HEEEEEEEEEEERE'S BONNIE !!!! ONE OF MY 'PHANTOM' BIKES I'VE BEEN DRIBBLING ABOUT IN THE PAST MONTHS WITH NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE . . . . A BIT LIKE TRYING TO POLISH A TURD ACTUALLY . . . . MY MINIMAL CAMERA SKILLS ATTEMPTING TO SHOOT PHOTOS OF 20 YEAR OLD PHOTOS . . . . BUT THEY'RE ALL I'VE GOT . . . . WAS NEVER INTO RECORDING SHIT, DANG, WHAT A DICK !!!!

FILE UNDER - STEPHEN KING . . . . "SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK"

I first saw this U.S spec '74 T140V late in 1989 in a line of British bikes at B.J's Bikes and Bits in Bris Vegas, it looked pretty much like the bottom photo, no front guard, genuine Yanky Bonnie hi-rise bars, dumb, short, 2" Harley pipes with equally dumb, short, no back pressure cans, a damn near bald and perished Avon Deathmaster up front and some bizarre Conti rear bag, still had the Michigan Uni student sticker on the rear guard, likely garaged six months a year . . . . but fuck, it was completely unbastardised in any major way, all original hardware, nuts, bolts, screws, lamps and lenses, even the factory cable clips on the bars and thin alloy cable ties, and of course, both Smiths guages which, miraculously, still worked, the odometer read 14,762 miles, it was the coolest scoot on the lot, I fell into bike lust instantly.

Of course, if I'd had half a clue back then I would have persevered with the '69 T120 that I'd been struggling with for the previous six months to get running properly to no avail but I knew shit, to me, disc brake, 750 against 650 all added up to bigger is better back then . . . . I put $200 holding deposit on the thing and desperately tried to unload the 650, no success, two weeks later I get a courtesy call from BJ's saying they had some nice young teacher with the folding stuff burning a hole in his pocket and wanting the Bonnie, could I come up with the clams, no, would I mind . . . . well, sort of but what the fuck could I do . . . . teacher buys bike.

Six months later, talking to a really good mate of mine on the coast, he's a teacher, a surfer, used to ride a SR500 to Uni, one of the core crew. Johnny B says how he'd bought a used bike, a Triumph of all things, I say get outta here, I was looking to get rid of the '69 and get a '74 in Brisbane but some other guy got it when I couldn't jag the reddies, where did you get it I asked, he says a place called BJ's in Brisbane . . . . fuck off !! Johnny, you bought my bike, we kacked ourselves until he said he wanted to sell it, I nearly fell over, the next day I'd borrowed the Bugs Bunny and it was mine, like it was meant to be, Johnny had been the temporary custodian to stop it from slipping through the cracks once and for all . . . . oddly enough, I'd got rid of the T120 only a month before and had managed not to blow it all on band related activities.

The rest of the story doesn't really matter, I came close to death from ten years of total excess, left the band, quit 'the life' and got clean, didn't drink for eighteen months, spent all I had over the next two years on the Bonnie, ended up hanging with the older guys who were working on it, became part of the business and life was perfect. I'd wanted to bob it but it was so fucking complete I just did minor mods and brought it back to life . . . . motor rebuild with the 3134 cam to get back the grunt, +20 Hepolites, head job, valves, mushroom headed tappets, balanced and de-sludged crank, polished rods, Barnett clutch, high volume oil pump, and just top quality bearings, fasteners and gaskets . . . . it pulled like a fourteen year old schoolboy, never dropped oil and was totally reliable [mostly], local paint God, Rex Windsor, did the tank, I'd already changed the bars, the pipes, recovered the seat, added oil cooler and the big fuck off Wassell exhaust clamps, blah, blah, blah . . . . but left the frame etc in it's original time worn state . . . . I loved the thing with no reservation and to this day regret selling it so badly . . . . at least it was mine for eight years.

AUGUST 199I . . . . SOME GEEK WITH A HEAD THE SIZE OF A LARGE PUMPKIN STANDS PROUDLY AND SOBERLY BESIDE THE RESPRAYED AND REBUILT BONNIE . . . . YOU CAN JUST MAKE OUT THE UNDERSLUNG MIRROR ON THE RIGHT . . . . LOVE, SWEAT AND GEARS 

POST MOTOR REBUILD THE OVERSIZED WASSELL, AS PETE AT 'EAT THE RICH' LEARNED ME, EXHAUST CLAMPS AND THE DRAG SPECIALTIES OIL COOLER DID A GREAT JOB OF MINIMISING THE HEAT OF A QLD SUMMER ON A POMMIE PARALLEL TWIN

NOT LONG AFTER THE T140 AND I HAD BEEN REUNITED, MINUS FRONT GUARD BUT NOW SPORTING OIL COOLER, WIDE BARS, LATE T120 PIPES AND MUFFLERS, WASSELL CLAMPS AND . . . . K81 NON TYRES . . . . PERIOD CORRECT . . . . PISS OFF, THEY WERE RUBBISH !!!