La Honda Deauville

During lock down I had ignited my love for motorcycles again, to the point I bought a 2002 Honda Deauville nt650v for £200, it was a nonrunner and I thought I could either get it running and sell or keep for myself or strip it and sell the parts that were ok if it was terminal. The guy said the bike had been into a garage and they thought it was something to do with the starter but for 200 we couldn’t complain. We trailered it back and within 30 minutes of getting it off the trailer we had the engine running. Turns out the battery was fitted in the wrong was turning the starter motor the wrong way, luckily the only damage done was the voltage regulator blow.

The bike was a lovely blue colour, not original colours plus had a lot of royal transport corps which I believe the guy I bought it from was in. The bike was not in the corps.

The bike was in a sorry state, it had been painted blue which was a rather nice blue and a fantastic finish to the paint, but the garage had broken a panel to get in to check something, the thought of repairing the panel and painting it to match it was not on the cards as the bike was originally white. The wiring was a mess with what can only be described as household wire from a hoover been added to run his lights. There was a lot of other things that just were not right like the engine and wheels been painted black.

We stripped it right down and decided to rebuild it and make it right, new bearings, seals, and paint job among a lot of other things. I also bought the bottom belly pan for it as I thought it finished the bike off.

The paint job was agricultural white paint which left a nice shine on it, all the engine, final drive, forks etc where done in alloy wheel silver from rattle cans.

I want to give a big shout out to my dad, Watty and Kevin as with out them the bike would still be in bits, we spent many Saturday’s building and repairing things.

Luckily there is a Honda Deauville breaker in The Law not far from us who was a god send for parts, Thank you Alan.

After we got it, all built up after the winter we stuck it in for mot, we were pleased it passed first time and have enjoyed many outings on it.

The Deauville is a very underrated bike, it’s a touring bike which has plenty space, perfect for a quick blast up the town to pick up your shopping to going away on bike rallies.