Now that the cold wet rain is back again, I suppose I should take some time to give the Honda some love. The Bonneville is in capable hands for now, so other than some wiring work left on my end (and paint and carbs and….doh), I have plenty of time to sexy her up.

Unfortunately, I think she’s gotten worse looking hanging out with me over the last few years. Between the tragically unhelpful neighbor that ripped off my bars and left her for dead, and a few experimental paint jobs, the old bird looks like she could use a face lift. Let’s take a look at our progression….

When I got her in 2008, the tank paint was fading, but the seat was still in decent shape, and she was…. mostly clean. But not perfect. Pre-neighbor fiasco:

Later, with a sandblasted and freshly primed tank:

Then I decided it would be fun to try and paint it. I went with a 60s blue. It was fun for a minute… not really a fan of my color choice, though.

And then one boring, rainy spring day, I decided to go with this camo green. Notice the seat is now being held on by tape, too. Full beater status:

So…. yeah. I promise not to let the same fate come to the Triumph, but this has been a learning process, and fun. So don’t judge. She runs like a beauty and starts.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for inspiration on what I want her to look like next, and came across this fierce, murdered out Scrambler:

Sexy right? I’m missing the original side covers, so if I can’t find them on ebay, I’m thinking some diamond plate side covers could be sweet. Add some drag bars, new seat cover, fresh paint, new headlamp/ tail-light and a power wash, and we’re be looking sharp this Spring. I’m diggin’ the murdered-out spokes, fenders and exhaust, as well…. rust proof. :p

Feedback? Thoughts? Color suggestions? Let me know what you think!

Now to pull the heater down to the garage. :/ Tata for now…

Update! Progress is under way on the Bonneville, and the engine is now in the final stages of the rebuild.

After disassembling as much of the donor engine as I possible could, I finally gave in and found a pro to help me finish the job – and I’m glad I did. Not only is this FAR too mission critical of a job for me to be “practicing” on, but it’ll now be better than new, and my engine also turned out to be a pretty big challenge in and of itself. So here’s a shout out to George Kraus, who’s here in Portland. Based off his past projects, I’m pretty confident my bike will be insane when it’s done. Check out his website, he’s legit.

In any case, the cylinders are re-bored, the crank is grounded, side covers are polished and/or chromed, hardware is plated, and the machinist is finishing the pistons and rings as we speak. Turns out the sludge trap on the crank is being…. cranky. But we’re close.

Now, I need to find a fantastic painter asap. Got a recommendation?

And to solve this puzzle of making two bikes in one. I’m going to try and find a way to swap out the aluminum tank and cafe set up with the original tank/ fenders and seat. Yeah – wish me luck.

Here are some of the latest pics of the engine in process

Portland has some rides going on throughout the year. I might have missed the naked ride with the Vampires this January (brrr), but this will suffice…. gonna get dirty dirty tomorrow… and hopefully piss a few folks off!

Man time flies... I up and decided to move to Portland, and here I am, 4 months later. Has that much time actually flown by? Shame on me. A little life shake up has set my off my schedule a bit...  but this weekend was my initial "reveal" goal for the Bonneville. And I'm still where I was at the end of November. So here I am, kicking myself, and picking up where I left off.

The good news is that I DO have a garage, my neighbor is giving me a workbench for free, and I just bought a ton of tools and garage supplies so I can keep on keepin' on. At least here in the soggy Pacific Northwest, I have some more time before summer riding season is in full force.

Since I arrived, my long awaited (and ridiculously awesome) tank showed up. So a HUGE thanks to Evan Wilcox for the amazing work and thoughtful contribution to my project.  I guess I'll be learning the fine art of custom seat building....