On the road again

There’s nothing quite like the glow of satisfaction when all your components for a restoration project are laid out, clean and fresh, ready for reassembly.

But, will everything go back together as intended? Do I have the skills and tools necessary to get everything to fit as the factory originally intended?

You read about the heroes of resto and rebuilds and wonder if you can match even a small part of their achievements. Paranoia sets in and you wake up at night in anticipation of the next job. It can be a nightmare.

You’ll recall that the 1988 Honda NT650J Bros that I’d owned for 20 years had been suffering cosmetically from lack of attention. It looked tired, particularly when you inspected it closely underneath to see the ravages of time.

The Bros had been launched at the same time as the highly-desirable RC30 Honda VFR750 V4, with which it shared a