty good and he wanted to paint some bikes. I showed him a picture of a Zero in snow camouflage and said do it like this.....so, the H1 became known as Tojo. He's getting a new Moo stage2/reed top end, Dave Singleton crank with Chris Ritchie labs and lots more goodies.....I'll restart the build thread soon because the need for your much appreciated help and input is after all how I found you.
Also my wife's wedding present KZ200, my very first bike bought new in 1972 Z50AK3 (in restored non factory pirate trim) and Jimi
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