Customizing

All work on this bike was done by me, and right from the beginning, this was never intended to be a restoration. I wanted this bike to be completely custom, and at this point is still evolving into the picture I have in my head. A picture of the bike I wanted back in the 80’s, but could not afford back then.

The frame is the original maroon.
The tank, fenders and side plates, I painted a custom pearl red to achieve a two tone look. Then several coats of clear were applied (which seemed to darken the red slightly), and accented by chrome trim. All prep and paint was done by me.
Paint was custom mixed for me by Lordco Penticton.
All chrome and aluminum was hand polished back to a nice shine.
Oxidation had to be polished off of all exposed plastic coolant reservoirs.
Seats re-covered by Main Street Upholstery in Penticton.

Custom Mini Signal Lights (Tuner Factory X) with 04-129 Halogen Bulbs (available from MotoVan).

 Added custom headlight cover.

Custom fabricated exhaust and heat shield. Previous owner had the exhaust fabricated, but never finished mounting them. So to mount them correctly, I fabricated a set of mounts to properly support the mufflers, and to finish off the look, I created a set of heat shields out of an aluminum mesh.

I also built a custom radiator screen to match the exhaust heat shields. And added chrome trim around the radiator, fenders, and side plates. Emgo Mirrors. Available from MotoVan.

Chrome 1" ape hangers with a 10" rise, Purchased from SportingForLess.

 Genuine Lucas L549 Tail Light for TR2 TR3 and MGA (1960s)
Purchased from private seller on Ebay.

Drilled and routed all handle bar control wiring through the bars to clean up the over all appearance of the bike. Replaced the stock black rubber spring covered brake and clutch lines with steel braided ones by Russell and Drag Specialties, and all new fittings from Russell. This also needed to be done to accommodate the extra height of the new bars. Also added new steel braded throttle and speedometer cables from Motion Pro.

Rear shocks were replaced by all chrome, hidden spring shock absorbers, which my brother rescued from a pile of spare parts he had kicking around for his 1982 Yamaha Maxim 750. Only needed to swap two of the rubber mounting eyelets, and spacers from my old shock so that the would mount up. Pinstripes were added by me 'cause I thought it looked cool. The forward controls were custom built by me to fit my height, and legs. More pictures of these are on the forward controls page. Also cut a couple caps out of aluminum to cover the old peg holes.

 I did a little fabrication work to the front forks to give it a bit of an old school British motorcycle look. It also stiffens up the front end, so it  doesn't dive so bad when braking.
The tachometer was added by the previous owned (looks stock, but did not come with these bikes), but he mounted it to one of the handlebar clamp bolts, which I thought looked cheesy. So I fabricated a clamp and post mount, that lowered the tach to the same height and angle as the speedometer. Looks much better. Made my own black leather grip and lever covers. A picky little detail but I like them, and they do feel more comfortable riding on a long trip.