Before I get carried away...

I think it's probably appropriate to start at the beginning...

In late 2010, a friend and co-worker told me he found a guy willing to sell a 77 Bonneville and a 71 BSA Thunderbird (I think...), but he wanted to sell them both as a pair. My friend has a huge warehouse where he does woodworking and I could store mine there until I found an apartment with a garage (I live in New Orleans, so that's pretty much impossible). So, I figured that would be fine. The price was cheap and I was going into it knowing it was going to be a mess because I knew it was seized and had been flooded and yada yada yada.

So, I went and took a look...

And yeah...they look okay on the surface, but really the surface means nothing with a flood victim and sitting for 5 years afterwards. Also, they don't have titles. In most states with a bike that old it wouldn't really matter, but here in Louisiana...it does. So they had some pros and some cons to them both. Most notably was that there was only one carb on the Bonnie. This means that it is not a Bonnie...sort of. The Tiger from those years was the Bonneville with a single carb set up. Exact same bike, less maintenance...good start, I guess. I like the name more anyways.

Secondly, the BSA was a RIGHT SIDE SHIFT! My friend Martin was not perturbed by this, but I would never really want to have both. I have 2 other left side shifting bikes and I would ride them all regularly and I could see having an accident doing that easily. So, since he didn't care and I was into the project since it was so clean for being a flood victim, we bought them. I had talked to a bunch of people on Triumph forums to know what to expect with a siezed Twin Unit 750 and even purchased a DVD from Four Aces Cycles that went through step by step how to deconstruct and rebuild the entire engine. Since I like to think of myself as handy and wasn't as hands on for my last build (1978 Honda GL1000 "naked" Goldwing named 'Christine') I was thinking it would be a lot of fun to rebuild the entire thing. To touch every bolt, clean every bit of grease and grime off the bike and put her back where she should be...the road...

I had even modeled the entire bike in 3d (that's what I do for work) so that I could think about how I want to rebuild the bike and what I want it to look like in the end. Here's one of my rough drafts...

So, let's leave the first installation with that...up next will be the build sheet...oh, boy...

The first of many...

So, I have another blog that is devoted to the trip that my friend, Jeff Cozine, are going to take from the US to South America on motorcycles in 2013 and everything leading up to that, but I thought I would make another one that is devoted to the rebuild of a 1977 Triumph Tiger 750 that I got real cheap due to it being a Katrina victim (and I stress victim). I have not yet decided if this will be the bike to take me around the world (most likely not) but I am going to rebuild her from the bottom up. I bought the bike in November of 2010 and really have not done anything with it yet besides break it down completely and work on getting the frame painted and ready. That is about to change...

This shall be her story...The Baroness