Please help find me . . . LVS 877V
Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 5:55 pm
In 1979, aged 16 I was totally consumed, at the expense of all my studies, with the forthcoming purchase of my first motorcycle. I decided to wait the extra year and opt for a Kawasaki KH 100EL brand new and shining in its blue livery from “K Motorcycles of Bedford”, missing out the Fizzy stage which all my school mates were screaming about on at the time.
In the intervening months before being legally allowed to ride it, my Dad would don a spare lid and take us both off to an abandoned wartime airbase at Stow Longa near Kimbolton and teach me to ride safely, keeping a watchful, paternal eye on my inept wobblings, and probably ruminating on the lecture he would receive from my Mum if I so much as scraped a knee in the learning process.
My Dad, the consummate professional airline Captain, worked long and uncivilized hours, often far from home but he would always find the time on his precious days off to take me as pillion for my riding lessons.
Off we would go in a cloud of blue haze, the little 99cc making a huge fuss, hauling Senior and Junior off to our destination on those cloudless Spring and Summer afternoons.
I lost my beloved father to a sudden heart attack just over a year ago, and the pangs of loss have turned my memory back to that golden time.
I have over the years previously owned a BSA Lightning, BMW R80, Triumph NL (1929) and presently ride a Hinckley BonnevilleT100 and 1978 Honda CB400 Four but the giant chasm in my garage is that little, otherwise unremarkable Kwaka… what I wouldn’t offer to bring it back home.
The DVLA tell me it is out there somewhere, maybe rotting gently under a tarpaulin, and I would jump at the chance to purchase it back and restore. In that two-stroke haze I’ll have something tangible to go alongside those memories of my wonderful father.
Kawasaki KH 100EL – first registered Bedford 1980 – registration LVS 877V
Paul Wilmot
0777 600 7534
pmbwilmot@icloud.com
In the intervening months before being legally allowed to ride it, my Dad would don a spare lid and take us both off to an abandoned wartime airbase at Stow Longa near Kimbolton and teach me to ride safely, keeping a watchful, paternal eye on my inept wobblings, and probably ruminating on the lecture he would receive from my Mum if I so much as scraped a knee in the learning process.
My Dad, the consummate professional airline Captain, worked long and uncivilized hours, often far from home but he would always find the time on his precious days off to take me as pillion for my riding lessons.
Off we would go in a cloud of blue haze, the little 99cc making a huge fuss, hauling Senior and Junior off to our destination on those cloudless Spring and Summer afternoons.
I lost my beloved father to a sudden heart attack just over a year ago, and the pangs of loss have turned my memory back to that golden time.
I have over the years previously owned a BSA Lightning, BMW R80, Triumph NL (1929) and presently ride a Hinckley BonnevilleT100 and 1978 Honda CB400 Four but the giant chasm in my garage is that little, otherwise unremarkable Kwaka… what I wouldn’t offer to bring it back home.
The DVLA tell me it is out there somewhere, maybe rotting gently under a tarpaulin, and I would jump at the chance to purchase it back and restore. In that two-stroke haze I’ll have something tangible to go alongside those memories of my wonderful father.
Kawasaki KH 100EL – first registered Bedford 1980 – registration LVS 877V
Paul Wilmot
0777 600 7534
pmbwilmot@icloud.com
