My sad specimen is FREE, situated - North Queensland

[re5mike]

Hello all,

Long time no post!

My life changed drastically several years ago with the passing of my wife. I decided to stay in China running our factory and my return visits to Australia became fewer and fewer.

I have finally decided it's time to move on and sell our family home and that means everything in it has to go as well.

I stripped and rebuilt my poor bike about 10 years ago and it was running well but several years in the shed in the rainforest of North Queensland have taken a heavy toll.

This bike will require a very serious effort to bring it back from the edge, if that's even possible.

I have a full, unused gasket set and some spares. When it was running the engine was very good, easy to start, no smoke.

Who knows now though? This is a project for the serious only and to that end I am giving it away along with whatever bits I have to the person who is first: more likely to restore it and second: able to collect it from my house in Kuranda North Queensland (near Cairns) but ONLY during the week of Oct 10 to 17th 2019.

I am only in the country during that week to finalise affairs so it will go during that week.

If you are interested please email me at [e-mail] and we can discuss options. I have no pictures and can't get any as I'm in China.

Note that I will not be able to pack it at all - you will have to have someone do that. I simply won't have the time while I'm around. Ideally you (or a mate) will call with a ute or trailer and I can help load it but that would be the end of my ability to assist.

Cheers, RE5Mike

 

[Jess]

Mike,

Sorry to hear of the passing of your wife.

You will be missed in the Re5 community as well. You have helped a bunch of folks over the years. I know that Sam held you in the highest regard.

I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Sincerely and respectfully,

Jess Stockwell

[wayne]

Sorry to hear about your wife Mike.

Best regards for the future.

Wayne

[goandy]

Same here Mike= sorry to hear about the wife.

I would love to grab your bike as I've just finished my BMW project... but it's a bit of a long drive from Western Australia!!

Best of luck and hope you find a deserving person to take the bike off your hands.

[goandy]

Mike- I told a friend of mine (Graeme) who would love a RE5 (yes, he's a bit strange too). He'll be in touch via your email if you still have it.

Andy

[graham]

Hi Mike is the RE5 still available .Very keen and can pick up no problem. 

[goandy]

Oct 3, 2019 2:22:19 GMT -5 graham said:

Hi Mike is the RE5 still available .Very keen and can pick up no problem. 

Email him Graham. Don't think Mike checks the forum very often.

[goandy]

So did this bike go to someone to fix up? Would love to see the 'barn find' type pictures!

[wayne]

I've been up to Kuranda and visited Mike on a couple of occasions. That A model was quite a nice looking bike, he'd put a lot of work into it. However, he took me into his shed and walked up to the parked bike, ran his hand down the slope of the clutch cover and made a mini waterfall off the end of the casing. There was that much condensation on the alloy.

Kuranda is a beautiful place and site of a must-do train journey whether you're a rail-o-phile or not. But living in the rainforest comes at a price.

Whatever's become of the outside of that bike, the internals will almost certainly be fine and, hate to say it, but it was running well when parked (I know, I know....)

A very generous and rare offer from Mike. Nothing that won't respond to some TLC.

[goandy]

Yes indeed it was. Would be great to hear that the bike is getting resurrected.

[buzsaw]

Hi Guys Jason here.. long time reader first time poster lol

I was the guy who jumped at the opportunity to go to Queensland and rescue Mikes Re5! Im now finally getting closer to actually doing some work to it since we got it back from Cairns back in October last year!

I cant thank Mike enough for his generosity and kindness he looked after me and my son like great mates and I will never forget this. Thankyou very much Mike.

What can I say.. it was a once in a lifetime excursion for a once in a lifetime bike. I’m looking forward to restoring the bike dare I say modifying it if parts can’t be resurrected. I’ll work out how to post photos and videos (if someone can assist that would be great.)

We even had a chance to help Mike rescue one of his Pinball machines from a hockshop (long story but not my place to tell) even that was great to do so all in all I would do it all again because it was just a blast and a great way to spend time with my son.

Stay tuned for pictures and videos

[buzsaw]

I figured out how to post to Flickr so have uploaded a bunch of photos and a couple of videos for y'all to enjoy!



www.flickr.com/photos/189231362@N04/with/50088433328/

[wayne]

Thank you very much for posting those photos. I started communicating with Mike about RE5's somewhere around 2000 and first visited him around 2004 or so. He made us feel very welcome (including my teenage son).

He even stayed with us in Sydney and introduced us a to quite a character down here, someone who even owns his own train(!). Motorcycles welcome. He carried a motorcycle on the verandah of the caboose when we saw Mike and his friend off from Sydney's Central Station. Funnily enough, security weren't as impressed as I was when they rode the bike up and down the platform.

I haven't seen Mike for 12 years or so. I enjoyed the pictures.

That was a generous offer from Mike but at least it's gone to an enthusiast. Look forward to hearing more as the rebuild progresses.

PS Those black panniers should polish up very well. I made them around 2005 so they're not as old as the bike. Mike made the brackets and fitted the coaming and hinges.

[goandy]

Nice. Good to see what happened to it. Good luck and hope you get it running again soon! ask away with any questions here or on the facebook group.

[CanAm]

Awesome Jason
Have 'followed' your flickr & look forward to updates.
Cheers,
Seth