simpzimmer
Senior Member
Offline
O.K. for whoever is interested...
As a kid I remember riding my Dad's Triumph chopper...vaguely...I remember sitting on the gas tank and holding on to Z bars. That's about it. My Dad almost wrecked with me on the tank and my mom sitting behind him when I was around 4 or so. A gust of wind hit him from the front and the front end bounced several times to the left and right. Somehow he managed to keep control.
He drove the bike home that day and parked it in a barn, and there it stayed for 18 years.
The barn was on some property that we rented when I was a kid. My Dad was close friends with the old man and woman that owned it. They told him the bike would stay there as long as he wanted it there.
Three years ago, my Dad passed away. About a month later my Mom was approached by the younger man on the property, where the bike was still parked in the same barn. The old man and woman had passed away a few years ago and their son had taken over the farm. He told my mother that before my Dad had passed that he had sold him the Bonneville.
Knowing this was completely false, Dad would have let it rust to dust before he would have sold it, and not to mention tell us about it, we decided to go and get the motorcycle. My mother and I and two uncles piled into a truck toting 2 shotguns, a 9mm, and a 357 to go and get the bike. The incident was very anti-climatic. No one came out and we brought the bike home.
I knew nothing about motorcycles but was lucky to find some in-laws that did. It turns out that dad's chopper was really "old school." Back when "chopped" just meant putting 39" forks on the factory frame.
I've put the front end back original. Surprisingly, I had it running 1 hour after getting it from the barn. Just some cleaning and it was going. The bike still looks rough. I haven't had the money to do a lot of detailing to it but it runs, quite well. Getting new tires last summer it was nicknamed "the beast". I've still got the old scorpion seat and forked sissy bar as well as crossover pipes and z-bars. Although a lot needs to be rechromed, repainted, and just plain scrubbed.
As a kid I remember riding my Dad's Triumph chopper...vaguely...I remember sitting on the gas tank and holding on to Z bars. That's about it. My Dad almost wrecked with me on the tank and my mom sitting behind him when I was around 4 or so. A gust of wind hit him from the front and the front end bounced several times to the left and right. Somehow he managed to keep control.
He drove the bike home that day and parked it in a barn, and there it stayed for 18 years.
The barn was on some property that we rented when I was a kid. My Dad was close friends with the old man and woman that owned it. They told him the bike would stay there as long as he wanted it there.
Three years ago, my Dad passed away. About a month later my Mom was approached by the younger man on the property, where the bike was still parked in the same barn. The old man and woman had passed away a few years ago and their son had taken over the farm. He told my mother that before my Dad had passed that he had sold him the Bonneville.
Knowing this was completely false, Dad would have let it rust to dust before he would have sold it, and not to mention tell us about it, we decided to go and get the motorcycle. My mother and I and two uncles piled into a truck toting 2 shotguns, a 9mm, and a 357 to go and get the bike. The incident was very anti-climatic. No one came out and we brought the bike home.
I knew nothing about motorcycles but was lucky to find some in-laws that did. It turns out that dad's chopper was really "old school." Back when "chopped" just meant putting 39" forks on the factory frame.
I've put the front end back original. Surprisingly, I had it running 1 hour after getting it from the barn. Just some cleaning and it was going. The bike still looks rough. I haven't had the money to do a lot of detailing to it but it runs, quite well. Getting new tires last summer it was nicknamed "the beast". I've still got the old scorpion seat and forked sissy bar as well as crossover pipes and z-bars. Although a lot needs to be rechromed, repainted, and just plain scrubbed.