One Rolling Chassis, One Blank Canvas.
With an issue (read hatred) of cutting up a perfectly good frame, I've always steered clear of "chops". Built your own frame? Brilliant, love it, but a classic bike that's been ruined, or butchered, isn't my cup of char. Standard sells, and motorbikes should be cherished - but hey, that's just me.
But, when all that's left of the bike is the frame, forks and wheels I figure there's a certain amount of leeway available. So the latest addition to the garage is a bare bones, back-to-basics '79 GS400 (with no engine). Hence the blank canvas.
Are you seeing the potential?
Yeah she's rough, but doesn't that make it all the more worthwhile? Next stage is to edit the photo into a drawing, and start sketching the shape of the tank and seat hump. An engine wouldn't go amiss either.
Perfect! Time to pick up a pencil and start designing the parts that need to be bashed out of steel.
Just missed out on an old XL250 on ebay. Yes I should have put a higher bid in but sometimes, when you're in two minds, you chance it to fate. It's not exactly a classic BSA or Triumph so I'm not too bothered.
So that leaves me scouring the web pages for restoration projects that are close enough to drive to. Never used to be a problem in the UK, but in Australia, it could be a days travel to get to the next state, let alone the other side of the country!
The post above was the start of BikeTech7.
Not very interesting was it? No pictures, hardly any text. Back then I thought you just wrote something in your blog and everyone was desperate to read the rubbish you churn out. Not actually the way it works, but then you knew that... didn't you?
I started the blog to keep an online account of my projects, and help others who were going through issues of their own and maybe had no prior knowledge. It's all a bit of fun, and hopefully helps you keep your bike on the road, or gets you closer to finishing it.
Got questions? Just ask, I love to hear from you.
Meanwhile, here's some pics of one of my previous bike projects. It's a 1964 Norton Jubilee. The smallest capacity bike Norton ever built, it's a 250cc parallel twin and, although not completely original, looked pretty good when finished.
Thanks for checking out Biketech7 and I hope you can stick around.
