Closing date for April issue -> February 17
Somewhere in a barn – column
It's rare for someone to have a church organ, a motor yacht, or a truck tucked away in a shed for so long that they forget about it. But a motorcycle? It's in a corner. An old blanket gets laid over it. A few old garden chairs get propped up against it. Then two cupboard doors get propped up against them. And before you know it, that two-wheeler is savoring years and years of oblivion.
That idea was confirmed again during a visit to an AMK reader. Following a conversation at a birthday party, he made an appointment. He supposedly had an old motorcycle in a shed. That old bike turned out to be a Honda CB350 twin. It looked awful, but the engine was loose.
Along with a selection of parts, the CB found a new owner for the full fifty euros. The twin has now been rescued from demise, and investments will be made to make it a decent classic again.
So, we're not saying there's a classic motorcycle in every other shed. But the idea has caught on. A dealer has now posted a standing advertisement in a regional newspaper: Enthusiast looking for old motorcycle (good or to restore).
He doesn't score every week, but it pays to constantly repost the call. The aging population is also affecting Gelderland. The chances of success in the Randstad, Almere, and Lelystad are lower, but still...
Quite a while ago, a friend of mine, a resident of—well, let's just call it Nieuwer ter Aa—received a visit from an elderly woman who was struggling with her husband's inheritance. Since the 1960s, when no one wanted to be seen on a motorcycle anymore, he had been taking home all the old motorcycles he could get for free, or literally for a few guilders, on his travels as a bargeman. There were fifty or so of them. Our friend had to borrow money for them. But by selling a few of the abandoned motorcycles, he covered his expenses. The rest was pure profit, and the Norton Atlas and the BMW R 50 S now sit happily gleaming in his own shed (next to his two Ducatis).
In another case I placed what I thought was a hopeless call for an old ex-Eastern Bloc motorcycle in the section Readers helping readers van The GelderlanderThat unexpectedly resulted in the adoption of an IZH 350 with Dutch registration. For four hundred euros. After a few weekends of polishing and cleaning, it turned out to be perfectly usable and attracted more attention than a thirty-thousand-dollar BMW R 1300 GS or a supercharged Harley-Davidson. Unfortunately, a big single-cylinder two-stroke wasn't my thing. But still: I owned an IZH 350 Planeta-5.
And I have agreed with it The Gelderlander stood!
In short: there is still all kinds of stuff everywhere.
But just try finding it.
Still have a few neat CB Fours from over 40 years old, CB350, CB400, CB550, CB750, interested?
Hi All,
I've said it before: British Columbia, Canada, is such a forgotten corner of North America that you're sometimes amazed at what's found in a garage. Women here often live much longer than their husbands, but often have no idea what all that old junk under a tarp (indoors and heated, though) is. It's rarely abused; a DB6 was found by accident and sold for a reasonable price, except that the widow wanted absolutely nothing for it. Good people still exist. I loved how Dolf wrote, "You don't easily miss a church organ." I was still working for BMW in Richmond when a rather old, dirty-looking French farmer wanted to buy a BMW E36. There was one condition: he had bought a trade car, which was still in the shed, for his wife, but she didn't want the car. It only happened to me once that I found an old, but brand-new Renault Fuego, and that was the trade car. Die Fuego is as far as I know, the only one still in the lower mainland.
Greetings to everyone from a way-too-hot Vancouver.
Bass.
So I bought the YDS3 2 months ago.
Hello! Years ago, I posted on a classic car website looking for a Yamaha YDS3. I never got a response. Until two months ago. Someone from the Randstad called who'd had one in his garage for 30 years. The bike was even still insured! He had no plans to use it anymore. I was able to buy it cheaply. The engine was loose and still sparked. There was some rust damage here and there, but that's pretty much self-explanatory. A little work needed and I can hit the road with it. My dream has come true. Things have come full circle, because when I was 19, I had one just like it. Greetings from Ötzi
Great story, Ötzi! It's incredible that you've gotten lucky after all these years. Wishing you lots of fun and safe miles with your Yamaha!
Pay close attention and if something nice comes your way, you have something special!