There are lots of reasons why a bike is neglected and lies forgotten in a shed, barn or garage to deteriorate further after leading a hard life. Some of these reasons include simple expediency as technology overtakes the current machine and it’s not worth trading in, while other reasons are more complicated.
However, for whatever reason the bike goes from being ‘the’ one we use every week, the one which receives all the care and attention of a regular race bike, to becoming a hack, used and abused, rarely, if ever, washed or maintained before, if it’s lucky, finally being shoved under a sheet to be sorted later. Just such a thing happened to this 1979 400cc KTM GS80 when after a period of hard use, it was pushed into…