Hello from Gloria

"Gloria" is my 1974 Honda CB250G5. 

I bought her in November 2021 as a complete impulse purchase off EBay, after seeing the listing just 15 minutes before the end of the auction. Well, it wasn't quite a total impulse buy - there was some method behind the madness.

In early 2021, I'd decided to do another bike restoration, after having fully restored a rusty wreck of a Honda 400 Dream about 10 years earlier (she became "Doris" and you can see her story here). I really liked the idea of restoring a 250 or 360 Honda G5, as the 360 version had been the first proper sized bike I'd had when I passed my test (in 1979 😮). It subsequently "became" a 250 a year or so later after I replaced the broken 360 engine!

This is it in 1979.

I also had some unfinished business with the G5 range, as I had got quite a way down a restoration in the early 2000's, but ran out of money and time with a young family, so I sold it on. The "after" photo here flatters it.

The problem was that these bikes (well, any old bikes really!) had suddenly become desirable and even very rusty heaps were being sold for well over £2,000! 

I ended up going in a different direction and bought a 1962 Royal Enfield Crusader Sports 250, which has been off the road for 40 years, and that is undergoing a total restoration - see here.

Now roll forward 6 months to the aforementioned EBay auction. The bike was relatively local (20 miles away) and the current bid was significantly less than I thought it would go for. It looked in pretty good, mostly original condition and I thought, even if it turned out not quite that nice, it was probably worth about £2,000. I put a bid in at the last minute, not thinking for one second I would get it. Lo and behold, seconds later she was mine! 

My logic was that I could decide which to keep, once the Crusader restoration is complete and, in the meantime I could probably fairly easily get her up and running for Spring and Summer.

So as I got her, she was running roughly and needed a really good tune up but was in quite good original condition and carried her 47 years well. The chrome is generally good and would polish up nicely and the tank paintwork carries several rust spots, but is kind of too nice and original to lose that patina.

A deep service and very light restoration was decided on, with a view to having her back on the road for Spring 2022.

"Why Gloria" you may ask? I have no idea, but each of my "classics" has ended up with a name and they just kind of come to me, as I see their character emerge! The G is definitely from "G5". I have never known another Gloria, although I am quite partial to a song called Gloria by the very magnificent Trials of Cato, so maybe that influenced me?