36 www.TrailRider.com
So, Bob and I took a drive up there, met with
George, and found the bike to be an extremely
well-preserved, ready-to-ride 1975 360 Frontera.
Everything was there, everything worked, and
George fired the bike up, right there in the shop.
It sounded good. Price was right, so we loaded it
up, headed home happy, and even got a tle for
it! The only ques on which remained was – what
to do with it? A full "restora on" was considered.
And yet, this bike was so complete and so ready to
ride that we were actually tempted to put it into
use—one problem. I, for one, could not start it.
Call me a broken-down old man (which I am), but
something about the kicker length and posi on, as
well as the piston-spin-ra o to kicker stroke, pre-
vented me from ge ng her to kick over without
unrealis c effort. Done properly, the bike would
fire right up and run like a champ. What to do?
What to do?
With many, many bikes in The Vintage Movement
stable and a bunch of other projects pending,
along with a constant flow of customer bikes, we
made the decision to offer the Frontera up for
sale. Among the respondents to our bike lis ng
was Charles Madison. Charles reported that he
has wanted a Frontera since he first saw one in a
local shop in 1975. At that me, a much younger
Charles had ridden his Kawasaki 90 to the local
Bultaco shop to purchase a spark plug. That shop
had just received its first Frontera, and Charles was
completely taken by the bike. So, all these years
later, Charles had found "his" Frontera. We struck
a deal, and the bike was shipped out to Charles.
His stated inten on right from the start was to
restore the bike.
Fast forward a few months, and Charles surprised
me with photos of the finished product, in a word
