Once upon a time I owned Sweden’s first 900 Boldór. It was side-imported via England and I had it in my possession before any others were released on the Swedish market. It was a silver colored 79 that I used extensively one summer. Good engine power but catastrophically poor road holding. Could completely unprovoked start wobbling on a straight road. After one season it was sold in favor of another project. I have traced it and it still had the same owner I sold it to and it had been decommissioned since 1982. However, it was there as “paper” but was in practice scrapped. Sad… In the summer of 2022, an -80 with the same color scheme appears in the local area, which on the surface is in relatively good condition and the price tag was reasonable, so it was a deal. As can be seen in the picture, it was not so nice when you lightened the “surface layer”. There is a relatively extensive renovation that has just started. The availability of good parts for these is relatively good. The main reason for choosing this bike was that early in its life someone had removed the original exhaust system and it was still there and in amazingly good condition. A real lottery ticket..

The renovation went quite quickly and here the engine is already back in the repainted frame. It turned out that the engine was in astonishingly good condition. The leak down test showed 2-3% which is what it often is on a brand new engine. A few valve chimes needed to be replaced and so of course it got a little exterior “make over”. Say what you will, but Honda’s quality is often hard to beat (admitted by a die-hard Kawasaki fan). The carbs received the usual treatment with disassembly, ultrasonic cleaning, new needles, gaskets, etc.

An original exhaust system in very good condition, fits nicely. The original shock absorbers were in good condition and most of the original decals were also fine. I had to supplement with a few aftermarket decals. The rear rim had taken a bit of a beating but could be saved.

The original paint could be preserved to a very large extent thanks to modern paint technology. The only part that has been repainted is the “tail” which received perfect reproduction decals from Classic Decals in England. In February it was almost ready but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get hold of an original seat in good enough condition so it will have to be an aftermarket cover from David Silver. It will arrive shortly. It can be mentioned that most of what you buy from “Silver”, in terms of reproduction parts, is of very good quality.

The clocks were actually what took the most time to sort out. Lots of little things that needed fixing. After many years, among other things, the reflectivity deteriorates so that the instrument lighting becomes weak and cloudy, but with access to the right skills, that can also be fixed.