Bike: 1965 Honda S65
Owner: Paul Enz
Location: Titusville, Fla.
Occupation: Quality Inspector, Kennedy Space Center
Bio.: Paul has a thing for Hondas (like a lot of people we know!) and currently owns a 1965 Honda S65, a CL160, and an NT650 Hawk. He’s owned about a dozen motorcycles since his first (an S65) in 1965, and some years back his buddy Troyce Walls (whom we’ve featured in these very pages before) talked him into the idea of restoring a vintage motorcycle. It wasn’t long before Paul bought an S65 at a local vintage motorcycle show for the princely sum of $35. Roughly two years later, Paul had finished restoring the S65, doing everything himself except for the paint. “I like having it around because it takes me back to my earliest motorcycle experience, and folks really enjoy seeing it at the shows,” says Paul, who rides the bike occasionally and shows it at most of the bike shows around Florida, and at the Barber Vintage Festival each year.

Read more about this motorcycle:
• 1965-1969 Honda S65 

Bike: 1969 Triumph Thruxton Bonneville
Owner: David Haydon
Hometown: Abbotsford, British Columbia
Occupation: Auto mechanic
Etc.: A confirmed Triumph man, Haydon also owns a rare short-stroke, Hinckley-built 1995 750cc Trident.

Haydon was living in Canada when he heard about the Thruxton through an England-based buddy. It had been stored for some time and needed some TLC. As an auto mechanic, this prospect held no fear for him. He’s made several modifications to the Thruxton, mostly to make it more streetable: like installing stock 9:1 pistons instead of the racing 11:1 versions, and replacing the close-ratio gears with a standard set.

“I haven’t added to it, mostly subtracted from it,” he says. “The CR gearbox was really impractical for any city work.”
So what’s the Thruxton like to ride?

“I always describe it as a bit like riding a motorized skateboard. The suspension’s a little hard, and of course that seat … I guess it’s just harder on me now than when I first got it!
“It’s been entertaining owning it. It’s not like you see another one every day. And I think the thing I hear most that makes me chuckle is, 'I didn’t know they made Dunstall Triumphs.’”

Read more about this motorcycle:
• Triumph Thruxton Bonneville 

Bike: 1957 Nimbus Type C 
Owner: Jamie Spitzley
Hometown: Cambria, Calif.
Occupation: Vintner/fabricator/machinist/handyman
Bio: Jamie Spitzley’s probably the only person you’ll ever meet who got crossed up with the law on a Whizzer. “My first infraction with the law was as a kid on a friend’s Whizzer, running a straight pipe with no muffler,” Jamie says. And he got his first bike, a 1961 Norton 99, the old fashioned way. He lied for it. “When I was sent away to college, one of the first things I did was write my dad and ask him for money for books and clothes. ‘Jeez, that’s a lot of money,’ he said.” The Norton was sold when the military called, but bikes returned when Jamie’s service stint ended, and in 1967 he and a buddy opened Crossland Cycles in Boulder, Colo. The cycle shop only lasted a few years, followed by marriage, kids and running a ranch in Colorado. Jamie moved away from motorcycles again, but following a divorce and a move out of ranching, he rekindled his motorcycle love affair. These days you’ll find Jamie and wife Suzie (“Guzzi Suzie”) tending to their vineyard, Boulder Ridge Estates, near Cambria on California’s West Coast, and to Jamie’s collection of 40 motorcycles. The collection ranges from the 1957 Nimbus Type C featured here to a Bultaco Metralla and a Harley-Davidson XR1000.

Etc: “When I was a rancher, one of my neighbors had a 1922 REO in his barn. I bought it with the hope of restoring it someday, but it never happened. I hauled it out here and it sat in my shed. Somebody heard about it, and a car collector came by and asked if I’d be interested in selling or trading: He offered a 1957 Nimbus Type C and sidecar in trade. The Nimbus takes less space, and I could put four more bikes in with the REO gone. That was in 2000. I didn’t know anything about it, really. It was running when I got it, the engine had been rebuilt, and shortly after the trade there was a Nimbus for sale for $15,000, so I didn’t feel too bad.

“It tracks well, but you have to muscle it through corners, and it’s a slow shifter; you need to count to three before you shift to the next gear. “I like that it’s not typical, it’s not like other motorcycles in design. The engine is very innovative, it’s very smooth, but I don’t want to push it too much for fear of something letting go.

“The brakes are minimal. They slow it down pretty well, but I don’t know if I could lock it up on pavement, but I haven’t really tried. I live on a steep hill, it’s a gravel road, and when I go down I just skid all the way down. “It’s happiest in a straight line at 45mph — you’re not going to get anywhere fast, but it’s a pleasure to ride. And it’s fun because Suzie and I can take it to the farmers market and get produce; it’s just nice.”

Read more about the motorcycles mentioned in this article:
• 1957 Nimbus Type C
• The Whizzer Sportsman
• Harley-Davidson XR1000 

Bike: 1972 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV
Owner: Dave Gurry
Hometown: Langley, BC
Occupation: Glass store manager
Bio: To the uninformed outsider, Dave Gurry might seem to be a fanatic. But to those who understand the lure of motorcycles, he’s simply a passionate collector with a vision. Dave keeps a mental list of the bikes he considers the most significant of those produced in the last 40 years or so, and has set out to acquire an example of each. His collection now includes a Honda CBX, Honda VFR750R and Honda CB400 Four, a highly tuned Norton Commando Roadster, a BMW R100GS Paris-Dakar and a 1972 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV, among others. Why did he want to own and restore an H2? “In 1972, it was THE performance bike,” says Dave. “Just the sound and feel of a big two-stroke accelerating ... ”

So determined was Dave to own and restore one that he started collecting parts for it five years before he found the bike. His patience paid off when he discovered a shabby but mostly together H2 in 1995. With used parts collected from as far away as Europe, he completed the restoration at a budget price. “I probably have around $3,000 into it,” he says.

Etc.: Dave Gurry admits the steering of his first-year 1972 H2 isn’t all it could be, in spite of the Kawi having two steering dampers, one friction-type and one hydraulic. “If I turn the handlebars at about 40mph,” he says, “I can see the frame bending at the front of the gas tank. The handling is wickedly poor. In a straight line it’s okay, but in corners it flexes a lot.”

Dave points out a couple of other H2 curiosities to me. Under the seat is a small plunger that squirts oil on the final drive chain — as though the mist from the exhaust wasn’t enough! And the gearshift is another Seventies oddity. Instead of neutral being between first and second gear, it’s below first. So shifting from neutral to first requires lifting the pedal, then the same for first to second, and so on. And neutral comes after first as you downshift. It takes some getting used to, says Dave, especially mixed with a Norton Commando and later Japanese bikes.

New parts for H2s are either unobtainable or hideously expensive. Take exhausts, for example. Dave chose to use the pipes that came with his bike, even though the fastidious would quickly spot a small dent. New 3-into-3 pipes cost $800 U.S. each! Another problem part is the Mitsubishi CD ignition system. They’re simply not available new, and finding used ones that work is almost impossible. Dave has yet to track down a correct rear fender (the one fitted is too short), rear reflectors and some aluminum trim, though he has recently acquired a “new old stock” seat. The handlebars are also lower than stock. In spite of this, the Kawi won first in its class at the Seattle Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiasts show on Vashon Island in 2001.

Outrageous in every way, Dave’s restored bike is just as antisocial now as it was in 1972.

Read more about the motorcycles mentioned in this article:  
• 1972 Kawasaki H2 Mach IV
• 1981 Honda CBX
• 1976 Honda CB400 Four 
• BMW R100GS