I posted twice yesterday, once re: cleaning the OIF reservoir and once to get info on the Hancox DVD's.
It was only after a very frustrating hour of digging through the sordid wreck that this newly reunited '76 Bonnie has become that I realized that I basically crashed the party with two questions and no introductions. Given I consider myself more civilized than that, here's the lowdown.
Back in 1976, a close family friend purchased a brand new T140V from Countryside Triumph in Tallahassee, FL. I think, if my adled memory serves, I was 7.
The owner decides after several years of riding and tweaking and tuning that he really wants a Harley and so my Dad expresses interest in the Bonnie and a deal is struck. I believe this time to be around 1983. Sadly, when it came to live at our house, its pretty red and white paint job was covered in black laq. Later, it would become BRG while there with my father.
My father rides it for several years, encounters a mishap between valve and piston, rebuilds it and continues to ride it. Then 1987 arrives.
I'm about to graduate from high school when my father comes home with a new (I think) Yamaha XS 650 Special II with wire wheels and such and proclaims that we're going on a motorcycle trip after graduation, he on the Yammie, me on the Triumph.
Waaay too excited for my own good, not only do we plan this thing out, but he also hands me the title to the Bonnie as a graduation present as if to impart to me "its yours, wreck it gently".
We survive the trip (actually enjoyed it!) and I continued to own, ride, polish, care for the Bonnie until I was shipped overseas in the military. It sat for several years, being ridden and cared for by Dad in my absence.
I return from service and head off to finish college, Bonnie in tow. I take her out on a back road one afternoon after some PM, routine maintenance and a good washing to open her up and hear the pipes when all of a sudden, the right piston begins to misfire, smoke profusely and then lose compression. She doesn't seize but we do limp home a$$ puckered and forlorn.
I scurry up about $1500 from work, some back military pay and set her right again with new bits inside and out at the hands of a skilled wrench in Gainesville, FL. She returns with a beautiful purr and once again, the world is right. I even employ her prowess while dating and take my-then-girlfriend-now-wife for rides on her. While I won't say it sealed the deal, it didn't hurt my case either.
We (Bonnie and I) continue our love affair for several years, surviving marriage, children and a mortgage until I am transfered to South Florida for work. I take her home to Dad's house rather than take her south, where she takes up residence next to his Electra Glide Classic and gets routine attention and rides.
Then one day, with little forewarning or consideration, I hear that she has been relocated to my brother's house in Jacksonville.
I flinch at first and call to check on her. "She's fine" I'm told. Repeatedly.
That was 2001. Time passes and my job changes again and I find myself moving back out of So Fla and closer to Jacksonville. I begin to ask when would be a good time to come pick up my bike. I'm always told "anytime but if you want to leave her with me, I'll replace the clutch" or some such other project which continues to lull me into believing that she is still well cared for and being maintained.
2009 rolls around (yeah, work's kept me waaaaay tooooo busy) and I decide that its been a while and I'd like to see her some day SOON!!! (I don't go to my brother's house often, can you tell?)
I visit unannounced in January of 2009....and this is what I found...
http://picasaweb.google.com/7873jake/Triumph#
I promptly retained the services of a U-Haul and kidnapped her for return home. Upon arrival at the house, my wife looked at her and asked "is it even the same bike?"
I tell her it is and when I'm done peeling skull-and-crossbones-with-skateboard stickers off of the tank I'll be in to help with house chores (gotta start kissing up ASAP 'cuz this project is gonna cost me!)
All he can say for himself is "when you're done restoring her, you'll know her inside and out! Can I take her for a spin when you're done?"
Her frame and bottom end casing #s match. Her top end was replaced long ago after being re-bored to +60 and then determined to have problems with tolerances and subsequently replaced by/at M.A.P.
As I indicated in a previous post, her frame has been powdercoated and her head tube decal is long gone, a facet I was proud to have preserved for soooo long.
Her seat is worn and split, her tank ding'd, her rims more rust than chrome and her brake system a storage facility for old, contaminated DOT? brake fluid.
I don't know that a single thing on her works as it should although I am told that her Amals have been sleeved and her head has had an unleaded conversion done. ("Really? How could I tell? From the way you've treated her?") Aside from that, her pipes won't stay on, her center stand is bent (how?!? nevermind, I don't want to know) and her shocks saaag like a cheap wet tent.
But my wife loves her, I miss her glory and "voice" and my father can only cuss and throw things when he sees her. I think he might be the only one who regrets letting my brother drive away with her that day more than me.
So that's what brings me here to you all, dirty Carhartts, grease under the remnants of my fingernails, at your mercy and on your coattails for info.
Where do I pay my admission fee?
Oh, and this discussion re: the sludge trap just makes me smile with joy to know I have yet one more thing to look forward to!!!
Jake
Central Florida
: That guy reminds me a lot of MY Brother!!!
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