Most businesses need a succession program. And if you?ve been operating for more than half a century, training up the next generation becomes a rather pressing matter.
Egli Motorradtechnik, the famous Swiss workshop that can trace its history back to 1965, has taken big steps to protect its future. And this very smart Honda-powered special is proof?because it?s been restored to perfection by a young apprentice called Sara.

In Switzerland, a mechanic apprenticeship takes four years, with one day a week of formal schooling and four days of hands-on practice. Egli takes on a new apprentice every two years, alternately giving a young woman and a young man a chance.
?Our junior mechanics restore and customize Egli bikes,? Egli spokesperson, Felicitas Frei, tells us. ?They?re bikes that are already in our workshop/showroom, or ones that we buy back from our customers.?
?We call it, ?The youngsters are taking over?.?
For the Honda project, the brief was: ?What should an Egli should look like, to appeal to the younger generation"?

The job went to Sara, a qualified cook with a flair for mechanical things, in the third year of her apprenticeship. To meet the brief, she took an Egli Honda EH9-C to work on. (A note on the nomenclature: E is for Egli, H for Honda, 9 for 900cc, and C for cantilever.)
This particular bike was built as a kit in 1982 for a Swiss customer, who installed the CB900 engine himself. The kit included a nickel-plated rigid backbone Egli frame with a c...