New Member Intro

[NM Bonny]

I just joined and wanted to say hello. I live in Albuquerque, and recently bought a '72 Bonny T120R (see first pic). It was painted what I call 'French taxi cab green,' with the paint applied right over a collection of dents on the tank that looked like it had been through a Texas hailstorm, and also over the damaged original paint on the fenders, which were dinged up and mangled a bit.

The second pic shows my (slow) progress in rebuilding the machine to suit my preferences. The paint is a custom-mixed color no longer available but which GM made in 1966 called "mist blue metallic," and which appeared mostly on GTOs and Chevelles. Looks more silver-blue in the sun, more blue-gray in the shade.

The bike's compression was around 140 cold/dry when I bought it, so I just resealed the rocker box and rewired everything (removed signals and ran control wires though the lower, Euro-spec handlebars). I'm about to add a three-stage alternator (Honda three-wire rectifier) and check out the primary and clutch. If the speedo is to be believed, she's got just over 14K on her, but I have no idea. Numbers all match but I bought if from a broker who did not know the history (or wouldn't tell me).

Anyway, looking forward to using this forum--and I hope meeting some riders from this region who might like to do some classic touring runs on NM's 70 mph and lower-speed backroads in the future.

 

[Rocky]

Hello and welcome to TT from the east coast of Canada
Nice looking bike

 

[NM Bonny]

Hello and welcome to TT from the east coast of Canada
Nice looking bike

Thank you, Sir. One of my visions for the future is to ride backroads as much as possible out to visit family in Ithaca, NY. How far up the coast are you? I wrote a spec feature screenplay years back whose opening sequence takes place in Toronto and then aboard a sailing yacht in the Gulf of St. Lawrence--and which Jerry Bruckheimer nearly bought, but the director of development said they had just green lighted "a silly story about a treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence." Ah, well...

I see you've got one of those newfangled Bonnys. How does riding it compare to an old pushrod-style 650 like mine?

I attached a Norton-style LED taillamp since the above 'after' photo was taken (here's a pic), and also a drop-in LED headlamp bulb from the UK, which for ~$50 allowed me to keep the British Pre-focus, shallow chrome bucket. I've yet to ride it, but the beam pattern on the garage wall looks good.

 

[Rocky]

I've traveled a lot by car in the northeast US and in New York state. It's a beautiful state and wonderful riding country.
I'm much further to the northeast. From Ithica, for example, and as the crow flies, it's probably 500+ miles to this area. By road it would take a couple of days.
I love the Bonneville. I bought it new, and it still looks that way. Very reliable and hardy compares to the old 650's.

 

[Vector]

Hello from NV USA. Dig the bike and the color, hope you get it running great.

 

[NM Bonny]

Hello from NV USA. Dig the bike and the color, hope you get it running great.

Thanks! I had originally anticipated having to pull the head and barrel to hone the bores, then install new rings. But with ~140 psi identical in both cylinders, I figure that it'll be fine for a while--and that could conceivably drift up a bit if the rings re-bed a bit with some usage. But if those numbers aren't sufficient for it to run well, it's not a huge job on these old bikes to R&R the head and barrel. maybe a weekend or two.

At the pace I work, which is s-l-o-w, it'll probably be winter by the time I've polished and sealed up the primary, kicker, and timing covers and inspected the brakes and wheel bearings--minimum I want to do before riding around a bit.

 

[Greyfell]

Welcome, from Northern California.

 

[sikatri]

Howdy and welcome from Houston!

 

[Qship]

Welcome to TT from Eastern Canada. Sharp looking Bonnie you have. Great job on the new color.

 

[NM Bonny]

Welcome to TT from Eastern Canada. Sharp looking Bonnie you have. Great job on the new color.

Thank you, Sir. Here's a shot in the sun (rolled the bike out of the garage today to weld up an adapter cradle to lift it using the rolling floor jack), which shows the color saturation a little better. Man, the prep on the tank and fenders took hours and hours... but worth it.

I'll post again when I get the hand-formed aluminum side covers made up, engine and tranny covers polished, etc. Trying to decide whether to polish the hubs, but that means unlacing the wheels... might as well fit aluminum rims if I go to that trouble!